OutdoorMissouri.com

That you start seeing alot of movement from does looking for a secure area to drop their fawns and young 1 year old bucks being booted by momma to make room for the new fawns. So the young bucks are moving around looking for their new pad. Keep an eye out when traveling the back roads.

You will also start noticing more dead deer along the roadsides.

Just in case you missed it.

Especially watch out for those open country young bucks.

And such.

You would not have believed the bucks I had within 20 yards of me this morning. I counted 10, but there were some behind me running in the creek. I don't know how many there actually were. Probably 15 or so. One was at least 4.5 years old. A couple 3.5s, and the rest were mostly 2.5 year old bucks. Only a couple 1.5 year old deer the best I could tell. They were chasing each other and having a good ole' time.

Good. How much headgear are they showing? I had two bucks in my yard in late March showing 4-5" or more of velvet.

I only killed one this morning. Most of them are showing about 3 inches. But, the big dude was showing nearly 6 or so with some forkage. Another 2 or 3 were starting to show evidence of browtines. I have never been in the middle of a bachelor group of bucks like that. I must say, the HFA is a nice place to hunt.

Me too.

PS, couldn't you line two or three of em up w/one shot ? I was just talking about needing some backstrap. Just one shot makes it harder for someone to pin you down.

Heck MOC, I'll bet he even hangs a couple stands, just for you. Go on out and look around about mid Oct., you'll find them.

I would also advise you to hunt on the HFA in mid-October. PS doesn't touch it until the first week of November, so the deer are pretty well left alone at that time.

This is no lie 2B. I was sitting there thinking about blasting the big boy and how it would be so easy with a shotgun. It was cool how he just walked right into the middle of those dudes with his ears back and they cleared the way. He was having a heck of a time chasing this 1.5 year old buck around. I could not believe there were that many bucks that close to me.

Especially on the ground.... wind must have been in your favor.

Two years ago I was turkey hunting some public ground near Knob Noster, and had a brute of a buck walk within 25 yards of me. He had some massive bases already, and I was thinking, "I bet nobody has been this close to that buck in 2+ years, if ever." He was alone, and never looked my way, but it so rarely happens that a person gets to see a buck of that age on public land, that I was happy to get the chance to see him.

2B: I had deer in every direction. Turkeys gobbling, deer running nuts around me. The dang things never knew I was there. There wasn't any wind per sey, but these bucks were having so much fun, I don't think they would have even cared. One of them was so close I could hear him chewing grass. I have never watched a deer chit from ground level either. I could darn near count the pellets as they exited his buttnozzle.