During the opening weekend of Missouri's rifle season, a good friend of ours was fortunate enough to shoot a buck of a lifetime during the first five minutes of the 2010 season!  From what we've heard, this HUGE nontypical will score right around 190 inches gross, with 20 scoreable points.  This buck has to have between 40 and 50 inches of mass alone!  We haven't had a chance to see it personally yet, but cannot wait to see this Missouri Monarch come back from the taxidermist and we can put our hands around those enormous bases!

Lee is one of the nicest guys you could ever have the pleasure of meeting and becoming friends with.  The generosity that he has shown towards Bo and I is simply indescribable and we cannot thank him enough for everything he has done for us!  We know that Lee is extremely humbled to have harvested such a magnificent animal and this couldn't have happened to a better person.  Congratulations Lee on one amazing buck!!!

Temperatures are finally starting too look like fall!  Highs in the 50s and lows in the 20s have definitely sparked an increase in deer movement. Based upon what we've been seeing from the stand during the past three or four days, it seems that the rut in our area is still a week or so away. All of the does that we have seen have not had a buck trailing, chasing, or scent checking them. The bucks that we have been seeing have not been cruising yet either. This past weekend, we finally got the cool temperatures we've been anticipating, and were able to rattle and grunt in 8 different bucks. The movement seemed pretty equal in the afternoons and mornings, but the majority of the afternoon movement happened right before dark. However, it seems that more of our fellow hunters were seeing much more activity in the mornings than the evenings and little to no daytime activity. The cool temps and new moon made for perfect daytime movement conditions, but it seems the bucks just aren't at that stage of the rut yet. During the following week, we will be dedicating four days to catching up with Crab Claw 9. November 11th - 20th has been historically the best 10 day period for deer movement that we've seen on our properties. This weekend we will definitely be packing lunches and will plan on all day sits.
Also, in the past week we have seen a large increase in buck sign on all of our properties. Scrapes and rubs are popping up everywhere. Community scrapes are getting hit hard. Sign post rubs are getting worked. New shooter bucks are showing up on cameras. We're not sure why our buck sign was so delayed this year, but things are starting to turn around for us. Hopefully during the next two weeks, a few tags will be attached to a couple hit listers!
 
Good luck to everyone in the woods!