September 24th was a day that we had been looking forward to with anxiety and high hopes since December 31st.  From the time archery season closed last year, we have been working feverishly shed hunting, establishing new food plots, running trail cameras and getting new stands hung.  This was the first year that we had been given permission to plant food plots on this particular property and we couldn't wait to get setup on the newly established, green, cereal grain food plot. 

However, the minute we pulled into the property, our anticipation quickly turned into frustration.  The first thing we saw when we pulled in was the land managers truck and empty four wheeler trailer.  Come to find out, the land manager had been spraying the CRP for an invasive weed that the DNR has asked him to control on the property.  It was something that needed to be done, but the timing couldn't have been worse.  But we were there to hunt, so we hunted and just made the best of the situation.

The first evening was pretty uneventful.  One lone doe made her way towards one of the food plots we were overlooking, but slowly disappeared into the 7' tall CRP and never actually entered the plot.  That night, as we were walking through the CRP back to the truck, we actually had to shade our eyes from the bright moon.  It was a cloudless sky and the moon provided plenty of light for some heavy nighttime feeding.  The high pressure system extended into the next morning and movement was much slower than expected.  About 30 minutes after a half rack spike left the plot, a mature doe and yearling entered and started feeding on the newly sprouted sunflowers.  The doe got within 5 yards of our ground blind and never had an idea that we were there - what an awesome experience.  As she turned to feed into the plot, Bo drew on her but she caught the slight movement and jumped further into the food plot.  When the arrow was released, she dropped about 8"-12" and the arrow unfortunately missed it's mark as it flew just over her shoulder.

The evening sit brought again no deer into the food plot.  A strong cold front moved through at about 6PM and brought with it a temperature drop of nearly 10 degrees.  One would think the deer would have been on their feet, but nothing entered the plot we were hunting. 

When checking cameras, we noticed that during the full moon phase, all of our buck and the majority of the doe pictures were taken after midnight.  We were starting to get some movement right around dusk as well.  When we entered the food plot for our final sit of the weekend, the skys were overcast and the winds were blowing out of the north - the perfect morning!  However, when we checked the camera pointed on a fresh scrape not 10 yards from our stand, we found out that we had missed the #2 buck on our list by 45 minutes.  Crab Claw had been in this very plot at 530 and we were there shortly after 600.  At least we know he's close and likes the food plot!  We did had five does enter the food plot that morning, but they all fed on the further side of the plot and never got within 50 yards so no shots were taken.

Here is the picture of Crab Claw as he's standing 10 yards away from the camera. 

We know that him and Potato Digger are still running their same routes, it just seems that they are slowly becoming more nocturnal.  This could simply be from the full moon or the current weather patterns.  We have not pressured them in anyway so we know that we haven't pushed them to become nocturnal.  Hopefully the next time we're at the property the moon won't be so bright and the deer will be back to the typical patterns.  If that's the case, a tag or two should be filled!

When Bo and I first started up the blog earlier this year, we really intended it to be a journal of our on going hunting experiences.  We have certainly put a lot of time in the woods hunting and preparing for the different hunting seasons, that we figured we might as well share it with friends and family and keep a living journal of our experiences that we can look back on year after year to help us learn from what we've seen and done in past years.  

It's pretty amazing to think how much has changed for us in the past nine months.  We have been selected to be on Midwest Whitetail, we have learned more about cinematography and cameras than we ever though possible, and we are now be approached by companies asking us to use their products. Pretty overwhelming for a couple of guys that simply want to document how they hunt! 

So with the official start to the 2010 Missouri archery season, here is the first official journal entry for this year's whitetail season!  We hope to add a post every week where we'll discuss what we've seen, what we haven't seen, where we're hunting, etc.

This past week found Bo and I trying to work with the weather and schedules to find some time to get into the tree.  We both took off of work on Wednesday to hunt the opener.  Wednesday morning came with high anticipations of getting a shot at Mr. T.  We setup on a ridge/fence line with a standing corn field on one side and an acorn paradise on the other.  It literally sounded like it was raining when we first got into stand.  The white acorn crop in this area is a bumper crop to say the least.  But unfortunately the sound of raining acorns turned into the sound of actual rain and we were forced out of the stand by 30+ mph gusts and heavy rain.  What a great way to start the season!  We had planned on hunting the afternoon, but unforunately the untimely death of a close friend quickly moved hunting to the back burner for a while.

On early Sunday morning, my entire house was awoken in the middle of the night by one incredible storm that produced hail, lightning, 80+ mph winds, and heavy rain.  Thankfully the storm ended nearly as fast as it came in and the skys had cleared by the time we left for the stand that morning.  We had high hopes for a lot of deer movement due to the storm that came through, but unfortunately the deer had decided to feed before first light, as noticed by the large amounts of fresh tracks in the picked corn field.  The afternoon sit was pretty much a copy of that morning.  Only one lone doe decided to come to the corn field we were sitting on.  The movement was definitely hampered by the warm temperatures, east winds, and full moon.

We have started to notice a lot of rubs are popping up and scrapes are forming along field edges.  Just yesterday we found a new rub on an old cedar that is over 12" in diameter.  I have a feeling this marking belongs to First Pull, but we'll check the camera in a week or so to see.  This week we are also going to try to hit one of our new properties.  This property is home to a bean field that was planted very late and is still very green.  I believe the last time we were out there a week ago, there was no signs of yellowing yet.  So if that field is still green, you can bet those deer will be hitting it hard.  And then this weekend is finally our Kansas opener.  We've been waiting for this day for quite a while.  A lot of hard work has gone into new stand positions and new food plots.  Hopefully all of our hard work will be rewarded this weekend!

It's the day before the MO opener and we just wanted to wish you all a safe and successful hunting season. Be sure to where your saftey harness if you hunt from a tree, it only takes a split second to make a big mistake! Good luck to all of you and we'll keep you updated on our successes/failures this season. Hopefully, we'll have plenty of quality footage to share with you on the Great Plains show (http://midwestwhitetail.com) this fall. Until next time, may the wind be always in your face and may your arrows sail true! God Bless and Happy Hunting!

Each new deer season starts with spring trail cam pics of bucks with just an inch or two of velvet-covered bone protruding from their skulls and the anticipation on what they will grow over the course of the coming months.  As the season progresses and with each card pull, the bucks (some we're very familiar with and some that are new) begin to blossom and give us small previews of their potential headgear they will be sporting for the season.  During July, the bucks really start to put on the inches, as many as 1/2 inch to an inch per day.  Usually by mid-August, we have a pretty good idea on what their final product will be for the year.  But, even though the bucks are done growing, we still anticipate the first hard horn pics of this hit listers to get a true representation of what we will be chasing during the upcoming season.  We'll look at every picture we have and start adding up inches to try to guess the bucks final gross score, hoping that we'll be able to tape that buck out with our own hands during the fall.