.358

Rifle season just ended today. How did you guys make out ? Where did you hunt, what did you use ? Was the area crowded ? What was the weather like ? Did you hunt on private or public land ? Just to show the difference in North Mo and South Mo. hunting. A friend called this morning and his party of 7 hunted the whole season in southeast Mo ozarks and only saw one tail, no shots. Guys in the North report fill all their tags in 15 minutes or the 1st day , some , true trophy hunters huntered the entire season but usually ended up with a nice, buck. Our party of 6 killed 18 deer in 30 minutes ! a buck and two does each (unit 7)Don' t even feel like I had a hunt ,just a shoot. Next year I will trophy hunt only, if I can keep my finger off the trigger.

DamBigBuck

I hunted unit 26, St. Clair county, public land, walking in just over a mile. Remington 700 BDL, Burris 3-9x, .30-06, 165 gr. Sierra Boattails. I only purchase 1 firearm tag/year.

Saw a few more hunters than normal this year, but my spot backs up to private property, so I' m guessing that where most of them came from.

I' m always patient on the first weekend hoping for that big buck. I turned down some does and saw only 1 small buck. Second weekend is meat hunting if I don' t get anything the first. I still won' t shoot small bucks though.

8:30 am on the 2nd Saturday I shot a big doe. Two does came in so I waited a short time to see if a buck was trailing them ... no luck. So 1 well placed shot in the boiler room put her down. She still ran 60 yards after my shot, which kind of upset me. She didn' t even act like she was hit at first, but after looking her over a little I couldn' t have hit her much better. I' m thinking of shooting a 150 gr. bullet next year and something that will expand a little faster.

RICHIE3

I hunted in the n.w. cornewr of the state in zone #1. I had videoed a really nice buck the week before the season and had planned on hunting that particular deer for the season. But, 25 minutes into shooting time on opening day, the neighbor on the next property, an older man, had shot a buck head on and hit it in the front right shoulder, shattering the shoulder blade, and then exiting out on the back part of the shoulder, about 8 inches back from the entrance wound with about a 2 inch diameter hole. Well, long story short, the wife was with me, but in the truck just to my left about 50 yards. I was hunting an 1 acre alfalfa field on the top of a bluff surrounded by timber, when this buck came limping along in front of me at about 50 yards to my right. The wife was thinking and got the whole shot on video. It wasn' t the buck I was after, but I can' t let something like that go by to just be wasted. So I put it down, hunt ended. It was a 11 pointer originally, but the left G2 was broke off, with a kicker on the right broken too. So, it was a nice 9 pointer after all of that, with an inside spead of 17 inches and a G2 of 10 inches. But he video the wife got was great, I am proud of her!

Angus74

Im from Salem, and even though bow season wasnt great, rifle season was good. I took a 13 pointer at 6:30 opening day, I debated passing him for about five minutes, but couldnt make myself do it. He is 17 inches inside, 10 point frame with a forked g-2 and matching 2 inch stickers off of both eye guards, main beams are a litle short but he might go 130 iches. My dad took his best deer, a good 8 in my biologic plot. Also my nephew got his first deer a doe with me the next day. And my 91 year old grandfather got the first deer for him in about 20 years, a six pointer, he was as proud as my nephew, Im just afraid it will be his last. We hunt on private property that we own and also a farm we lease about 15 minutes away.

.358

Damm BifgBuck, try some 150' s no premium bullets ! I' ve had good luck with Federal Classic, WWpower points.Never had a deer go more than a few feet. If you relkoad try the 150 hornady. Good Luck !

hcurt

We hunted unit 33 and had 10 deer down by 11 a.m. Sunday. We also missed 3 others. One nice buck out of the group a young 10 pt. Overall it was a great season for us. Unit 33 is in Barton county north of Lamar.

dugum

hcurt hunted with us on one part of the family farm. I should add there there where several deer that were passed on.

We'll be back out this weekend for the anterless season to fill a few tags for meat.


How many deer are you other MO hunters seeing, as compared to pass years?

Wooddust

I hunted Bates and Cass County. My observations would be that I saw a lot of deer. Our population is high, probably too high from a management viewpoint. I saw far more does than bucks. On average through the season I saw 2-4 bucks a day and probably on average 25-30 does a day.

The bucks I saw were from forkies on up to one rather nice 8 point. But in all that time in the woods I did not see what I would call a mature buck. Very typical of the Missouri deer herd in general, the harvest of anything that has a horn by the general hunting public is still keeping our ratios of bucks/does way out of balance and is keeping the age classes of our male deer in a far too non diverse situation.

Post season I have still been seeing a lot of deer and a few bucks.

In the areas I hunted the rut was in full swing. I will say I believe for whatever reason, this was a year when our deer seemed to be very nocturnal. Maybe weather had something to do with that. But I can say that the daytime activity was way off from the weeks leading up to season.

MDC will be needing to make some changes in the management objectives of the deer in Missouri and I hope they do it soon. At some point, we have to change from the management objectives that were set in the 60's when all we wanted was to increase the numbers...to a more practical and sustainable goal of maintaining our numbers at a level we can support and regain a balance of age classes and the buck/doe ratios that are best.

I see some changes by landowners taking place if MDC does not move soon. Landowners like myself are reading in farm magazines and hearing from peers that QDM approaches by the landowners work. And with bigger deer comes opportunity to lease hunting rights as an income source. If I get to feed...my crops...my hay...these deer all year, and if I manage them in cooperation with my neighbors, it may be time for me to see them as a income producer, not just a hunting opportunity.

The point is that if MDC does it statewide, the likelyhood that pay for hunting really making a surge in MO is poor. But if we landowners take it into our own hands to do it, we will see the leasiing of land and with it the hunting options reduced for the average hunter.

Just my humble opinion

Rauch

crapy didnt see nothing the first weekend cept for on jumped doe then sunday evening of the last weekend i missed one hell of a jaw dropper that we have been hunted off and on for 2 years unit 41 crawford county private land with single beaded smooth bore 20ga 12 people on 640 acres so not crowded really as lo9ng as everyone stays in their stands

Boartuff

I sure was disappointed, as I didn't fill a tag this past season. Although I was waiting for either does or a nice buck, I only saw a half dozen deer all rifle season. Saw several deer during bow, but did not connect then either. We put in some new wheat plots with a little clover last fall, and they are looking very well. The deer seem to have aquired a liking to these locations already.

Only five and a half months till Sept. 15th!