Rhino

Welcome back guys. Sorry to hear about your daughter Gator. Hope to hear a lot more about your hunting tales this season. Bust a bigun this year.

Had a lot of editing to do on the 10 cam cards we pulled during the 1st full week of October. I picked up a few more shooter class bucks. The 1st one is one I've been looking for from last year. I caught him on my cam last year at the same spot and also saw him one afternoon last year. He appears to be a bigger version of what he was...main frame 9 with a mule deer kicker on his right side. I moved this cam where it's covering a cluster of 3 scraps about 200 yards to the north. Should have some good detail pics of him when I get back. The next buck looks like he's fully mature. The next buck is also one I have been looking for this year. I had him as a 3 year old last year. This year he's a main frame 9 point with longer mule deer kickers. I have to admit, part of me hopes he makes it through this year. He sure makes me wonder what he'd look like as a 5 year old. The last buck is our No. 1 cull buck. I think he's past him prime. It was too early in these pics for him too look this muscled up. Need different angle pics to see the sticker points he has.

Haven't had time to hit the woods. Accepted an offer on the house my brother and I inherited from our parents. Closing is supposed to be by Oct. 29th. I'll be putting time in a tree after that. Got one of special interest after editing the last cam run. I had pics of this buck last year and saw him once. He's just a lot bigger frame version of what he was last year. Main frame 9 with a big mule deer kicker. The cam is in the same spot where I got him last year. There's a cluster of scraps about 200 yards N of this spot so I moved this cam there about 10 days ago. It's covering 3 of the most active scraps now. I should have some good, detail pics of him and whatever else is working the scrapes. All my stands in this area are for a north or west wind. The new stand I hung in mid September was set to bowhunt where I saw this buck and some other younger bucks last year too. The majority of the stands I have around the area the tall 8 is frequenting are good for other winds. Lay of the land, along with the way they use it dictates how I hunt spots. I'll start a thread in the deer forum about the other 2 new shooter class bucks and a big cull but here's another 8 point that's also on our cull buck hit list too. He's fully mature but doesn't look like he'll ever make our minimum criteria for 8 points (140). He's at least a 5 year old. Unique in his own way with those long, thick brow tines.

Congratulations Cory...great news!

Thanks William. We are still recovering from the summer of 2019 EHD die off. I got home last night from our 1st MO hunt. From all the trail cam pics we have viewed so far, the number of 3 year old class bucks looks a lot better than last year. Also, our buck to doe ratio has gotten higher so we plan to take out a lot more does than usual this year. I'll get a better feel for the mature buck class after our next trial cam run. We moved most of our cams to scrapes this past week since scraping has picked up a lot since our mid September trip. Had some new bucks show up on this cam run. I'll post some more pics when I get all the cam cards edited.

Cool Dawg! We'll get out licks in. Well I got back from my 1st trip to Missouri last night. The weather was warmer than expected. My buddy (Ernie) and I each smacked a doe the last afternoon. Sorry...no pics of her for the contest since I didn't know I would be in the contest this year. All I have for proof is tag with the confirmation number filled in. No biggy though, we need to take more does in MO this year anyway. Thanks to a Missouri management program we are in this year, I'll have extra doe tags to fill for the gun season. I'll also fling more arrows at does before the gun season opens. From the thousands of trail cam pics we've gone through this year our buck to doe ratio appears to be at least 3 to 1. We are going to try to take out 20 does this season. From what we saw deer are mainly on acorns there now. The 1st afternoon hunt I saw 17 deer hunting inside the corner of a standing corn field. Only 1 buck...a 1 year old 3 point. I only saw 4 of those 17 deer go to the corn. The rest were feeding on acorns inside the edge of the field and over 10 of those were inside chip shot bow range. The only rack bucks I saw this trip were 2 year olds…just 2 of them. Ernie saw what he thought was a mature 5x5 late one afternoon but thought he was short of 150 so he passed. 150 is the minimum criteria we set for ourselves for mature 10 point or better bucks. He also saw a few 2 year olds and one 3 year old 10 point. We picked up a couple more shooter class mature bucks on the cams. It will take a few days for me to edit all the cards from the 10 cams we had running. I’ll post some pics when that’s complete. We also have a couple of mature cull class bucks. I had my Reconyx Hyperfire 2 cam set on a scrape on video mode for the 3 weeks before we got there. Got some cool video footage of a fully mature 4x4 sparing with a 3 year old 4x4. That buck’s main beam shape is so tall and wide it hits the 3 year old on the back when he gets too aggressive with the 3 year old. He won’t score high (probably upper 130’s) but he’s very unique with the shape of his tall, long, wide main beams and his extra tall brow tines. His right side G3 is on the short side though with overall G2 and G3 length below average for a fully mature buck. There appears to be a lot of 3 yr. old class bucks now compared to last year so the buck herd is recovering well after the EHD die off from the summer of 2019. We need a little more running time on the cams to better judge the 4 year and older class bucks now that the cams are mostly on scrapes. The mature class buck group appears to be higher but we haven’t gotten any of what I'd call “wow” size mature bucks yet on the cams. Fingers crossed a couple of those show up for the next trail cam run. I probably won't go back to Missouri until around the 25th of this month. Between then and Thanksgiving though I'll be in a stand a lot there.

Bummer about your missing up and comers Martin. We are still recovering from the 2019 EHD kill. It's still early but so far it's looking better than last year. Still appears we have a couple more years to go to get back to where we were in 2018.

Thanks Pat. Even though I'm not putting scores up for a team, I'll be around checking in on y'all and share deer tails too. Forecast shows rain moving in this weekend through Sunday morning in Missouri...then cooler temps for 4 or 5 days. I'm heading there Saturday but I don't plan on sitting in a stand until Sunday afternoon. Hope to run my cams and move some to scrapes that aren't on them yet. Better chances for up close pics of bucks. Need to see several in hard horn that I haven't caught on cams since July and early August too. Still looking for several mature bucks that haven't been caught on cams so far that I caught on cams last year. BTW...you are right about that feeling you had when Kate bagged her buck. You'll always remember it like it happed yesterday. I still do and it's now been 28 years since my son bagged his 1st deer (a doe).

Thanks Pat...my double pedestal mount of my Sable and Nyala that will go on the floor to the left of the fireplace is supposed to be finished soon.

Congratulations to both of you Pat!

Congratulations!

I used to be that way...couldn't wait for opening day. Old age plus retirement has creeped in to where my first time in a stand will likely be when the 1st cool front moves through with several cooler afternoons back to back. Not really motivated to hunt with sweat running/dripping off my face in 85 to 90 degree heat in the afternoon. That's what I waiting for now.

I'm into my 19th year here now so not really part of the "original" forum crew that was considered for a moderator spot. Never have been but I'm fine with it. With the amount of time people spend on social media or answering/reading group text, it's no wonder people have gotten away from forums over the years. Think about it...how often to you see people wrapped up in their phone for hours now doing one or the other...or both at the same time. Especially those under 25! There's only so many hours in a day.

WOW...now that's a unique looking stud of a buck. I wouldn't care what he would score but safe to say plenty enough not to pass on.

Ran my 5 trail cams in Missouri recently and finished the editing process last night. These are the 2 best mature bucks I caught on my cams. BTW...my buddy and I didn't see any scrapping activity when we ran our cams on 9/17. The next day when we went out to hang 2 stands in new spots we saw some scrapes that were made over night. They weren't there the prior afternoon. Moved several trail cams to scrapes before I left MO. IMO...best way to get up close pics of mature bucks. One of those cams on a scrape is on video mode. Just wanted everyone it's time in the mid-west to watch for scrapping activity. Need some hard antler pics of the 10. I also have a few more head scratchers that I hope to judge better from hard horn pics.

Good start Frank!

Not really Frank...made the decision not to have my trophy rooms look like a taxidermist studio waiting for pick ups. I decided the cut limit for the deer mount spots in the 2 trophy rooms will be 150" gross (nets are still for fish). Hung 7 in those spots. The only exception is the only mature velvet buck I've taken...it's on the wall in the bedroom I set up for my grandson. 2 other 10 points (148.75" and 149.5") will be on the Missouri camp wall. Any 130's & 140's that aren't already on the wall at the Mississippi hunting camp will probably go on a garage wall. Still have to organize the garage.

Either way...fine by me. I'll share my deer tales with the forum anyway. ?

Thanks! Discovered some old items I didn't know my parents had. For example my father had an old double handle 5' logging saw in great shape. It's on a wall now in my screened in patio too. Also found a child's heritage book my grandmother (on my father's side) started shortly after my birth in 1954. I knew my ancestors on my fathers side but I only knew my mother's side 1 generation back and it ended with the last name of "Jones". Now I have the the information back to my my mother's great grandmother. Pretty cool.

Some pics of my new house. View from the screened in patio. Cedar fence on the sides & front...4' metal on the back for the view. Great room area. Africa mounts on the fireplace side. Still waiting on my Sable & Nyala double pedestal mount that will go on the lower left. Decided to hang 7 of my best 150 or better class bucks either in the great room or the outdoor patio. Keeping 2 in the Missouri camp. Sets a pretty high bar now for new mounts at the house. Room for more on the patio though. Outdoor patio.

Been a while since I've been here. Some of you may recall I started building a new house in north Mississippi last October. Needless to say, I'm settling in to my new home. Almost all the new furniture I bought is in. Lack 1 more item I ordered in March that's supposed to be delivered next week. Here's a summary of what's been going on since I last checked. I began going through 31 years of accumulated stuff in February to weed out what I'd move and what I'd do with the rest. That was a core! I think turkey season was still going on when I last checked in. I found time to hunt I think 5 times in Mississippi and killed 1 bird here. Made a 3 day trip to Missouri for the opening week of their season and killed a bird the 1st morning (11" beard. 1 3/8" spurs). After that I assisted my son bagging his 1st MO gobbler the 3rd morning (10" beard 1" spurs). I drove directly from Missouri to Southaven, MS for the closing on my new house. Made it with 15 minutes to spare. ? Priorities! Then prep for the moves started...yep...2. I moved the stuff I kept from Brandon in mid May. The end of of the 1st week of June I moved more stuff from the house in Mandeville, LA that I inherited from my parents. Prior to that I was either going to Mandeville to go through and pack the stuff kept or organizing what I already had at my new house. That and set up my new furniture as it arrived. That was until mid June when I decided it was time to start in the garage. Well I didn't get far into that before I developed a hernia on my right side. That ended all the heavy lifting unless my son came to help. Focused on light duty work stuff unless I was hurting. I also started the process to find a surgeon near my new home. Fortunately, with the help of a friend with connections I had my surgery on August 13th. If not for his help I was looking at a 4 month wait on the list. I've healed up and recovered from that now. Put the Brandon, MS house up for sale shortly after I moved. Closed on it about 2 weeks ago. I was on a schedule to have the Mandeville, LA house put on the market. The plan with my real estate agent was to set up an estate sale, get rid of whatever didn't sell (one way or another), then list the house. Hurricane Ida changed that plan. The estate sale was supposed to be that week. Thankfully, no damage to the house but a whole lot of debris and 1 big pine tree was blown down that didn't hit anything. I made 1 short trip to MO the last week of June with 2 helpers (my son and another younger friend Scott). With the hernia issue I couldn't climb into or work on elevated treestands...or really do much to help except supervise them. While there I set out my trail cams for the 1st time this year. Haven't had a chance to go check them yet. I'm heading back to MO the end of this week to do that and a few other hunting related chores with my buddy Ernie. Seems strange to be going to MO for the 1st trail cam run after their season opened today. No plans to hunt this trip since I have to return Monday. The last piece of new furniture I ordered in April arrives Tuesday. I'll post a few pics of my new house, and trophy rooms. Yep 2...one in my great room inside...the other is my screened in patio.

William...if you need another hunter for the contest, I'll play. If not I'm fine with watching from the sidelines. I'll post a thread soon with what's been going on since I was finishing packing for my move from Brandon, MS to the north end of Mississippi.

Welcome to the forums Catfish. I made 3 bowhunts with IMB in the past...2 in Missouri and 1 in Illinois. Enjoyed them all and bagged a 140" 9 point on one of the Missouri hunts. Tyler was our guide on my successful hunt too.

Congratulations! Outstanding season guys!

Hummm...that reminds me...remember to put water proof snake boots on your gear list for turkey hunting there. Probably don't use those in PA.