OutdoorMissouri.com

How'd you half-baked trigger-pushers do this weekend? Weather was pretty awesome.

The first 15 mins was spent pulling the trigger, the rest of the week-end was spent getting half-baked.

Nothing to report here. Sat all day Saturday with my daughter in a blind (and yes, I mean all day), and she was an absolute trooper. Never saw a deer one. To say I was disappointed would be a major understatement. Then headed down to the farm where movement had been ultra slow Saturday, and I saw one deer Sunday evening and that was it. This weekend looks good, and the place I hung my stand Sunday is torn up with buck sign. We will see what happend I guess.

with my grandson Zack for his first hunt, never got a chance to pull the trigger, was in two man stand at first than came the rain went to the tent. than back in stand got rock to sleep in the wind. oh yes tree's do make a noise when they fall. it was priceless to see Zack eyes when the second one fell. he look at me and said I THINK we better get out of here . ha I AGREE. Two does and one small buck we'll go back in Jan. ray

I saw more bucks in two days of stand hunting this opening weekend than I had the previous two or three openers, and no I didn't just see one or two. I mean there were bucks running around everywhere and definitely rutting as they were chasing the few does out there. The problem is that almost all the bucks were under the antler restriction and almost no does. The one OK buck was just a small bodied 8 pointer with a good spread but not very heavy main beams and I passed because I have seen really good bucks earlier this year in the same area.

I heard this really isn't an isolated observation and have been hearing from hunting buddies in NEMO that they are furious with the antler restriction because they feel the good genes from older bucks are being eliminated and leaving runt 6 pointers to breed with the fewer does that are left to produce more runts. I guess in miy mind the jury is still out but I can say that I am not convinced the antler restrictions are a good thing if all that are left are runt forks and 6 pointers.

While not agreeing or disagreeing with the antler restrictions, you must be highly comfortable with a load of toxic horsechit reasoning if you're buying anything you just posted.

SAMCRO wrote:While not agreeing or disagreeing with the antler restrictions, you must be highly comfortable with a load of toxic horsechit reasoning if you're buying anything you just posted.

Like I already stated,from my perspective the relationship between the antler restrictions and the increase in younger bucks just under it is not established but there is no other obvious change the last few years other than the restriction. I know the blue tongue outbreak is another factor in other parts of the state, but I am not aware of that outbreak being observed where I hunt. if you have a better explanation, bring it.