I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend working so I could free up my Christmas this year, a great idea but doesn’t leave any time for hunting.
I was lucky enough to see a few deer my last sit of the Missouri rifle season. I was in the stand early in a tower blind over looking a few food plots and a small pond. A 4 1/2 year old buck named the Short Tine 10 was on the list. He was noticed feeding in the plot the night before with four other bucks in the area. A friend was able to take his boy to the blind on that Sunday evening and drop a great 5 1/2 year old buck.
Monday night I was there looking for a sign of rutting activity they had witnessed. The buck came out as expected across the plot on the upper five acres of cut soybeans. He never offered a shot. As the light started to give way to the night I was confronted with a 3 1/2 year old 9-pointer behind my blind at 35 yards. It was a quick chip shot with the rifle but thanks to a camera malfunction I was left humbled with a nice buck and no footage due to a battery issue.
When filming all sorts of things can happen on this night I had just switched over to my back up battery and there is more of a delay with this battery. Upon turning on camera and hitting “record’ with the buck in the camera screen, the record button got hit again. After counting to myself for pre-roll footage I squeezed the trigger and watched the buck go down. Turning back to the camera, I realized there was an error with the battery and the recording was cancelled, leaving me with a helpless feeling that happens to many of us from time to time.
With the seasons changing back to archery extended season, I’m thankful for two archery antler tags in my pocket and another month and a half to get them filled. The rest of the year I will be busting my back in my free time to get the job done again and this time assure everything is a go on film. Good luck to all the hunters out there. The rut is still going here in northwest Missouri.