Preseason Updates: 9/1 - 9/15
Posted By
Missouri
at
9/7/2011 12:00:00 AM
Click here for post from last week.
Here We Go! Bow season is here and the prostaff is heading into the field daily in pursuit of Giant Missouri Whitetails. This blog will be used to keep you abreast with what the prostaff is seeing and doing. If you are a hunter in Missouri or nearby, this blog will give you a vital tool for most recent information (MRI). If you want to know what is going on in the Missouri woods this is the blog for you.
NORTHWEST
The season is officially underway! I can’t wait to climb into a tree stand for that first sit of the year. Each time you sit in a stand for the first time of the season it could be your best hunt of the year due to the element of surprise. As you gradually apply more pressure throughout the season the deer will get more cautious. Right now their guard is down and they are only thinking about a couple things, displaying their dominance and filling their stomachs.
Here in NW Missouri the beans are turning and the corn is drying down (actually being harvested on some farms) rapidly. What our trail cameras have shown us this past week is that the deer are now moving to the food sources that are still green or the corn that is ready for harvest. These food sources are much more palatable for them so it just makes logical sense this is where they will spend their time feeding. On my dad’s farm that consists of Eagle Seed forage soybeans, clover and alfalfa. Bachelor groups are breaking up and the bucks are spreading out so you never know what bucks might show up where you least expect them to. Unless you have recent information you have to rely on past knowledge and focus on the food. Food and acorns are key in the early season.
The antlers are shed and the bachelor groups are broken up. With unseasonably cool temperatures in the forecast for this time of the year it will be interesting to see how this affects the deer’s patterns. My dad and I will kick off the season hunting for 6 straight days starting this Saturday. Just being out in the woods in god’s creation is something every hunter looks forward to every year. However we are hoping to have a memorable season that will we not soon forget. Our early season strategy is simple. We are going for broke right from the start. We are going to hunt near the ditch we talked about in our hit list segment for our #2 hit list buck. We believe he is bedding in this location and hope to confirm that this week. That should put us on the right track to put an arrow in this deer early in the season. We will focus on hunting near food sources in the evenings, but I am going to go out and scout a little in the mornings to see if I can catch him going back to his bedroom. This deer has been one of the most visible deer on our cameras over the past 3 years, but most of the pictures are at night. We will have two opportunities to get on this deer. We must get in close and catch him in route to feed or bed early on. If that doesn’t work then we will have to catch him cruising during the rut.
Good Luck out there. This is what we have all been waiting for since January 15 th !
~Andy Yost~
September 3rd:
Opening day of bow season is now 12 days away and I hope everyone is ready to hit the tree stand in Missouri I know we are. We have five cameras out running right now on our 1200 plus acres and are starting to get some bucks moving in. It has been very warm these last few weeks and the buck movement has been minimal on our farm but these cooler days the buck have been moving a little more. We normally run cameras from the end of April to the end of February.
We are averaging around 600 to 1500 pictures in a 10 period on our cameras. A lot of our pictures have been does and fawns but the bucks are starting to show a little more and more each day. I have seen more mature bucks glassing bean fields and alfalfa fields in the last week. Our cameras are set over clover and alfalfa fields right now but are in the process moving them to transition areas and fence crossings were I have been seeing the bucks moving to get from bedding and cover to food sources.
Here are a couple we are going after come September 15th.
~David Sherrill~
NORTHEAST
September 7th:
Things are starting to change in Northeast Missouri. Bucks are shedding their velvet and marking their territory. The trail cameras are showing hard antlers and Rick found a fresh scrape on our farm Monday. The challenge is to use these changes to your advantage during the first week of the archery season.
Rick and I plan to hunt near two things during the early season; food and water. We ignore scrapes and rubs this time of year and focus our attention on the whitetail’s appetite. The deer on our farm are hammering the soybean fields so we will start there.
~Joe Knochel~
1. The deer leave after the corn is gone. The corn offers seclusion and safety. Once it’s gone the deer move on to properties with thicker cover or the deer become more nocturnal.
2. The deer arrive on our property after the corn is gone. Sometimes we benefit from item one. Timber stand improvements, standing corn plots, and CRP have made our 70 acre farm home to many deer after the corn harvest.
3. An easy meal. Often deer will visit a fresh cut corn field to feed on the leftover corn. I have always enjoyed hunting over a corn field two or three days after it was harvested.
September 15th: 
OPENING DAY PLAN
In a few hours I will begin my 2011 whitetail season. Today I plan to go after a deer named +one (pictured). I do not have a stand hung for a northeast wind so I plan pack in the Muddy’s and hang-n-hunt. I will be hunting over a soybean field adjacent to a known bedding area in hopes that today’s cold weather will make the deer move early. The soybeans are still green in this field but many other fields have started to turn yellow in Northeast Missouri. Should be a great sit to start my year!
9/15 UPDATE: Saw two does and a fawn. One walked within 10 yards of the stand! My observation is that the beans are turning FAST.
~Joe Knochel~
CENTRAL
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September 14, 2011:
A cold front has ushered in a Northeast wind for tomorrow's opening day. That will allow for me to be perched in my favorite early season stand on opening morning.
Morning hunting the early season?
Normally early season hunting consists of finding a food source and patterning a buck feeding on that food source in the evenings. However, my number one stand, the Press Place, is not an evening stand and over the years we have consistenacly proven that hunting this stand in the morning in early season, rut, and late season have all been good times to kill mature bucks, but the early season has produced more shooters than any other time period.
I will be sitting over a Frigid Forage Clover plot that deer love to feed in on their way back to a huge bedding area. My camera, from TrailcamPro.com, has shown my number three buck, Coon Kicker, on a fairly consitent basis in the mornings at the Press Place. I hope he shows up while I'm in the tree!
~ Korey Wolfe ~
SOUTH
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September 13:
Food Source Strategy for Opening Weekend
Plan for the first weekend of season based on what we have seen over the last week:
No rain on the food plots to speak of so they are not really a good food source right now
Acorns are dropping in some places, but not all
Recently found some major feeding sign in a saddle with some white oaks that has traditionally held mature bucks during the rut – hope to see them there in the early season
Our plan for the first weekend will be to find the few oaks that are dropping, or have dropped a few acorns, and start there. Another thing that I mentioned above was no rain. Without the small puddles of water in random places it can be pretty easy to intercept a mature buck coming to get a drink. Find a pond or creek that has water and a deer path will be close by. As the season progresses and food sources change we will adjust as necessary. Be safe and good luck!
~Andrew Hampton / Jason Smith ~
