Mike Earp
Posted By
Chad Lathrop
at
9/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
Growing up in the heart of the Ozarks allowed Mike Earp to get started in hunting at an early age. Shooting a bow by age 4 and taking his first deer at 7, that was the beginning to a whitetail obsession that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. The Mark Twain National Forest has felt the bottom of Mike’s boots just about every season, and when it comes to finding big bucks in “The Twain”, Mike knows how to get it done.
You will also see Mike hunting a new piece of land for Midwest Whitetail this year that he has named “Area 51.” This privately owned farm in southern Missouri is home to a few new bucks that Mike has affectionately put on his hit list.
Mike's 2010 Hit List
"Green Mile"
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/InteractiveLive/greenmile.mp4
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Mike's 2009 Hit List
The following words are Mike's.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/BrutusandDaggers.flv
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"BRUTUS and DAGGERS": Brutus and Daggers were a couple of bucks that held their ground on a private farm that we got to hunt late in the season. Not knowing if they made it through or not, I was relieved to find their sheds, placing them on the hit list for this season too. Both of these bucks seemed to have a sixth sense, so we have opted not to set foot on the farm until we are actually in the tree with the Hoyt in hand. Instead of trail cameras, we're relying on the farmer to give us good feedback about what he is seeing. These two bucks are going to be the biggest challeges we face this year.
"LAKOSKY": Lakosky looks to be a typical mainframe 10-pointer with good mass carried all the way out. With his scarce appearances in front of the trail cameras, I suspect we might get a shot at him during the rutting period but he might play hide and seek until then. 
"WADDELL": Anybody that knows me knows that I love to poke a hole in those high and tight 8-pointers. Waddell will go right along side a couple of other 8's I have on the wall just fine. Of course it will be a lucky flip of the coin to see who get's to pull back on him first - me or my cameraman!
"T-BONE": T-Bone is a great looking 9-pointer that is typical for the southern Missouri region. I suspect he will score in the upper 130's to 140 range which is a good buck and pretty average to what is killed in this area.
"EVANDER HOLYFIELD": This buck joined the Hit List on 8/30/09 after gracing the trail camera with his appearance. This is definitely a shooter 8 and would be a very nice addition to my wall! I was initially going to name him "Splitter" becuse of the big chunk missing out of his left ear, but fellow Pro Staffer Scott Prucha suggested a more fitting name for him...."Evander Holyfield!!!"
"DOE, DOE, DOE": On the private farm we call AREA 51, you're going to see us "fling the string" on as many does as possible. We're going to help the landowner establish a good QDM program since the farm hasn't been hunted in over 5 years. Hopefully, we'll help the "Share The Harvest" program and also help stimulate the economy buying as many doe tags as possible! Whack 'Em and Stack 'Em! Yeehaw!
