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Has sucked for me... worst season in a long time for deer and deer movement. I'm sure there were plenty of hotspots, but I wasn't close to them.

Same here and with a lot of others I have talked to.

One 8 pt. taken off the Tick Farm during Youth Season. One doe taken by a bow on Nov. 4. During firearms season, five different hunters were there for a total of about 20 days of hunting and the only deer hit was a doe my FIL couldn't find. On a positive note, four coyotes have been killed this week.

It hasn't been a super-terrific rut, I can tell you that.

I did see a few bucks dog'n does, but not much of any quality.

I'm thinking I may make an effort this year with the late doe season if it is cold enough. This 60+ degree chit is the pits.

Ditto here?



The best I can come with for the eastern side of the state is the late freeze really hurt the ?food bearing? plants/trees followed by the summer long drought taking a toll on the deer herd numbers. I?m interested to know if the MDC will study or have comment regarding severity of the drought and its impact for future years?if any.



The farm we hunted in Bowling Green had the soybeans cut off of it the first/second week of October but fortunately the farmer didn?t plow it under leaving some residual on the ground to entice late afternoon browsing. We asked the farmer why he cut so early and he said the price per bushel of corn and soybeans had everybody cutting as early as they could in fear the price would fall. I suspect the focus on alternative fuels like E85 and Bio Diesel has crops prices hiked up.



I got an opportunity to hunt a farm on the northwestern side of the state yesterday. The place is a beauty of a bedding area. 300 acres of CRP w/sparsely timbered fences/cross fences, 6 ponds and corn & soybean fields 360 degrees around the perimeter but like MOC said, all the fields were already cut and plowed under. Put in about 10hrs on the stand yesterday and didn?t see a deer. Tough hunting when there is no food to keep them there.



I also suspect the unseasonably warm weather has much of the rut activity we are used to seeing occurring during the nighttime hours.

This season just flat-assed sucked in my opinion.

Same here across the river. I stayed out of my favorite stand until the last weekend in October. Last year I saw 12-30+ every time I sat there. Seven trips in there this year, and my best day of movement was seeing six. However that is also the spot that I missed a big 8-pt. This is the first time in several years that the farmer planted milo there. That may have something to do with the lack of deer this season.

I believe EHD, warm weather, nuisance tags, leaves, and lack of suitable food made for a chitty season.

I'm sure there are lots of factors, but I got tired of sitting on stand for hours trying to analyze what the reasons where during the many hours of not seeing chit.

I've decided to become a predator hunter and kill atleast a truck load of coyotes this winter.

I'd try for bobcats if I were you.



It was so warm Saturday, that when I was walking out, there were grass hoppers still jumping around in the field.



I do have to say though, that I did see two nice bucks with does. One in the Bow season, and one 10pt Monday of gun season.

I saw a chit ton of deer and bucks. I didn't see much worth talking about though. That is my main beotch in this debate.

Warmouth said:It was so warm Saturday, that when I was walking out, there were grass hoppers still jumping around in the field.

Opening day I heard frogs peeping in the wetland I was hunting

Our NW MO guys started seeing the big boys out on Sat, and by Sun eve had a 160 class and two 135 class bucks down. I took Kristen out up at Kirksville and saw decent movement in the morns but zero in the eve's.

The last year I could compare the lack of deer seen would have been in the 70's. It was more the norm back then.

I hunted some ground in northern Montgomery co. I've hunted it before, and it was generally a place that a hunter could be pretty choosy.

I let two scrub bucks walk the first hour of the season. One was a spindly 8, and the other had 4 on one side, and a big fork on the other. The latter finally winded me, ( I was on the ground ) and was dumb enough to walk towards me.

When he got to within 25 ft.,I was contemplating snuffing him like I was a modern day Chuck Connors. At that point, I'm pretty sure me and the semi-auto could have given him a .308 enema from the hip.

After that day, I saw VERY few deer. I was hunting with some dudes that were on family property. One guy killed a 130" class 8 this past saturday. The rest of us never pulled the trigger.

I'll tell you this. When the slickhead season opens next month, the interruption of my duck season will be short lived. They will be stomped from the ditches, and killed vigilante style. John Moses Browning and I will rest when the freezer is full.

Timing has been everything this year. I can't remember a year where activity was such a roller coaster. I have a feeling that this week things may be really kicking..much more than this late in the season in previous years. I think we would have heard a lot more success stories if the rifle season would have opened last Sat vs. the previous Sat.