It is finally here!  The Missouri archery season has begun and the Missouri team is hard at it already.  Check out this blog to find out what we are seeing from the stand and how we plan to adjust to the deer as they  begin changing their fall patterns. 

Northeast

September 19th:

Opening Weekend Observations:

Rain:  Our food plots needed a good rain.  The rain will help produce some new growth and hopefully attract some deer.
Food changes:  The deer in our area are transitioning from the green soybean leaves to other food sources; clover, brassica, and cut corn.  In addition, the acorn production appears to be good in the northeast.
Trail Cameras:  We are currently seeing a lot of nocturnal buck activity.  Once particular camera showed the same buck almost every night for two weeks and only once during daylight.
Hunting:  We have seen good doe and small buck movement.  However, we got skunked last night, it happens.

~Joe Knochel~

September 27th :

Second Week Observations :

Cover : With the corn coming out quickly the deer have lost a lot of cover that once made them feel secure.
Food:  Food is everywhere!  There is cut corn, acorns, standing beans, and green fields.  I believe this has the deer spread out
Trail Cameras:  I continue to find new scrapes and rubs each time I check trail cameras.  Almost all Mature Buck pictures are at night!
Hunting:  We are seeing the majority of our deer just before last light!  Looks like the October Lull may have come early!
Plan:  Key in on Cold Fronts that drop temperatures by 15 degrees or more!  This may get some of the mature bucks on their feet.  I also plan to shoot a doe and enjoy the adventures of bow hunting!!

~ Rick Knochel ~

October 4th :

EARLY OCTOBER OBSERVATIONS :

BEDDING:  From personal experience and talking with others, several bucks have been spotted bedding in agricultural fields.  I believe this is due to the dry weather conditions.  Since the fields have been dry for some time the deer have enjoyed the safety and comfort of bedding in these fields.  During a damp year I would imagine these fields are not as comfortable for bedding (who wants to lie in the mud?).  This is coming to an end though; most fields should be harvested by mid October.
FOOD & WATER: Food is abundant, water is not.  I plan to hunt areas with clean water sources this week.
TRAIL CAMERAS: We have recently moved the trail cameras to new locations.  No update.
HUNTING:  My recommendation is to set aside the pursuit of giant whitetails and just enjoy hunting for the next couple weeks.  Hunt a new location, try public ground, shoot a doe, take a friend, and simply have fun!

~Joe Knochel~

The Big 8

I put together a graph(below) to visually represent these trail camera events.  Between September 17th and September 26th I didn’t have a camera at this site and therefore have no data. 

~ Rick Knochel ~

VIDEO YOUR HUNT

A successful video hunt is an awesome accomplishment and very rewarding.  Give it a try!

South

Opening Weekend:

Our strategies didn't work as we had planned and the rain didn't help the hunting either. It did however give our food plots the water they needed to start growing. The best hunt we had was Friday before the rain started. We saw some good deer movement throughout the afternoon and evening. We hunted the edge of a food plot with clover that had several oaks dropping acorns around it. The deer are definitely on the acorns where they are falling. The three we saw didn't bother with the clover at all. As the season progresses we will focus on the oak flats as they begin to fall more. The acorns should keep the pressure off of our food plots giving them a chance to grow before the first frost. Good luck to everybody and as always safe hunting!
 
 
~Andrew Hampton~

September 16^th2011:We had does and fawns move through our area, no mature buck sightings. On the way in we found some rubs and the first fresh scrape in the area, we put a camera up over it.

~Clint Schwach & Brandon Dority~

September 29th:

After spending this last weekend in the woods, there's no doubt the acorns are falling in full force. In southern Missouri (where hardwood timber covers  about 75% of the terrain) the deer can spread out through the timber, and their bedding and feeding area's might only be a few yards apart. Couple this with the 2.5 inches of rain we got over the weekend and deer also won't have to travel very far to find water. So, how should you hunt this difficult situation? We try to focus on two things, known travel routes and (when possible) hunting after a cold front has pushed through. Our stands on travel routs are basically rut stands, but when the acorns are everywhere you have to find places that concentrate deer movement. The weather has a little more to do with luck. Like most hunter's we're weekend warriors, so we have to hope that a cold front is pushing through when we are able to hunt. One last thing, don't rule out hunting a green food plot like clover, winter wheat, or brassica's. Even though acorns are the preferred food source right now, with the recent rain green food plots should be putting on a lot of new growth. If these plots are located back in the timber, close to oaks that dropping acorns, they can also be highly productive hunting locations. Finally, we found several ground scrape's and a rub this last weekend.

We have started the process of moving our trail cameras on to ground scrapes. This not only tells us what bucks wil be in our area through the fall, but which bucks will be the most active during the rut. In past seasons we have found that if we get pictures of the same buck on multipul scrapes, he's probably a killable buck.  Hope this information is helpful, and as always, good luck and hunt safe!
 
~ Ben Hampton ~   

October 2, 2011:

 Morning: Brandon and I went in to an area we never hunted before with some muddy stands. Deer droppings and acorns were littered everywhere on the forest floor so we knew it was the right spot. We hunted it and saw constant deer movement from 8a.m. to 11a.m. We saw 20+ deer and 4 little bucks, almost every single deer was in bow range and stopped to munch on some acorns. At 10:15, a nice mature doe came in range and Brandon sent a Rocket through her and she piled up just 50 - 60 yards from the stand.
 
October 2, 2011:

Evening: Brandons little brother Tyler shot his first buck on the evening of October 2, 2011 feeding down a tree line ripping and eating acorns out of the trees when Tyler stopped the buck at 5 yards and he let the air out of him with his hoyt. We had been watching this buck all summer long and we were excited to see Tyler behind him.
 
~Clint Schwach & Brandon Dority~

October 10th: 
The Southern MO Boy's were faced with some tough hunting conditions this weekend. Couple the October lull with temp's in the mid 80's and one of the best white oak acorn crops we've seen, and the deer don't have to move very much.

Northwest

September 20th:

The ag beans have turned completely and the leaves are dropping rapidly. However we plant forage soybeans on our farm. They’re a late maturing soybean. That allows us to provide the deer with a couple more months of leaf forage. The beans will not start to turn until a hard frost. That usually means they are turning during some of the best hunting of the year, the rut. We focus on funnels and pinch points during that phase of the season. This allows the pod production to last into the late season which provides fantastic hunting and new bucks showing up. The acorns are starting to drop, but I think we are still a week or two away from the time where they are falling like crazy. It’s a great acorn producing year here in NW Missouri. All the oak tree species are loaded with them this year. The deer are definitely sucking up what acorns they can find.

During the first week of the season we have been trying to get on our #2 Hit List buck. We have recent video clips of him headed back to his bed. We have this deer nailed down, but he just will not move during the day and he is in an area that is nearly impossible to approach or hunt without being smelled or seen going in. It's clear why he beds in this spot, as does many other bucks we get pictures of over the years. Short of a deer drive (not happening) I don't see him moving in daylight until we get close to the rut. We are still going to keep hunting him and hope he makes a mistake. He went nocturnal as soon as his velvet came off. I was hoping he would move during daylight hours in this first week of season and we would get a crack at him. I do not see much chance of that happening after going through recent trail camera data. In fact all of the top 3 deer on our hit list are moving only at night right now. We have seen lots of does and small bucks these first few days of the season. The first perfect opportunity we will go ahead and take a doe in certain areas of the farm.

~Andy Yost~

Central

September 28th: 

We are having a tough time getting it done in Central Missouri.  We have had a few daylight encounters with shooter bucks but have not been able to capitalize on these encounters.  Our cameras are set over our food plots and are capturing fewer deer and few daylight photos.  I attribute this to the vast amount of acorns that we have available this year.  I mean the white oaks are loaded!  Our hopes of harvesting one of our early season candidates are slipping away and soon we will transition to herd reduction mode until our trail cameras tell us differently. 
 
Our neighbors have harvested their corn fields this week and we are hoping that this will cause a few deer to get out into the open and gorge themselves on the abundant leftovers.  We have one stand set for just this occasion and it will be occupied over the next couple of days by a hunter and a cameraman and hopefully a couple of deer also. 
 
~ Korey Wolfe~