RE: NE Missouri Public Land
You may wantto alsocheck out BK Leach and the islands (Sandy Island?) around the river-when we were hunting in that neck of the woods, we took quite a few deer during archery season, and we had heard there were some bruiser bucks taken out in area by others. (However,it has been a few years since we've been up there (yeah, we finally bit the bullet and bought some land in NC MO.)
Best of luck!