hoytshooter09

The biggest buck I have ever seen hunting was in am urban area. Maybe 4 acres total of woods with a few acres of crops right in town. He was at least 23 pts and would have went close to 200". Last time we saw he he was limping real bad. Year or so later those woods were leveled for a shopping strip. Was crazy seeing 20+ deer and multiple nice bucks 50 yards from a church , road and houses. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Hey everyone, been a couple years since I have been on. Hopefully be able to get on more and be active. I have had a crazy and busy year like most this year. We welcomed a beautiful healthy baby girl into our lives Feb, 24th. Such a hard time with a newborn and a pandemic the same time. I got lucky and was able to be in the room with family members. I can't imagine going through with having a child and no one being there to share and congratulate you. I'm lucky enough to have a job that provides 7 weeks paid paternity leave so it worked out nice with the shut down and all, plus got to hunt alot of the spring turkey season. I mainly hunt public land in Missouri and I can say this year was the toughest season I can remember. Talking with the agents that work the property they said there was over 80 trucks opening day, the most they have ever seen. I was seeing trucks and hunters in spots I have never seen any one in before. Naturally the turkeys were seeing the same thing and was making it tough. I hunted a week straight and only had one opportunity and couldn't close the deal. Second week of season hits, less hunters but birds were pressured and you can tell. I had a perfect morning coming up and decided to go to my favorite field. I get to the field and wait for the birds to start gobbling and hear one possibly on the other side of the river. I head over just in case and turns out he is on my side. He did everything right for me, gobbled at my calls, flew down and came right to me. Sticking with it even when it was tough paid off with my best turkey ever. A quadruple bearded bird, just over an inch spurs and 26lbs. Was a hunt to remember for sure. Fast forward to November and archery season. I bow hunt the same public property I turkey hunt. I have found a small stretch of woods that seems to get over looked and is 100 yards off the road. They recently went in and mowed some spots that was thick brush. I wasn't seeing near the sign I was used to and my first 3 sits I did not see a single deer. I have only sat 2 other times the last 4 years and not seen deer so I was beginning to think about moving my set up some. Come the first 2 weeks of November and I had to start overnight shifts at work unexpectedly. I knew the rut was on and I was running out of time. I woke up November 11th about 2 pm and figured the weather was to good not to go. When I got to my spot there was 2 trucks already there, I have never seen a truck in this area. By the time I got sat in my stand it was right at 4 pm, giving me just over an hour to hunt. I did a grunting and rattling sequence right away. 30 seconds after I finish I hear a grunt, I hear it again and look behind me and there's a wide and short 8 point walking right to me. He goes to cut across a creek and I get him stopped, and let an arrow go. I was in the stand for maybe 5 mins total, was the fastest hunt I have had. When the arrow hit it made the soft thud noise when you hit guts. I was worried I pulled it and it was going to be a long track job. I had to be at work at 8pm that night. I got down and the arrow was covered in blood and a good blood trail right off. He made it maybe 100 yards and pilled up. Another hunt to remember for sure. November 14th arrives and it's the opening day of rifle season here in Missouri. I hunt a couple hundred acres of private land my aunt owns. I love sitting in a huge cedar thicket on her property that the deer love too. I get there before light and can tell something is different and turns out she has had someone in there logging here property and they had huge chunks of the thicket cleared out. I still got to the spot I like to sit and it was one of my better mornings I rattled in a small 3 point right at light and then I moved about 50 yards to a better spot and had a 8 point walk in from where I was just sitting as soon as I sat down. His whole right side was broke at the main beam or I would have shot him. As soon as he walks off here comes a doe, I grunt at her a few times and a 4 point comes running straight to me. I was looking through my scope at the 4 point as he got to about 10 yards I see movement in my scope and tines. The 4 point takes off and I get on the other deer. I can tell he's one I want to shoot. I almost have to yell at him to get him to stop chasing the doe. All I had was a neck shot so I took it and dropped him. He was a beautiful 10 point with about as perfect of a rack as possible. So far it's been a great year and I'm truly lucky to be able to say that with what's going on. Sorry for the long post but had to catch up lol. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

It took us a few days to get on the elk but in the end we found them and my buddy shot his first elk at 15 yards, I got on another bull in the same area but couldn't get him away from his cows or get around on him. For our first time elk hunting we sure learned a lot and had a blast. We can't wait till our next trip . Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Just got back on here. We ended up going to unit 711 San Juan state park. We both ended up shooting our first Merriam's. Found a few elk sheds and lot of mule deer sheds too. Our up coming hunt for elk is going to be Sept 9th Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Me and a buddy are going for Merriam's turkey in Colorado this year along with some shed hunting too. Then we are going to try our hand at a diy bowhunt for elk in Colorado should be an exciting year.

Well don't think any of us can complain about our seasons! We all shot nice bucks and we were so close to first, hard to lose by one point. I had fun this season now time to turn my attention to some shed hunting and getting ready for the spring turkey season.

I'm headed out in the morning, moved my stand today hopefully it's in a more productive spot we will see.

Thanks turkey girl and strut10 I have the cape in my freezer hopefully I can get him mounted and on the wall soon if I can find some time to do it.

Any thing new guys? I've been out a few more times still have a buck tag with my bow and a doe tag would love to get one more deer in the freezer and another buck to get some more practice doing taxidermy. My focus had gone to duck hunting lately but this warm weather here hasn't been good for ducks or deer. Hopefully we get a good cold snap soon. Did get a nice buck on trail camera he will be hard to get though pic was taken on a small piece with alot of land close by with hunting pressure.

Thanks guys, I love my 30-30 has put alot of deer on the ground it's a great guy.

Well this past weekend was the opening of the Missouri firearms season. Saturday started of pretty cool and fairly windy but still seen great deer movement had a doe come in then a group of 4 does with a button buck grunting and chasing them like crazy. I couldn't believe there wasn't a more mature buck around, at about 10 a.m. had a small fork horn cruise by. Took my son out in the evening but didn't see a single deer but was pretty windy. Sunday morning i took my brother out with me it started warmer and wet had some rain over night. I rattled about 15 min after shootin light and had a busted up 7 point come right to us, there's a 4 pt on one side restriction so we passed him because couldn't really tell if the last point was long enough. About an hour later I hear something in the creek below us and there's two does 50 yards and closing. They got to about 10 yards and my brother shot the second doe it was a perfect shot and she only ran 30 yards and piled up. We get down field dress her and drag her to the top of a field and on the way back to my truck we had to go through a cedar thicket that I like to sit in. The cedars are so thick nothing grows under Neath and it cuts the property in half and is about 80 yards wide. We decided to sit in it for awhile first spot we only stayed about 10 min and I wanted to move to get a better view and closer to another area. We pick a spot that was about 100 yards or less from the tree stands my brother shot his deer just a hour ago. We get settled in and a do a rattling sequence and grunt. 5 min goes by and directly in front of me at 50 yards and closing fast appears a nice buck. I stop him at 20 yards and he stops with a cedar covering his shoulder I could just see the back crease so I put it as close as I could and got the shot off. He ran off and couldn't really tell if he was hurt or not, we searched for blood and didn't find anything no blood or hair where he was standing or within 30 yards where he ran to. Needless to say I was sick to my stomach thinking I missed him at 30 yards. I went back to where I was sitting and looked some more and I started walking where my brother said he ran off to, about 50 yards down the trail I find some hairs covered in blood and what appears to be gut too. We find his blood trail and it definitely has guy in it and liver blood after 50 yards he jumped the fence onto the neighbors property so we backed out to call him and eat. Hour and a half later we are back out and the neighbor drove us to the fence he jumped he took his truck to another logging trail about 100 yards the direction the deer ran. We trail him into a ravine and at the bottom we find a decent area of blood this one had bright pink blood after that it got heavier and we started finding pools where he stood ever 10 yards he would stop. We get about 30 yards from the neighbor sitting in his truck with a good blood trail and I look over in the brush and there's the deer! Don't think I have been more excited for a deer with the thinking I missed and a possible gut shot to finding him and having my brother with me made it better too. Turns out the deer was quartering to me pretty hard and I didn't realize it the shot hit right where I was aiming it hit back half of one lung, his liver, and gut bullet came out alittle past half way his body. I'm guessing he was a 3 and a half maybe 4 year old deer huge neck big body and pretty heavy 8 point rack. Then we only had to drag him 30 yards which was nice since he was every bit of 200 lbs. Was an exciting hunt for sure and will be one I remember forever.

Hoytshooter09 Team 4 8 point buck

Well this past weekend was the opening of the Missouri firearms season. Saturday started of pretty cool and fairly windy but still seen great deer movement had a doe come in then a group of 4 does with a button buck grunting and chasing them like crazy. I couldn't believe there wasn't a more mature buck around, at about 10 a.m. had a small fork horn cruise by. Took my son out in the evening but didn't see a single deer but was pretty windy. Sunday morning i took my brother out with me it started warmer and wet had some rain over night. I rattled about 15 min after shootin light and had a busted up 7 point come right to us, there's a 4 pt on one side restriction so we passed him because couldn't really tell if the last point was long enough. About an hour later I hear something in the creek below us and there's two does 50 yards and closing. They got to about 10 yards and my brother shot the second doe it was a perfect shot and she only ran 30 yards and piled up. We get down field dress her and drag her to the top of a field and on the way back to my truck we had to go through a cedar thicket that I like to sit in. The cedars are so thick nothing grows under Neath and it cuts the property in half and is about 80 yards wide. We decided to sit in it for awhile first spot we only stayed about 10 min and I wanted to move to get a better view and closer to another area. We pick a spot that was about 100 yards or less from the tree stands my brother shot his deer just a hour ago. We get settled in and a do a rattling sequence and grunt. 5 min goes by and directly in front of me at 50 yards and closing fast appears a nice buck. I stop him at 20 yards and he stops with a cedar covering his shoulder I could just see the back crease so I put it as close as I could and got the shot off. He ran off and couldn't really tell if he was hurt or not, we searched for blood and didn't find anything no blood or hair where he was standing or within 30 yards where he ran to. Needless to say I was sick to my stomach thinking I missed him at 30 yards. I went back to where I was sitting and looked some more and I started walking where my brother said he ran off to, about 50 yards down the trail I find some hairs covered in blood and what appears to be gut too. We find his blood trail and it definitely has guy in it and liver blood after 50 yards he jumped the fence onto the neighbors property so we backed out to call him and eat. Hour and a half later we are back out and the neighbor drove us to the fence he jumped he took his truck to another logging trail about 100 yards the direction the deer ran. We trail him into a ravine and at the bottom we find a decent area of blood this one had bright pink blood after that it got heavier and we started finding pools where he stood ever 10 yards he would stop. We get about 30 yards from the neighbor sitting in his truck with a good blood trail and I look over in the brush and there's the deer! Don't think I have been more excited for a deer with the thinking I missed and a possible gut shot to finding him and having my brother with me made it better too. Turns out the deer was quartering to me pretty hard and I didn't realize it the shot hit right where I was aiming it hit back half of one lung, his liver, and gut bullet came out alittle past half way his body. I'm guessing he was a 3 and a half maybe 4 year old deer huge neck big body and pretty heavy 8 point rack. Then we only had to drag him 30 yards which was nice since he was every bit of 200 lbs. Was an exciting hunt for sure and will be one I remember forever.

Great buck Pat! Would be one of my bucket list hunts is to hunt Iowa. I've had alot of luck seeing nice bucks just haven't been able to close the deal. This past Thursday morning had 3 mature bucks over 140" come within 40 yards of my stand just in the one spot I don't have a shot. It's rifle season here now so hopefully I can get it done soon.

Been out a few times past week seen a few does and one small buck. Nothing this morning except a coyote. I will go out tomorrow morning then after that I'll have Thursday and Friday to hunt a really good spot that's done good for us in the past few years. Been seeing a ton of scrapes and rubs, had the small buck come into my rattling. Hopefully I can tag out on a decent one here soon.