My second success happened this Tuesday when I was able to harvest a trophy of my own. Long story short, I called in a Tom that happened to be by himself from roughly 300yrds away. I was able to get him into about 80yrds, but couldn’t get him to cross a dry creek to seal the deal. I ended up crawling, and crawling, and crawling….until I was finally able to take him at roughly 50yrds. The whole ordeal took about 2hrs so needless to say this bird was earned! He ended up weighing 24.5 lbs, had a 10 in beard, and 1 1/4″ spurs. I’ll have some pics to post shortly.

My third success happened today. I went out this morning with my cousin. I did the calling the and videoing while he did the shooting. It was an incredible morning. The birds talked great and we ended up getting a great video of his bird as it came in strutting and gobbling. Congrats Bryan on an awesome turkey! Below is the video from this morning’s hunt – Enjoy!

You fellow Missourians know what November 14th is, but for the rest of you that is the beginning of rifle season. Unfortunately, it is also the peak of rut here in north Missouri, meaning we have hunters coming in from all over the place! I really don’t mind the hunters for I’m one of them, it’s just the fact that there are many of us native north Missourians that do a lot of deer managing – passing on the young ones etc etc, only to see them same deer killed a few weeks later. A little frustrating, but part of the gig, I understand.

I saw a couple of good bucks really early Sat. morning, but it was just a bit too early to tell enough about them to take a shot – I couldn’t even get good video. I did get some video of a nice 8pt that a hunter on the neighboring property spooked by me. Saturday evening I hunted in the timber and I saw a lot of deer, but all does and a couple small bucks. Needless to say, I have yet to seriously consider pulling the trigger.

Most of my entertainment came from the neighboring hunter who had trouble sitting still. It was just a little after 8am when he decided to start making his rounds and that’s exactly what he did. Kept seeing him move in and around the patch of timber he was hunting. I even got some video of him just for kicks

I guess that’s yet another reason why I love bowhunting, it’s more about reading deer sign and getting right up close. Luck is definately a factor needed on your side, but much less so than stomping through some timber and blasting a deer 200 yrds away. Nothing wrong with that as long as your confident in your shot, it’s just much less intimate of an experience.

The 12th the 13th I hunted with some cousins and did some videoing of them bowhunting. I rattled in a couple of bucks on one evening hunt, one young 10pt and a young 7pt. I got some great vid of the 7pt, but my cousin made a good decision in letting him walk as he was young with some good potential. Saw the young 10 the next morning not 100 yrds from the night before, got some more video, but it still wasn’t what we were looking for.

So far it’s been a great bow season. I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest a doe, a nice buck, and a turkey, all of which I caught on camera! Now that is where the luck comes in, I still can’t believe I got all of these kills on camera! I’m going go out tonight, but this will probably be my last chance up here in north Mo, at least for the rifle season, I’m going to have to be getting back down to south Mo.

Here are some clips of the video I’ve been able to catch here in the past week, mostly while bowhunting. Enjoy!

Great hunt! The video pretty much says it all – especially after I got done rambing! The rut is coming right on. I hunted with a cousin this morning and watched a small buck chasing a doe. You can’t beat deer hunting this time of year!
Very thankful and happy to have harvested such a beautiful deer – Good luck to you all!

Unofficial score done by myself is: 125 3/8″ Gross – 117 6/8″ Net

Wildlife Biologist friend just aged this deer at 4 1/2 years old – great mature whitetail!

“It’s ok daddy, you’ll get one next time.”  That’s the “consolation” my two year old son has been giving me after returning from the last few hunts empty handed.  Much to the pleasure of my wife I might add!  They’ll all learn someday that bow hunting is not a sport of instant gratification, but when that gratification does come, it’s all the sweeter! 

This afternoon before I left my boy told me good luck and to kill a turkey.  I told him I would, that tonight I would get him a turkey.  God must have smiled, cause these turkeys came in perfect at 25yrds!

I feel so blessed to get another harvest on video.  I should get some kick-back from the gorilla-pod as much as I endorse them, you just can’t beat them for videoing while you’re solo.  These turkeys started yelping about 80yrds away up in the brush, so I just softly yelped back ever so often.  I knew I was in their roosting area, so I figured they’d be heading my way.  Sure enough – the video pretty much tells the rest of the story!

Beautiful evening – fun, fun, hunt in southwest Missouri! 

Thanks for reading!

You’ve already saw the doe I shot on Sat the 26th, but this is the rest of the story. I shot the doe around 5pm and heard her go right down so I decided to go ahead and hunt til dark – and I’m glad I did! This buck came in around 6pm and just wouldn’t leave. Once he got in close he was a little nervous as he could smell the arrow that I had just shot the doe with.
He comes in to 10yrds from my tree – I was tempted to shoot just for the great video it would make! Not really…I’m really excited about what we’re doing there at the farm and sooner or later our letting the young ones pass is going to start paying off. That buck stayed within 45 yards of my tree milling around until dark. It was an awesome evening. I love those close encounters especially with a decent buck such as this. Hopefully I’ll have a close encounter with his papa here before too long – I’ll be sure to keep you posted!!

Had an absolutely great hunt this last Saturday! I think I ended up seeing 8 deer in total, harvested the doe shown in the video above and got some great video of an 8pt that I’ll be getting together for you soon. This is the first shot I’ve captured on camera as that’s not an easy thing to do by yourself. I now have a gorilla camera arm that straps to the tree that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to capture a hunt.
The Story…. Saturday morning I woke up to pouring down rain so I went back to sleep and woke back up around 8am to a calm beautiful day. I slipped out into the woods shortly after and climbed a tree in my climber. I ended up seeing four deer but all were out of range. Went in around 11:30 so my cousins and I would have time to hang a stand and get back out.
I didn’t get into the woods til about 3:30 that afternoon and I switched trees to one that put me closer to where all the action was that morning. I hadn’t been in sitting down for more than 10 min when a doe a her yearling came in and starting inhaling acorns. They pretty much just hung out about 30yrds away from me munching away – they finally meandered off and it was about 4:30 when the doe shown in the video showed up. I shot her at 18 yrds at about 5pm. I knew the shot was good and I heard her go down not 50yrds away so I decided to stay put to see if Mr. Big would swing through. No luck, but I did get some more great video of a nice 8pt that just needed another year or two to be a shooter.
Lessons learned….Be versatile – if you see the deer favoring a certain trail that morning, it’s a good bet that’s where they’ll be that evening. Find acorns – this time of year is a great time to be hunting in a patch of oaks. Deer are still most interested in feeding as the rut has not yet begun. Bucks love hitting those acorns where they can feed and remain in good cover.

That’s all for now – Good Luck!!

Finally got to get out on a morning hunt this morning.  What a beautiful morning!  We’ve been getting a lot of rain down here in the Ozarks and I like nothing better than slipping in the woods in the early morning after a good rain.  I didn’t have long to hunt this morning (til 8:15) so I thought I’d go to the spot where there’s always some turkeys – I wasn’t dissappointed!  The only problem was that I ended up climbing a tree with my climber that put me within 25 yards of about 5 turkeys all just about at eye level.  Long story short, they picked me out once it got light and ended up flying out to the pasture away from me. 

A few minutes later a doe & her fawn come through at about 15 yards.  They ended up hanging out right below me and I was able to get a little video of the momma.  Regardless of what PETA says, we hunters do have a heart and I wasn’t about to shoot either one of these two.  You can definitely tell I’m in south missouri as this deer looks like it should be the fawn!  This vid’s not anything too spectacular and I debated about posting it, but if you’re like me, those close encounters in the woods are fun to see even if it is a doe!  Enjoy!

I’m heading to the homestead up in north missouri this weekend, so hopefully I’ll be able to get you some real video and/or pics!!

It was great to be back in my old stomping grounds!  We had a great time doing some trail riding and the fishing was great as usual.  I must say that it was my wife’s first time on these trails and to put it mildly, she wasn’t impressed;-)  I guess it didn’t help that she was having to hold onto fishing tackle while holding on to me, all while being in fear for her life!  She’s too good to me.   Special thanks to my twin cousins for agreeing to be on the vid and show me how the trail riding is done.

I refer to strip pits on the video and for those that don’t know, let me explain.  I’m originally from North Missouri where there was a lot of strip coal mining.  The “pits” or huge craters left from the mining were all seeded and stocked with fish (years & years ago).  These now provide some of the best hunting and fishing you’ll find anywhere!

Didn’t put tons of time into this video, but I was fortunate to get a very nice bass caught on camera.  Hope you enjoy – thanks for watching!

Here are some pics as promised!

I had a great weekend, below is a pic of a bass I caught the very next day with fishing with the in-laws.  Released this one really quick and didn’t weigh, but am guessing somewhere close to 5lbs.  Now I’ll probably go the rest of the summer without catching another one the size of these!