Great early MO bowhunt

[Rhino]

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.

 

 

[Ravin R10 man]

thats a hog of a doe!  congrats. thanks for THE HUNT UPDATES, ENJOY THE STORIES!

GOOD LUCK ON R.2 AL

[Strut10]

CONGRATS on the backstraps !!!!

Great re-cap !!!!

 

[wtnhunt]

Looks like your season is off to a great start Al.  Congratulations on the doe.

[Rhino]

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