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Sleeper Option

Missouri deer hunting has long been enjoyed by residents and a pass by state to non-residents thinking that an OTC tag state has lower quality whitetail deer. A mistaken belief.

This Missouri deer section gives reason why to hunt Missouri for those new to this state.

Missouri bow season offers the longest single whitetail season of our three state area and has the most bow huntable habitat. Firearms season is during the peak of the rut in middle November. And, muzzleloader season is centered between that of Kansas and Iowa allowing for the muzzleloader hunter to hunt Iowa and Kansas without overlap.

Missouri does have plans in the work for an effective date of fall 2009 to move the firearm's deer season from its current middle two weeks of November to the third and fourth week. The intent is to allow mature bucks to have the first week of prime breeding period without gun hunter pressure. That second week in November would be archery deer season.

Missouri Deer

We spend most of the entire year in the field working leases.

These Missouri deer pictures are of late summer/fall trophy bucks in velvet. Having an idea where trophy quality whitetail bucks are is one means by which we select land for lease or renew a lease and recommend hunts.

missouri deer hunting

Notice these are long range hand held camera pictures and not motion detector game camera pictures. We captured them from walking the ground. We are not professional wildlife photographers and make the nest use of we can with our pocket cameras.

The low light appearance is as much from the early morning fog conditions as the long range.

Such summertime activity of relaxed behavior in the open well before dark and after first light makes roadside glassing an effective scouting technique. The next best technique is to get away from the road, walk over the ridge and see what cannot be readily seen by most.

Missouri's Advantage

Missouri has the moniker of the "Rivers State" with large coverage watersheds bringing tree lined drainages and many small wood patches into large grain crop fields mostly of corn and soybean. This makes for the right combination of cover and food within a small area that is repeated many times over.

Most pass on Missouri due to a number of reasons typically centered on having never read or heard much about any trophy whitetail deer success. This is much to the pleasure of the trophy hunters that find Missouri whitetails to be the very thing desired. The cause for this is the larger whitetail deer count is due to this river state's significant wooded terrain creates means more trophy racks due to more deer numbers overall. We have a good number of 200+ racks from our Missouri private land self guided deer hunters. That surprises some hunters and we do not emphasize it much as many refuse to believe an over-the-counter tag state can be that productive. Well, it is.

There is more to our Missouri deer hunts and the next several pages are just the start.

Quick Hunt

John-

Little late in getting back to you, but I again had a great time in [location deleted] in mid-November. Attached is the 8 pt buck I shot after a few days. Not the greatest picture, solo hunts are not always the most conducive to good pictures. Shot him early in the morning, got him quartered and started the drive back to GA shortly thereafter. Shot him in [location deleted]; he was about the 10th buck of this size I saw over the course of 3 days. Saw a couple that I would classify as "slobs;" obviously old deer, sway backs, etc... but never got them closer that 50 yards. Last year I did not shoot a deer in [location deleted]; passed on many the size I shot this year. A trophy to me none-the-less- I stopped him with a mouth bleat at 25 yards, made a double lung shot and he literally fell 25 yards from where I shot him.

 

Other I can only manage to see/hear in [location deleted]: 2 bucks fighting in a thicket that sounded like someone driving a pickup back and forth, knocking over timber. Did not think about it at the time, but the way they were going at it I probably could have stalked up on them. Also, for about 15 minutes one morning I had a bobcat sitting 15 yards from me on a stump, 2 bucks fighting behind me in some cedar trees and another buck chasing does in circles. This is really the stuff I get a kick out of.

 

On the downside, I did come across a road-hunted buck. My curiosity got to me when I saw some vultures and crows obviously on something about 75 yards off the road. When I walked up I found a very large bodied deer with its head cut off. There were truck tracks going up to the area. I subsequently saw a County Sherriff in the area and he mentioned that he had someone they suspected of road hunting, in addition to some drug trafficking. I wish I had my own "robo-deer"... he'd shoot back.

 

I could not be happier with joining MAHA. While it is not for everyone, even with one trip a year to [location deleted] for deer hunting (for now) it is definitely a tremendous value. Keep up the great work on the updates page, I look at it frequently, it always brings a smile to my face.

Take care [name deleted]

 

For the rest of us this hunter not only travels on a limited schedule, he is an active duty military officer. With his time constraints he shows the rest of us there is little excuse not to enjoy life.

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