Living in NW Missouri and being allowed to start hunting season in Mid September sure seems like a dream.  This year even as the weather stayed extremely hot and the rains seemed to miss us over and over again, the deer still appeared on trail cameras.  I routinely run cameras year round and was able to watch the bucks shed their antlers and again start growing all over again.  This season despite being hot the bucks were again showing as always and making my expectations for the upcoming season continue to grow.

I was able to get into the stand a few times the first few nights and was quickly able to harvest a mature doe on film.  She came in with 2 others and the Elite Pulse sent the Rage through the cage.  The doe ran off 20 yards before turning back towards the camera and falling over in the beans.  Early season success had been achieved and the freezer had new meat again.  Since then the woods have really slowed to a halt with the warm weather.  I returned to the woods after a couple weeks as the weather cooled.  With the cooling temps I was hoping that some mature bucks would start cruising through the area from earlier in the summer.  I finally was able to see a 3 year old showing up on camera in late September that I had several pics of from July and August.  He was healthy looking and was easily a 200+ lb deer.  As a 3 year old 10 at 130″ he wasn’t something I was ready to harvest but was nice to see him on his feet on the farm.  2 days later I ran into this buck on a Sunday morning.  He was in my food plot but not the way I wanted to find him.  EHD had taken this buck too early and made for a very rough morning on the farm.  After talking to my local MDC agent, I wasn’t the only one in the area reporting some recent findings as 9 other deer had been reported locally within a few miles of the farm.  This wasn’t the news I was looking for but as the season continues and the temperatures start to fall.  I hope some of these early season pictures I have of bucks come back to make an appearance in front of my stand.

This is one of the groups of bucks I was able to capture.  The buck on the left is 1 of my main hit-list bucks…the buck to the far right is the buck that was unlucky on life and was found in the food plot expired from EHD.  The season will go on and I will continue my quest for another mature buck for this year.

 

 

Until next time keep safe and always use your Hunter Safety System!!!