I went over to my farm last weekend to do some long deferred work - was supposed to go over around Labor Day but that didn't work out. Needed to mow trails and chop down old weeds over clover plots as well as spread some urea on oats/rye and do some treestand work. Figured I'd manage to sneak in a few hours on stand too while over there, though I didn't expect much in mid October. Fortunately that trip coincided with the first real cold front and I had nice frosty mornings both days. The deer were moving well, and Saturday morning I had 3 small bucks and 5 does/fawns come by. Saturday afternoon was windy, and I didn't see much, and debated about hunting on Sunday morning at all, after spending all mid-day Saturday working around the place, and after dark 'till 11pm building a shower in my cabin.
I decided to go ahead and give it a go for a couple hours Sunday AM before heading home (7 hour drive, need to get to work on Monday). About 830 I spotted movement across a finger of field in the timber 60 yards or so away and glassed it to see a deer in thick cover feeding on blackberry leaves. Couldn't see much other than it was a deer for a bit, then the head came up and....hmmm...pretty decent set of horns. I watched him feed around for a while with my biggest concern how I'd sneak out of there as I figured he'd bed down in that cover and I'd have to sneak way around to get back to the cabin and not bugger him out either by noise or wind.
I lost track of him in the thicket and figured I'd sit another hour and head out. I was looking around 20 min later, planning my getaway, and I happened to glance back up and here he comes across the finger of field headed toward me. Decision time....I have a buddy coming over to hunt with me the 1st week of Nov, and if I shoot this guy I'm out of buck tags. He's no monster, but a decent buck, I decided if he came right to me I'd go ahead and shoot him. I probably need to lay off the 3 1/2 yr olds…..but I like to shoot deer! He worked across the field and made a scrape on the woods edge 30 yards in front of me - October 13...I guess the cold front put some ideas in his head, his burrs are full of wood too, so he'd been tearing up trees somewhere. He finished up and turned and walked right in on the trail I cleared on the main deer trail and I shot him at 5 yards. This is a neat setup as I had watched deer cross this finger of field and enter the timber at the same place several times the first couple years I owned the farm. Took me a bit to put 2 and 2 together, but the deer trail this created - really a buck trail, I've not seen a doe use this trail in 7 years - works down a ridge and to a creek crossing several hundred yards away that is the only decent crossing in 1/3 of a mile on that drainage. A couple years ago I improved the trail by cutting it wide enough I can get a quad down it all the way to the creek, and I spray it once a year with roundup. This has resulted in a 4 ft wide open trail that is pretty much dirt as the turkeys keep it cleaned off. I have done this to several logging roads/trails on the property and they have all become deer highways. The only problem is with the clean trails you have to pay attention as the deer don't make any noise on them and can sneak up on you.
Anyway, I hit him a touch high, but it worked out fine - he went about 100 yards and down quickly. I shot him with my old Black Widow 60lb recurve, a Big Jim .340 and a big Snuffer (of course). He's bigger bodied than typical for bucks that age over there (dressed 190) so I'm going to send in the teeth and see what the deer aging outfit says.
Now I'm on doe patrol and camp cook when my buddy is over in November. This will give me a chance to try out a few new spots I've been looking at and maybe find something new. Of course I'll probably be covered up in bucks....
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Best of luck, guys! Its gonna be cooking in a couple weeks.
R
Topic: Short season in Missouri this year! (Read 3395 times)
