This weekend, Bo and I had the opportunity to step foot onto a brand new property that we were just granted bowhunting and turkey hunting right to for the 2010 seasons.  This Missouri property is only a mile from Bo's house and only three miles from mine, which is not only exceptionally convienent to us, but also makes our wives much happier knowing we will be traveling a little less during the hunting seasons. 

Walking onto a property for the first time not only brings with it mixed emotions of excitement, anxiety, and anticipation.  One always hopes to come across a giant rub on a 12" oak tree or deep, well used deer trails, but you never want to get your hopes us too high.  Fortunately Bo and I were extremely pleased on the sign that we did find while only on the property for a few hours.  Not 10 minutes onto the property, Bo and I were both talking about how deep and worn the deer trails were and I happened to look up and spot a tine sticking above the leaf litter.  This 60"+ 4 point side had been laying there for awhile, but I'm glad we were able to save a little bit of bone from the tree rats this year.  Hopefully this buck still calls this area home and we'll get a crack at him this year.

But as I had mentioned before, the deer trails looked more like cattle trails on this property.  This property has numerous isolated crop fields and patches of big timber, which should provide a great habitat for growing and keeping whitetails.  In addition to the heavy trails and creek crossings, we also found some good rubs and fresh tracks that added to the anticipation of the upcoming season. 




We also came across one of the more oddly placed items we have ever found in the woods.  Not 15 feet away from an old tree stand was this very old (and well used) basketball hoop.  Granted it was located in a partial clearing, but I can only imagine that a young hunter from years past decided he wanted to practice his skills while waiting for that big buck to walk by his stand.