Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hunting season

It's a bit tough reading about all these deer adventures taking place right now. Our deer season doesn't even begin for two more weeks.

Best of luck, John. No deer yet but I have a late season whitetail hunt coming up. Tagged a 5x5 bull in Colorado last week so the freezer is full anyway! Happy Trails

I don’t know if you’re in the same PA I’m in, but “deer season” has been in since the last weekend in September here.

Good luck everyone. Missouri has been unseasonably cold. I have seen some does and little bucks. But there has been some real good ones killed by other I know. Two of my buddies daughters killed nice ones.

Took a doe a 3 weeks ago to stock the freezer. Now I can hold off a little for a buck. Our season runs through mid January so there’s plenty of time to fill the freezer.

Ours ends the first weekend in January. Plenty of time yet.

Indiana's firearm season opens this Saturday, the 17th. Open for 16 days.

Temperatures are forecast in the 30s days, 20s nights..........perfect meat hanging weather.

Come to Daddy, deer!
I gotta test out this 7x57mm Mauser!

God Bless

Iv shot a 7 pt whitetail but the coyotes ate most of him, took a doe last monday, rifle opens on thurday! cant wait!

Yes, the elk in my neck of the woods apparently are becoming a bunch of big pansies. A couple 2" snowstorms in the days prior to our third season and all but a few elk vamoosed from a hotspot that has not let me down in 15 years. My dad and son both drew cow tags, my dad shot the only elk he saw (on public land), and for the first time in his elk hunting "career"my 19 year son didn't score. What made it more difficult to figure out was this year--despite being a dry winter and early summer--the grazing permit on the NF allotment surrounding our high country place was reduced significantly and there was still grass up there in a lot of places. I had planned on doing some elk hunting with a OTC license in an adjacent unit but ultimately spent my time "guiding" my 88 year old dad and son.
Sheesh.......

I had to cut my normally 9 day hunt short. I killed a nice bull opening morning.It took me Sat an Sun .to get it packed out,but I was home by Monday. I much prefer to kill an elk mid week after I have hunted a few days.

Alpinecreek. There was indeed grass up high,but at 8-9000 feet it was grazed downed to the dirt.I was going to pack in a few miles,but there was no grass for the mules and I didn't have enough pack animals to pack in feed for them.I didn't want to camp at10,500 feet where the elk were.

My club lease is crawling with button bucks. That said, one of my usual stands (which for some reason I didn't sit Saturday morning) produced an eleven point buck for a guest hunter. No hard feelings though, I took a really nice buck off that very same stand when I was a guest there in 2005.

Filled a tag yesterday here in Missouri. Still have one tag left. Now that the pressure is off i think I will go out again. Should be fun we have lots of snow on the ground.

Our seasons end way before the rut and big boys show up. Oct. 10-24 for many areas. Takes a lot of luck to find a big mule deer buck the second week of October. Add to that hunting on public lands in open hunt areas and your chances of finding a truly big buck are slim. Did shoot a pretty nice 3 point, but no true giants were spotted by anyone in our group.

No hunting for me yet this year. Rifle season opens the 17th. I am really looking forward to getting out.

I'm a rifle hunter.

My Son and one of his friends tagged bucks on Saturday and does on Sunday. I was guiding them and didn't see any bucks that were either big enough or unique enough to justify a trip to the taxidermist, so I tagged a couple of RIVER WMA does. Those 4 deer and the 2 that I tagged in October will fill our freezers. My Son and his friend are planning to go out on Saturday AM, which means that I'll be guiding again, and try to punch their remaining RIVER WMA doe tags.

7mmMato,
How are the deer numbers in NW MO? I hunted Nodaway County last year and was taken aback by how few deer I saw.

Had a successful NL moose hunt a few weeks ago. If my calculations are correct, that meat, in the freezer, cost about $35/lb. and worth every penny.
Local whitetail gun season opens Saturday, and looks promising. Might even get some snow.
Spent the last 3 mornings taking one of my grandsons out with his crossbow. Saw 5 different bucks and a few doe, but no good shots. It was enough to get his enthusiasm up, mine too. Kid wants to use my old 300 Savage for the opener instead of his 270!
Good hunting to the rest of ya'll.

Well I suck. I went out Saturday night in the wind and a doe came through and winded me and took off. Then a little 4 point came through after her and winded me and put his nose down and got back on her trail. Then a real nice 8 point follows him, winds me and follows the doe. 15 minutes later the doe and 8 point return. The doe leaves and the 8 point goes under a tree and scrapes. Then very slowly grazes his way towards me, gets 25 years and stops behind some trees. He stands there for 20 minutes and doesn't move. I watched the sun go down and it's getting dark. He finally steps into the clear, but he's facing me and continues to stand there. I'm running out of daylight, so I take the chest shot and hit him high. The bolt was all of the way in to the fletchings when he ran down into the creek bottom where it's swampy and thick briars. I looked for him down in that mess in the dark, but but couldn't find it. That sucks and I hate it when I lose deer. I should have been more patient and waited for him to turn, but I let it rip. It was about 45 minute of heart pumping action.

So I went back to the stand Sunday morning to hunt and look for the 8 point. It was 25*, frosty and calm. It was a beautiful morning. Right after the sun came up, I noticed a buck walking across the grassy field at about 60 yards. He's headed away from me, so let out a couple of short grunts and he came to me. After I shot him, I went back down into the briar thicket and looked for the 8 point. I found some blood, but not enough to track. So Sunday morning was bitter sweet.

After two days of driving I’m in Missouri visiting my sons. Got a non-resident deer license yesterday, got 3 days to hunt . We’ll see how it goes.