Preseason Updates 8/23-8/29
Posted By
Missouri
at
8/23/2010 12:00:00 AM
Click here for post from last week.
Here We Go! With bow season just around the corner, the prostaff is in full swing hanging stands, planting food plots, checking trail cameras, and filming velvet bucks. 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:
North Central:
August 27th
Seems like all im getting done is shoot the Hoyt and check cameras. If thats what it takes for us to close the deal on an old mature buck, then im fine with that. Had a bad run with our cameras this week. It was like Christmas afternoon after you realize that you had opened all of your gifts. Took my little girl Kaydence who is 16 months old out with me for the first time to check cameras and 2 out of the 4 cameras that Matt and I had out shoot craps. Talk about a let down. The other 2 had 1600 pics of does and fawns. ZERO bucks, can we say Wrong Spot... But, whatya do, buy new cards, move the cameras and get back in the game. Hope for better luck next week when ya check um, kinda be like Christmas all over again!
~Stephen~
Northeast:
August 23rd
Wait .... wait ... wait .... I try to stay out of the woods and no where near my hunting areas this time of year. My goal is for deer to feel comfortable walking right under my treestands. Then slip in undetected and let the magic unfold. In the mean time shoot ... shoot ... shoot.
~ Joe Knochel ~
August 24th
My brother and I have found great success on small acreage. We like to wait for a cold front to move in before we hunt our best stands. That in combination with the low impact before season, is what led to Joe harvesting a great buck last September.
The Frigid Forage plots are in the ground and we have a good idea of the bucks in our area. Now is the time we stay out of our farms. You may have noticed that the first time you hunt a stand each year is the best. It's all about pressure, you probably won't kill that giant buck if he knows your tromping around in his turf.
There is a couple week window to find a buck still using his summer feeding patterns. Bucks don't usually travel very far this time a year, so I have found the best setups to be field edges that butt up against a thick bedding area. Get in early and quite and you may just tag out early!
Success in September:
- Low Impact
- Cold Fronts
- Food Source Near Bedding
~ Rick Knochel ~
Central:
August 24th
This week’s and last week’s weather has been a sure relief to the central region. Upon reviewing the most recent trail camera photos, the Wolfe team’s cameras have absolutely blown up with pictures, while only a short while ago, the movement seemed nonexistent. In general, the evenings have been very good for glassing and helping you pattern that buck that is typically sporadic. As a matter of fact, last week I added two more great bucks to my hit list on one of my farms in West Central Missouri. They are running together and bedding on the shaded edge of a huge soybean field. This is the third time in four scouting trips that I have observed these bucks in this area. Every time they walk past the same shingle oak…the one that has my stand in it.
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~Korey Wolfe~
Southern:
Wow! It's amazing what a cold front pushing through towards the end of August can do to a bowhunter! I think the blood pressure just went up a few notches in anticipation of letting that first arrow fly! We are still building our Hit List, which is going to require moving our cameras around a little bit more. We're seeing a ton of deer, just not the big slober knockers that we were used to seeing last year in Area 51. I know that there is some big bucks on this new farm, and one that definitely carries his name of "Maxximus" very well! With all the hardwoods down here, it's hard to get on the bedding locations very fast. In a perfect world, I would have already figured out where he is bedding but with the busy season being in full swing working for Muddy Outdoors it's hard to make the trip to Texas County and get it done! I suspect he's just like any other big buck around here, they bed down along the side of deep hollers...where water and food sources are close by. I just have to narrow down the ponds and food sources until he's finally caught in the memory card!
We've been seeing alot of 2 year old bucks, and they all have great potential to find their way to the Hit List in 2011. One 10 pointer looks to be in the shooter category with a pot belly, sway back, full shoulders and roman nose. He won't score out of the 130's, but you know what? I don't care about gross score. I care about going head to head with a smart old buck and having a memorable hunt regardless of how many inches he's carrying between his ears. If he's 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old, then he's been well schooled in these parts. And he's heard and seen every trick in the book. Those are the bucks I like to match wits with. Sometimes I win, most of the time they win....but those are the guys that you learn the most from. Hopefully, I'll be learning on the Oak Flats in about 3 weeks!
~Mike Earp~
August, 30
Hello from hot and dry Southern MO. Yesterday we finished planting our fall food plots with Wheat, Brassica's, and Clover and today we got about 1/2 inch of rain. We are very hopeful this will give them a good start to being attractive by the archery opener, just three weeks away! We focus our food plot locations on old log landings and next to timber on the back side of our hay fields. This will give us variety of hunting opportunities from the archery season opener, through late muzzle loader season. We're still getting some good buck pictures on our trail cam's over mineral licks and are forming a plan for the first couple of weeks of the season. We will keep praying for rain and hope to get on some good deer before the acorns start dropping and force us back into the hardwoods. Other than that we're shooting our bows, hanging stands, and getting more pumped up by the day for deer season.
~Ben Hampton~
