Holiday doe only hunt on public. This power line opening is usually a good spot. On the left is thick pines and hardwoods, on the right was the same but DNR logged it last winter.
ooh I like that. The power lines I hunt are like hunting in a hallway, usually the deer are most of the way across before you even see them. If you ever see them at all.
First day of muzzleloader season here in Missouri. My son is hunting the north blind, and I am in the West blind with a slight southeast wind. We’re both looking to take either a doe or a buck, should the right one come by.
Nothing this morning, so we moved to public for our afternoon session.
Late December, 60+ degrees and hungry mosquitoes. Unreal, but I’m glad to be out with my son.
We didn’t see much last night, other than a Whitetail flag in the distance and the glimpse of a deer at about 400 yards. This morning we’re back on the farm. The weather conditions are miserable, it is raining and 55°, with a south wind. By the end of shooting light, it will be in the teens. At 7:30 this morning the winds will change from south to north, with sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts of 50 mph. This is the last weekend my son will be able to hunt so I’m trying to get him fill his out-of-state tag.
Update: My son was able to get a 40 yard shot at a nice buck we were after who showed up with several does, but we were unable to find hair or blood. Four hours of grid searching showed no evidence of a hit. He is a good shot and the deer was broadside, so it is one of those "we don't know what happened." I fully expect to see the deer again, but this has been a heartbreaking season for him. We'll go out for one more sit this evening.
Update 2: After reviewing game cam pictures, the buck was the largest of three that entered the field. We proofed the gun and it was spot on. We walked over four miles grid-searching. Our conclusion is a miss.
We didn't end up seeing anything this evening (excluding a stellar sunset). We stayed relatively warm in the blind (given we were bundled up pretty well and had a small heater). As 4wanderingeyes noted below, it wouldn't have been a pleasant night to track and process a deer tonight.
I had a doe and a fawn come in as I was shutting down, and I already had my crossbow decocked. Oh well, it wasn’t very pleasant to track, gut and hang a deer tonight anyhow.