Rhino

Headed back to Missouri tomorrow morning. Looks like the cool air should hang around until the end of next week so I will too.

Thanks everyone...plenty of meat on that one.

WOW!!! That's real strange they haven't cranked up there yet. We typically don't start seeing scrapes until the last few days of September in Missouri. This year they were a week or so earlier.

Hate to hear about your lower back issues. Mine are old age related and still manageable. Wish I had some good advice to ease the pain. I did wear a back brace one season when I had a muscular related back issue. I guess by now, you have a camera or two on scrapes in the area where you caught those bucks last year. If not consider that and if you do maybe add another camera. Scraping seemed to start early this year in Missouri. We started moving cams to them the end of the 3rd week of September. Since then, we've shifted a few around to different scrapes. I do still have 2 cams on entry/exit corners of standing corn fields...my other 6 are on scrapes. 5 of my buddy's 6 cams are on scrapes too. Hope both bucks show up soon...and a new big surprise buck or two.

Yea William...Big Crab has a toad of a body. We haven't killed a buck there yet that would go 300 pounds but it's possible. The 2 heaviest bucks I recall were field dressed to lighten the recovery load. The 2 field dressed bucks weighed 216 and 198...with nothing inside the chest cavity at all. The heaviest buck that I recall us weighing whole was 265 pounds. If one of us kills Big Crab in a friendly spot to recover and load him, I'll let you know his weight.

That's Martin...took us 4 years to completely recover from the last EHD die off. It appears we have more non-typical traits in the buck herd now than before the EHD kill. Hope it continues!

Got a few new ones on the cam run last week. Some updates on the prior ones. If you've seen my other post in the Bowhunting Forum, you've seen some updates on the 2 bucks I saw while bowhunting last week. No need to add those pics here. This is the most unique mature buck on the cams so far. Plenty of character. This next one is an update of the buck I missed last year...closer look now. New mature 9 point This young NT is one of the biggest rack young bucks I've gotten on cams in MO. Looks like a bird could build a nest in the left G2. Another nice young 10 This new buck on the cams is a bit different...4 on the right and wad of points on the left. A recent pic of the buck I call Big Crab. The buddy that hunted with me last week shot over this buck on the last afternoon of our hunt. Headed back this weekend to hunt the cold front that's supposed to arrive Sunday or Monday.

I spent 5 days bowhunting in Missouri last week...Tuesday through Saturday with a local friend. We arrived early enough for him to get in an afternoon hunt while I checked cams. Tuesday morning we hit the woods. My intent was to whack a doe that morning. Around 7:40, 2 does & 2 fawns passed through out of range. 5 minutes later, here comes a big one, inside the circle of death. Double lunged her at 25 yards. She acted like she didn't know she was even hit, moving only 5 to 10 yards from where I shot her, standing still and just looking around. When she wabbled a bit she eased about 5 more yards and bedded down only ~45 yards from my stand head up. A minute or so later she was head down. I love those tracking jobs. Walked over to her...big doe...like dragging a buck but no horns for a grip. When we got her back I put her on our scale...192 pounds. No wonder she was tough to drag. With a SE wind that afternoon, I hunted the stand where I'd been getting this WIDE main frame 8 that has a split brow tine. About 20 minutes before legal shooting he shows up 20 yards behind a doe in the clover plot I'm hunting. He was slowly feeding toward me...the closest I ranged him was 38 yards but no shot...facing directly toward me. That's the point when he decided to turn around and go back to work to sets of scrapes and lick branches he'd passed when he walked in. By the time he was done, about 10 more deer had arrived, including one young 10 point. He slowly fed toward them never getting inside 50 yards again. I watched them till black dark before I climbed down. Since it was warming up, I opted to not hunt mornings Wednesday and Thursday. I only saw a couple of young bucks and some does Wednesday and Thursday. Nothing eventful. Since it cooled down Thursday night and we finally got a N wind, l hunted a stand I have in the timber near the clover plot where I saw the wide 8. This mature buck was near the 20 yard line...not on my hit list so he got a pass. That afternoon was slow, a 3 year old 8 point walked by at ~10 yards and a couple of does seen earlier. Last day Saturday morning it's 29 degrees with a W wind. I headed to the stand where I killed the double beam buck in 2017. Same area where I'd gotten this big mature 10 point in hard horn finally. About 7:30 I look over my shoulder, I see him easing toward the creek on the neighbor's side ~75 yards from me. Clear view to where he stopped. I He stood there for ~10 minutes just checking around, apparently for company. No other deer around. When he started to leave I tried to wheeze him closer. All he did was look back for 15 seconds or so then eased back into cover across the creek. Around 8:00 the party started with multiple does and fawns coming from both sides of the creek hitting an oak dropping...he was too early for the party. I never seen anything quite like this...multiple does and fawns coming and going from that tree. At any one time, there were about a dozen deer feeding under it. When a few would leave, more would come. That went on till about 10:00. Around 11:00 I climbed down and left everything in the tree. I was back on the stand at 2:30...made sense to me to go right back. That afternoon was slow...saw 2 does and a button buck was it. With a front moving in this weekend, I'm heading back for round 2. Looks like this time it will stay cool until the end of next week.

Got back Sunday evening...heading back this weekend for round 2. Spent all day, till 8 last night editing pics from our 14 trail cam cards. Had a close encounter with 2 top bucks on my hit list. I'll start a thread in the bowhunting room soon. Picked up a couple of new shooters on cams but nothing that would bump any out of the top 5. I'll post some more pics soon here soon too. Got to run to the taxidermist and pick up my Mississippi 11 point from last year. Pics of him to come in the taxidermy room later too. 😉

Been a while since I used protein feeders. Most protein is made from a milk base and may take time for deer to get used to eating it. With that type of protein, they recommend mixing corn with it until they get used to eating it. I didn't care for that type at all. We used a protein that was not milk based and smelled like apple when you opened the bag. Never had an issue with deer feeding on it no matter where the feeders were placed. Sorry, I don't recall the name of that protein feed. It was essentially the same as Primos Swamp Donkey feed except we were getting it in 50-pound bags, a pallet of 40 bags at a time.

Ditto...jump in William! No sense sitting on the sidelines. Sorry about the result of your close encounter Frank. I know you'll be watching your trail cams. My son winged a big 10 in Missouri 6 or 7 years ago. Called in Tracker John and his tracking dogs. If you haven't heard of Tracker John before he's a contributor to Drury's deer app. He's tracked many deer for the Drury team in the past too. He arrived the next day...after we made our 3rd pass he told me the buck was still alive. We looked for him on the cams in the same general area. He was right...showed up working a scrape less than a month later.

Hello teammates...got home from my 1st Missouri hunt Sunday evening. GREAT HUNT! I'll post details of the hunt in the Bowhunting forum. In a nutshell, I killed the heaviest doe of my life. On our scales she was 192 pounds. I saw my main 2 target bucks too. Here's some recent trail cam pics of them. This main frame 8 has the widest inside spread I've seen on the hoof. Looks like he's between 22" & 24". He has a split brow tine on his left side. Saw him the 1st afternoon. Got to 38 yards but facing me dead on munching on clover. He suddenly decided he need to go work 2 lick branches and work scrapes 65 yards away. Never got inside 50 yards after that before dark. Saturday morning I watched this buck for ~15 miutes. He stood in one spot about 75 yards away looking around. He'd do a stare down toward any noise he heard. I assume he was looking around for company but he was too early for the party that morning. Saw plenty of does & fawns ~30 minutes after he left. This buck's frame and mass look similar to my 162" 8 point I killed in this same area aboout 6 years ago eacept he's a toad of a 10. With a cold front moving in this weekend, I'm heading back for round 2 with these boys.

Yesterday afternoon, Kody hunted a stand about 20 yards from where the new big buck was standing in the TC pics. He saw a bunch of deer (not sure yet how many), including the big 9 caught on the cam card there but the big buck didn't show up. Great hunt though...lots of action.

Ditto to fly's post

Here's 2 of those iPhone pics.

Save some drool Martin...There will be more new ones coming when I get back from next week's bowhunt there. 🙂 😉 My buddy's son (Kody) is in Missouri right now. My buddy is in Alaska hunting brown bear till 10/6. Kody ran 4 of my buddy's cams yesterday and got a new huge, STUD buck that's now the new #1 buck on the hit list. Yesterday afternoon he sent me, via text, 4 pics shooting pics with his iPhone of the computer screen. They are daylight pics taken Thursday (9/29). From those pics I believe he's the biggest buck we've gotten on cams there since the EHD die off in 2018. This buck is a main frame 12 point (short G5's on each side) with great mass & good tine length on the rest of his tines. His G2's and G3's on both sides have mule deer kickers so 16 points total on his very symmetrical rack. I'll post some pics of him from that cam card in a new thread when I get back from next week's bowhunt. Kody said there was a new big 9 point on that card too. I'll run my 8 cams when I get there. I expect to have some new 2022 bucks on them too. There are still several bucks from our 2021 fall and 2021/2022 winter pics that haven't been accounted for yet too.

That's stacking up the does Pat. I'll try to join the skin head whacking crew next week in MO too.

Going to have to take a good look at this buck on the hoof too. Looks fully mature to me. These pics are from 2 cams that are about 15 to 20 yards from 2 of my stands. According to GE the 2 cams & stands are 0.7 miles from one another.

Thanks Pat. I appears we are getting close to where we were before the EHD die off 4 years ago. About time. Don...cool your older daugher is joining the tribe. Hope she gets to sling an arrow. Good luck to both of you with the PA opener.

Miss the good old days too!

Thanks Don! Fingers crossed cooler air moves in when I get there to hunt.

Thanks William. I'm anxious to see some hard antler pics of the remaining velvet ones too. I'm pretty sure the double split brow tine buck is one I passed last year as a 3.5 year old. He was close to 150 then but we made a point to put him on the "off limits" list last year. He passed inside the circle of death of the same stand 3 times last year. Once while I was hunting it and twice while a buddy of mine was hunting it. If the wind is right, I'll spend some time in that stand real soon. I set a cam on a scrape close to it during the last cam run. I'm heading back on 10/3 with plans to hunt that week and check the cams.

Way to go Martin!

Sorry the last pic obviously was supposed to be before that last buck.

Finally finished editing. First...here's hard antler pics of the double split brow tine buck. Didn't know till now he had sticker points too. Not concerned about what he'll score...more than enough not to scratch my head. The next pic is the only decent one I have of the 2nd buck from my 1st trail cam thread. No hard antler pics od him yet. Last year I missed a big 8. I believe this is him this year. Same area. Super long main beams. Best I can tell he's close to 18" inside. I also got a couple of velvet pics of this buck on the same cam where you the short G2 10 point (above) was caught on cam. This buck got in the face of 2 of my cams. At least one I could see his whole rack before he stuck his nose in the cam. The daylight pics come from another cam. From a couple of other pics it appears his left G2 makes a small V split at the end.