Rhino

Great buck, especially for a 3.5 year old! Tough call to make but you know he uses a lot more ground than your property. If I were in your shoes, the only pass he'd get is a pass over or under him from a poorly aimed arrow.

Thanks...just got back from Missouri and have some new shooters on the cams. One is one of the most impressive main frame 8 points I've ever gotten on cams there. He's going to take over the #1 spot on the hit list for that area of the property. The buck he bumped out of 1st is the 10 point in the 2nd group of pics posted above in this thread. I also have the big double split brow tine buck in hard antler now. He's roaming a different area of the property than the big 8. I'm going to have to do some pic editing from 10 cards before I post some new pics. I'll start tomorroww morning. BTW...bucks were cranking up scraping activity there. I think my buddy and I set about 1/2 of our 14 cams on active scrapes. We had been running 11 cams. We both showed up with new cams. I now have 8 running and he has 6. I'm heading back to hunt on 10/3 for about a week. He'll be on a brown bear hunt so I got 1st dibs.

Thanks...just got back from Missouri and have some new shooters on the cams. One is one of the most impressive main frame 8 points I've ever gotten on cams there. He's going to take over the #1 spot on the hit list for that area of the property. The buck he bumped out of 1st is the 10 point in the 2nd group of pics posted above in this thread. I also have the big double split brow tine buck in hard antler now. He's roaming a different area of the property than the big 8. I'm going to have to do some pic editing from 10 cards before I post some new pics. I'll start tomorroww morning. BTW...bucks were cranking up scraping activity there. I think my buddy and I set about 1/2 of our 14 cams on active scrapes. We had been running 11 cams. We both showed up with new cams. I now have 8 running and he has 6. I'm heading back to hunt on 10/3 for about a week. He'll be on a brown bear hunt so I got 1st dibs.

Headed back to Missouri to check and move the cams around a bit. Time to start running some on traditional scrape/lick branch spots. Anxious to see some hard antler picks. Taking a couple more trail cams this time too. I'm still searching for several mature bucks from last year and a few I glassed on my last trip that haven't been caught on cams yet. Although the season opens Thursday, I doubt I hunt any with the highs being in the mid 80's. Be back with some new pics to share next week.

Thanks! That makes 2 now. Wesley is almost 2 1/2 now and starting to talk some. It will still be a few years before he can sit a stand with Paw Paw.

WOW Frank...great buck for his age. Hope you get a chance to check him out on the hoof...up close.

Ran our cams for the 1st time this year in Missouri during our 3rd trip there his summer. Here's a montage of 4 pics of what I believe are the best bucks so far. BTW...I glassed the main frame 10 with the double split browtines in a bean field in front of one of my stands about a month ago. He's impressive on the hoof. Here he is. The buck below I called the short G2 buck last year. He got a pass last year...won't this year. Here's a couple more. Still looking for several more bucks from last year to see if they're still around. I plan on checking the trail cams in mis September again. Don't plan on making the 1st bowhunt until the the beginning of October.

Count me in!

Hello everyone...been a while since I checked in. Been busy with a number of things going on. On August 10th my 2nd grandson (Walker) was born. Pic below. A lot of the preseason preparation for this year fell on just 2 of us so I've been to Missouri several times getting stands ready for this season, planting food plots, etc. Takes longer now since both of us are in our 60's. Made the 1st run on the cams there. Got a few good ones on the cams. I'll start another post about that. Glad to be back.

Went to the MS property Sunday afternoon. Discovered that the bad storms that passed through on 3/22 spawned a tornado that passed through the south line of our place. Only 1 of the access roads to the interior, on the north end was open. All the other access roads were blocked by big trees blown down. Power had been out at the camp but it was restored before I arrived. Apparently, the power company also cleared the county gravel road. Lost power again at 4:30 Monday morning. Hunted the only area I could get into. Didn't hear a bird where I started listening. After that I moved west, I heard 1 gobble in the distance. Closed the range...turned out to be 4 birds gobbling in the area I couldn't get to. Right in the area I intended to hunt if not for down trees cutting my access off. The closest I could get was a creek with standing water...over head high. The water is backed up from the Mississippi River backing up into the Big Black River that borders our northwest side. I attempted to coax one over to my side but as expected they moved away until they shut down gobbling. Another round a bad weather coming tomorrow...high winds, strong thunderstorms with a chance for more tornados. We'll probably have more weakened trees come down just from the wind. I'll either be running a chainsaw or on a tractor clearing roads this weekend. Fingers crossed we have power at the camp and we can clear the access road to hunt the area where the vocal turkeys are. If so, I'll hunt through Tuesday morning.

Short walk to the yard Don...not to mention a few extra minutes to sleep. Hunted this past Friday afternoon and called in 4 jakes. Also saw a hen. Saturday morning and Sunday morning didn't hear any birds gobble. Weather was not real favorable with it being fairly windy with the temp in the mid 40's Saturday morning. Wind calmed down Sunday morning but we had low 40's and a heavy due. Doesn't help either that spring green up is late this year.

Here too! Season opened today but forecast was thunderstorms. I'll pass on turkey hunting in the rain. Weather looks good later in the week. I'll probably hit the woods Friday and hunt through Monday morning next week unless they change the weather forecast.

Good to see you stop by Tim. Hope you're thawing out there.

No doubt...in your case warmth, comfort, along with weight to travel by air are the most important concerns for your trip. Gotta do what you gotta do Frank! Realtree sells a license to companies to use their camo patterns. In most cases the type of camo pattern increases sales for a product. It appears the parties in charge at Sitka feel their product sales are doing fine without the added expense of a licensing agreement with any camo companies...for now anyway.

Prayers on the way!

1st step was a doosy eh! LMBO!!!

I'll 2nd what Strut said about accuracy...it all depends on the skill of the archer.

Great pics and congratulations Don. Never hunted with a flintlock.

I'll have to do a little rearranging but I already figured out a revised layout before I went to the taxidermist Tuesday morning. ?

Thanks guys! Going to have to make room for another mount. ?

Frank...a couple of hunting buddies of mine swear by it. The main reason I don't own any Sitka gear myself is my Browning bibs and parka (discontinued now) still work great for me in real cold weather.

Sorry I haven't been posting deer tales much this year. Lot has been going on lately. Anyway...on to the story. I really hadn't gotten any big deer on any cams to get excited about on my home turf. On the morning of Ja. 3rd I briefly say a big one I knew I didn't have on any cams. Turns out...nobody did. The buck was long range and all I knew for certain is he was wide with light tines. I assumed he was a big 8. My son was glassing the same buck from about 700 yards from a different stand. All he could tell was the buck was real wide. A text from message from my daughter-in-law ended our hunt after that morning hunt. My grandson had tested positive for Covid and she was feeling bad too. My next opportunity was this past weekend. There's only 6 hunters in camp. Saturday morning I was sitting in a stand that's within 75 yards of where I'd glassed the big buck on 1/3. The only animals I saw had wings. I played out a hunch that afternoon and decided to hunt a stand in the same area but I could watch 2 food plots that had good bedding cover nearby. The wind was great for both. Late season tactics and what little acorn crop we had was gone. A few hens showed up early to help pass the time. Around 4:45 I hear a shot from the hunter E of me on another plot. He killed a mature 8. Still nothing but the 3 hens around. About 25 min. later deer start filtering in from the E side of the northern plot. 2 spikes, 2 does, and 2 fawns. About 5 minutes later I get a text from a buddy that he'd just killed the 9 point he was specifically hunting. As I'm getting a 2nd text from him with a pic of his deer, I see movement outside the N end of the plot. I raise the binocs...that's him! Rifle to the ready position. Now it seemed like an eternity waiting & watching the deer through my scope while he stood in one spot just outside the edge of the plot facing my direction. Probably around 60 seconds though. Finally...he turns to where he's close to broadside still just outside the plot at ~225 yards. I dropped him right there. Moments later, I hear another one of our hunters shoot...young 8 point down for him. Now...when I decided the deer was a shooter I didn't check his headgear out anymore. I was focused on getting a shot. So when I walked up to him and saw him I was shocked how big he really was. Here's where he dropped. We gathered up the trophies and took this group pic afterwards. The next morning I scored my buck and took daylight pics. Gross score 154" even. 20" (even) inside spread. Main beams measured 25 1/2" and 24 1/2". He's the 2nd best buck I've killed in my home state. BTW...nobody in our club had any trail cam pics of this buck. Great ending to my season!

Upgrade entry for Team 6...Rhino 11 scorable points. Mississippi does not have a tagging system.

Just got home...the quick news is...I have an upgrade to enter. Saturday afternoon I killed the 2nd biggest (by score) buck I've ever killed in the state of Mississippi. An 11 point with a gross green score of 154" even. 20" inside spread, Main beams are 24.5" & 25.5". He's a main frame 9 point with matching G2 kickers. More to come soon.

Awesome...Looking forward to seeing a lot of pics! I know you'll take plenty. That's one of the hunts still on my bucket list. Checked into it some in both New Zealand and Argentina in the past. Haven't really considered it since Covid. Frank...just wondering this. Does the law in New Zealand allow landowners to own the animals if their land is high fenced? I know in South Africa it's that way...you high fence it...you own the animals inside. The place we hunted in South Africa was high fence but it's over 26,000 acres. Didn't feel like high fence hunting at all.