John, Attached are some pictures from this year's gun season. Overall, we've had
a pretty good year...so far. Our group of four guys have taken a
total of six whitetail deer with our bows (five does and one 8 point buck,
sorry I didn't have a camera for him, not a brute anyway, but a nice deer
with a bow) During the youth season, my daughter saw a lot of deer,
but no bucks. As a matter of fact, she saw over thirty deer in one field
one evening, but nothing with horns (as you can see, we still have a way
to go to get the doe to buck ratio in check at this farm, but we are
trying) She decided to try only for bucks during the youth season
and one never showed close enough for a shot, but we still had a great
time.This year's gun season was a great success for us. We took two very nice bucks on the opening weekend. The deer movement overall seemed to be down, but the right deer showed up in the right place and that was all that really matters. Craig had several shots at deer, but is holding out for the type of deer that we know is in the area. Randy was able to take a very nice 8 pointer. It has a beautiful cape, sporting a double throat patch.  I was
also able to take my largest buck to date. He has a few tines broke off
from fighting, but is still a very nice deer. It looks like he was at
least a 19 pointer (He is a typical 6x7 with a lot of sticker points) at
one time before he got into a fight with another buck in the area. He has
broken off 3 points on his right main beam and his brow tine is also
broken off (the other brow tine has 6 scoreable points coming off of it).
Either way, I was very excited to take a deer like this. He field dressed
at well over 200 pounds. We have let the little bucks pass the last four
years on this farm and we are starting to see the results by the number of
mature bucks we have seen here the last couple of years.Finally......a bigger deer than my 12 year old daughter's deer :)....I hope she retakes the lead next year. Good Hunting, Shawn
Special day when hunting buddies do well together!
Thanks Shawn for sending in your pictures and letter. First Season John, I have been meaning to write a note for months now and just haven't got around to doing it. I am so, so thankful for your positive response last August when I was wondering whether or not I should join the club. It was a lot of money for me, but it has been worth every penny!!! I thoroughly enjoyed myself each and every time I went out and almost always saw game and hardly ever saw another hunter. I am fortunate enough to live in southern Missouri and had the opportunity to either walk or at least drive by a lot of our properties last fall and they all look great. I am mainly a whitetail deer hunter (bow and rifle), but I also waterfowl and turkey hunt and living here in the Tri-Lakes area, I also fish a lot. I have not tried any of our fishing ponds yet, but I will, just as soon as I can find the time. I am also looking forward to trying a little upland bird hunting sometime! I hunted a lot of the new properties and was very impressed with the quality of wildlife that I was seeing on a first year property. I would somewhat expect that on a property that we have had a while, but not so much on a new one. Jon has done an excellent job of choosing properties.
Again, I would just like to express my extreme pleasure with both the quality of hunting and the quality of people that make up the Mid-America Hunting Association. Feel free to use e as a reference anytime and if you or anyone you know is looking for a hunting buddy...give me a call. Sincerely, Shawn
See what his daughter Kelsey has done! Or, Shawn's page 2 or 3. |
|
|
|
|
Enclosed is a photo of the deer I harvested on the opening evening of
the rifle season. It was my eighth day of hunting and I had
already passed up bow shots on 14 different bucks (25 yards or
closer). I was holding out for one in the 125+ range and he just
didn't materialize during bow season. But, I was fortunate enough
to grunt this one to about 7 yards for a rifle shot (didn't mean to let
him get that close...couldn't get a shot before that). And, the
great thing is, I saw one buck that morning that was at least 20 inches
bigger and very wide... what a day! I can hardly wait to get back
out there and do it again this year. I am doing my best to
convince one of my hunting buddies to join this year and my wife is even
thinking about taking up hunting.
