This second turkey worked like a charm. He was roosted in some oaks that are surrounded by a grove of evergreen trees so I was able to get in real close. It helped that he gobbled super early giving me the cover of very low light to make my advance. My only problem was that I had a bunch of calves in the woods with me that decided I was very interesting. They ended up surrounding me, even nuzzling my boot as they checked me out. I thought for sure they were going to ruin the hunt as for 15 min I couldn’t have shot in any direction. I finally decided that my only hope was crawl on past them and get under a big evergreen that they couldn’t get under with me. Thankfully it worked and they wandered off in the other direction.

This bird gobbled his head off and finally pitched out of the tree and landed about 100yrds away out in the pasture. After some soft yelps and purring he came up to the edge of the woods to check me out at about 50 yrds. I decided I didn’t want to make another 50yrd shot this year so after a few more minutes of coaxing, he finally gave up and came on in, offering me a shot at 15yrds! He gobbled all the way in, and you fellow hunters know how awesome it is to have a bird gobbling in your face at 15-20 yrds! I was done and it was barely 6:30am. He was a beautiful bird – he weighed 22.5 lbs, had a very very thick 10inch beard, and sharp spurs that were a bit over 1 1/4 inches long.

Below I’m attaching pics of this bird along with my first bird of this spring.  I’ll say it again, you just can’t hardly beat spring turkey hunting!

#1 - 24 1/2 lbs - 10" Beard - 1 1/4" Spurs

#2 - 22 1/2 lbs - 10" Beard - 1 1/4" Spurs

I experienced one of those memorable moments a few weeks and there was no problem recognizing it. In Missouri we have an extended doe season shortly following our regular rifle season. My son is 2yrs old now and is constantly asking to go hunting. We had a few warm days so I decided to take him out a few times. He really did great, we’ve now got the whispering thing down and we had lots of fun playing in the dirt behind our makeshift blind. This was good enough for me as it was great to have him out there with me enjoying the woods. But on the last day I had to hunt up in norh MO we went out to hunt just about an hour before dark.

We sat there for roughly 40min when what ended up being a small button buck walked out just 150yds away. It was great, I shot the deer and he was pumped! It felt like I’d shot my first deer all over again! We ran up there and checked the deer out and he thought it was the greatest thing. He was my big helper, he stayed right with me while I field dressed the deer and was very proud to tell momma that we got us a BIG deer as he called it He even made an announcement in church the next day saying we got us a BIG BUCK! Looks like he’s getting started right…already telling big deer stories!

Just wanted to share that with you all and express my feelings that THIS is what hunting is really all about. It’s about teaching responsibility, passing on tradition, and most of all spending time with those we love. Looking forward to many more of such memories and please, if you have like stories with pics feel free to share them with me, I’d love to hear them! – hunterbydesign@gmail.com

This is an awesome cat, great color and he weighed in at 25lbs! We mostly hunt up in north Missouri and this is where Ryan put the hurtin on this Bobcat. Great cat Ryan, thanks for sharing!

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!

I find some stress relief by getting a bit scientific and trying not to leave it all up to chance (as if we really have any control anyway!) The answer of where to hunt changes throughout the season as the deer move from early season feeding patterns, to pre-rut, to rut, to postrut. Of course, when you throw in lunar cycles, temp., and wind direction, there really is a lot to think about!

I don’t want to go in depth on all of this here, but I would like to let you know what I’m focusing on right now. Here in north Missouri the deer are still mostly in the pre-rut stage as they are making scrapes and a few are chasing does a bit, but that’s not the norm as of yet. I’m honing in on the scrapes and particularly the scrapes in high doe traffic areas. In my opinion this is the best time to hunt over a scrape as most bucks are not “with” a doe yet, but are frantically making their rounds to check their scrapes to see if there may be some does coming in. Once the rut hits, scrapes tend to get a bit more neglected as the bucks usually are hot on the trail of a hot doe.

I found this graph on bowsite.com that I found really helpful and at the very least interesting.

*Data Graph by (Kile and Marchinton, 1977)

I realize some of you are old pros, but for others hopefully this information will be helpful. It may be time to go rogue, forget that favorite stand and find you a nice clean scrape to hunt over and just wait to see what comes by – you can bet that’s where I’ll be!

Good luck to you – and by all means, let me know how you do! You can send pics and/or stories of your hunts to hunterbydesign@gmail.com and I’ll see if I can’t get them posted!

“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!

Ok, so don’t expect to find any deer around Nancy, but if the nut is an acorn you’re in good shape! That’s what I’m seeing right now, find an oak with a good mast of acorns and get ready! The deer are sort of in that pre-rut funk. They’re sort of in that in-between stage where they’re not chasing, but they’re not in their early season patterns either. This can be a frustrating time of year as you can hunt a stand and see nothing and go back the next evening and see 10, you just never know.

They’re still more interested in filling their belly at this point and my last few hunts have shown that acorns are a food of choice at the moment, at least where I’m at.  Just last night I saw a spike cruise through that was really nosing around. He only decided to stop when he got to a big oak tree and began munching acorns.

Last night I tried doing a little rattling and mixed some snort wheezing with a bit of grunting. I’ve watched bucks many times during this part of the year sort of spar with one another establishing that hierarchy of power. Many times that sparring is mixed with snort wheezing. These aren’t really fights, but are more like watching a couple of young bulls in a pasture sort of push each other around a bit. Keep that in mind when rattling this time of year in that I believe it’s important to keep the rattling light.

Last night I had just done a rattling/snort wheeze set and turned my head only to get busted by what I think was the same spike I had seen 30min earlier. So this tells me that bucks may be responding a bit to this – so it’s not going to hurt to give it a shot next time out.

That’s all I’ve got for today – hopefully I’ll have some pics or some postworthy vid for you soon! Best of luck!!

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!!