Rhino

Bummer Martin. Go video the show instead of tipping them over.

Welcome back Joe. Yep...there we had some forum access issues.

Good to hear from you Norm.

Looks great Frank. Been there before with limited big form options.

My Suburban had a new transmission in it and ready to go before I could finally get home. Drove back down the day after I got home in my Traverse. The Suburban is sitting at the camp now until my son is free to help get it back home in a couple of weeks.

Well my last hunt of the year was memorable for the wrong reasons. Saw some bucks but no mature ones. When I left camp for home I made it about 5 miles when my transmission started slipping a lot. Lost all gears before I could get back to the camp. Had it towed to the nearest dealership Saturday. Took 2 1/2 days to get back home. Long story I won't bore you with except to say...it appears one way travel with a rental car isn't available...if you can find a rental.

Hope so Martin. Since the tornado blew through the southern side of my hunting turf here in MS in February, 2022 the stars have sure been out of alignment. That cut off access and tore up some of my favorite turkey hunting areas. For the 1st time in over 25 years I didn't kill a gobbler in Mississippi during spring turkey season. I did bag a nice one in Missouri though. Had several close encounters with my 2 main target bucks during the 2022 Missouri bow season...but not close enough. I'm still amazed they both disappeared during the first 5 days of the Missouri gun season. Saw them multiple times the week before that. However, watching them in mortal combat with each other was certainly an amazing experience I'll never forget. BTW...my buddy's son saw the double mulie 12 point there recently. He'll be a 6 year old if he makes it through the winter. Talked to a friend of mine that hunted through the weekend after I left. One short tine, 180 lb. 8 point was killed and a few does. Hunters were still seeing young bucks but no nice mature bucks were seen. He runs the club so chances are he'd know if any hunters had seen any nice bucks on the move. Raining today and the forecast shows more rain and warm Wednesday with a high of 77 at my home hunting turf. Supposed to cool down Thursday and Friday before rain arrives again Saturday and Sunday. If the forecast holds, I'll go to camp Wednesday afternoon and hunt the Thursday and Friday gap days between the rains. I have plans with the family Saturday evening.

During the Christmas/New Year Holiday period we went from snow before Christmas and Indian summer after that. I hit the woods 2 days after Christmas and hunted through New Year's Day plus a couple of days and never saw a mature buck. Lots of young bucks chasing though. Took a short break and went back for several days twice since then. Lost track of the number of days. I finally saw a shooter buck but way out of range. A nice mature 8 that carried mass through his tines. I was hunting the river bottom area where there's no tall trees. In certain spots I could see over 600 yards. The shooter 8 point was just over 500 yards walking across and open area toward the river. He disappeared in the brush by the river. Probably swam to the other side. I'll go back toward the end of the week. That may be my last hunt of the season. I've got some family plans after that.

Didn't get any tornadoes in the area I hunt. Weather conditions were pretty poor. I hunted Thursday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Trip started out promising seeing several deer the first afternoon and the first morning seeing a young buck pushing a doe around twice. It was basically downhill from there until the last afternoon. The last afternoon I saw 4 bucks cruising, all 1 and 2 year olds. Between those hunts, I got skunked 3 times. I'm headed back right after Christmas. The peak rutting activity where I'm hunting in Mississippi is typically near the end of December. The post rut period during the 2nd and 3rd weeks of January have been pretty productive too. Last year I killed the 154" 11 point on January 16th. There's still time but I have to admit this has been one of the toughest bad luck seasons I've had in a long time.

I've been finishing my Christmas shopping cores while the warm weather has been hanging around. Talked to one of my hunting buddies that hunted last Friday and Saturday. It was balmy with highs in the upper 70's both days. There were 6 hunters there and nobody saw much deer movement. Most saw nothing at all. We are finally supposed to get a cold front moving through this week. If the few remaining gift deliveries I'm waiting on arrive on schedule, I plan to be in a treestand Thursday afternoon and hunt through the weekend.

Went to the Mississippi camp this past weekend. Rain moved through Friday night into early morning Saturday. Set out 7 of my cams, mainly on scrapes. It appears scraping activity is just starting to crank up there. Hunted Saturday afternoon and saw a couple of bucks...best was a 2 year old 8 point. Been under the weather since then. Feeling a little better today.

Martin, the 1st 11 days were the last days of the 1st Missouri bow season. Never got one of my target bucks in range even though I saw one 5 times and the other once. When gun season opened, they both disappeared for the 5 days I was able to hunt with a rifle. The season is far from being over for me. The MS firearm season opened last weekend and it's open through the end of January. Where I hunt in MS rutting activity doesn't start to crank up until the 2nd half of December.

It's going to be warm, windy, and rain on my home turf in Mississippi until Sunday so I'm wait for the weather to move through. Hope to go set some cams out in Mississippi this week. Since I had all my cams in Missouri, I don't have a clue what's around the home turf yet.

Congratulations William! Thanks for sharing the story with all the pics.

Congratulations Frank...great buck. I love those kind of tracking jobs too.

Congratulations to all of you. You're stacking them up like cord wood! Great bucks!

Congratulations Lewis!

Not yet Pat. I spent 16 straight days in MO hunting (11 bowhunting...5 gun hunting). Saw the Short G2 10 point (now a 9 after breaking off a brow tine) 5 times during the last week of bow season. Hunted 5 days of the gun season and never saw him again. I also saw the big double mule kicker buck once. An experience I'll never forget! It was a bitter/sweet experience though. At the time Short G2 was 10 yards behind a doe feeding my way. He had singled her out earlier and they had just returned. I had bow in hand just waiting for him to keep nudging her toward me the big double mule deer kicker appeared. As he walked in toward Short G2, Short G2 turned black slowly making a half circle. When Short G2 circled to the other side of him they crashed horns like nothing I'd ever heard or seen before. 2 fully mature 160 to 170 class bucks in battle at ~75 yards. I quickly hung up my bow so I could watch them through my binocs with both hands. Short G2 was winning from the start. Double mule kicker could hold his own if he kept both rear legs dug in but if he tried to push back, Short G2 would back him up. After watching with my binoculars for 30 to 45 seconds I realized I needed to try to video the battle. I managed to capture 51 seconds of the fight before Short G2 pushed the double mule deer kicker buck close to the edge of the field out of my sight. Back to looking for them with binoculars. Although I could still hear their horns clashing for another 20 seconds or so I couldn't see them. Then...out comes the double mule deer kicker buck rolling over on his side, legs kicking...on his feet and out of there like a rocket. Victorious Short G2 returns to where his doe was last standing (she ran off at the clash) and takes off trailing her never offering a shot. The last afternoon of Bow season Short G2 showed up twice at 2:40 to check for a new doe. Then again 45 minutes later. That was the last time I saw him. With the frequency I was seeing him the last week of bow season, I figured I'd have him in my sights within the first 3 days of the gun season. Never saw either one of them again. Had to return to attend a wedding today. If not for that, I'd still be there.

If shows up in bow range 1st, he won't get a pass.

By the way teammates...I picked up 2 new shooter bucks on the cams when I ran them last week. The 1st one is this big 8. I've been watching for him to show up. I caught him on cams last year but he vanished before November. He's a bigger version of what he was last year. This next one has me scratching my head where he came from. I put this 3 pic sequence together of him. Tall main frame 10 with a big mule deer kicker off his left G2.

Congratulations Martin! Bummer about the neighbors' attitude toward the deer herd. With deer herd management information so easy to find it's amazing there are still hunters out there with the "we don't shoot does, we only shoot any legal bucks" attitude and only shoot those bucks for meat. I'm heading back to Missouri Wednesday or Thursday. I set a new stand during my last trip but didn't have the right wind to hunt it yet. The stand is ~15 yards from where 3 trails converge that pass around the east side of 2 fallen trees. That's where I saw all the doe & fawn activity during the last morning of my 1st hunt. Same hunt when I saw the short G2 big 10 when he hung up on the neighbor's side of the creek. The stand is ~25 yards from the creek.

Congratulations Pat...Great buck!!! Kudus on the decision to move on him. Makes it extra special along with the history you have on him this year.

Congratulations Pat! Can't wait to see the pics!

BTW...update on the 10 point my buddy shot at on the Oct. 9th. We weren't on the same page about which buck he missed. I did a grid search while I was there early last week. Wish I had checked all my cams closely. I had a TC pic the morning of Oct. 19th of a 10 point with what appeared to be an arrow wound. The pic was quartering hard toward the camera though. 5 days later he was kind enough to pose for a close up pic (below). Easy to see the wound channel is very high and appears like it only passed under the hide.

Got home late yesterday afternoon. Activity slowed down a lot compared to my early Oct. hunt. Saw 1 mature 8 point the last afternoon hunting fresh cut soybeans. He never got inside 75 yards. October lull time I guess. Mature buck activity on the cams dropped off around Oct. 12th. Headed back next week for the sweet November rut period.