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

My cousins had an excellent year goose hunting up in north Missouri! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to accompany them much at all, but they did share some video that they captured. I don’t know if seeing all these geese I missed out on makes me feel better or worse! Great hunting guys!

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!

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!

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!!

Here is a small compilation of video clips.  Enjoy!