It was opening morning of rifle season in Missouri and my expectations were high because a friend of mine had called just the Monday before opening day and offered my family and I 85 acres to hunt. I naturally accepted being we had been hunting public land for the past six years the nice thing was that I knew the area because it almost backs up to where I archery hunt on public land I new there were some good bucks in the area because I had missed a drop tine buck just a few days before rifle season. The area is rich in agriculture with soy bean, corn field, hay fields and small strips of timber between each field; a perfect hunting set up. The field we were hunting was a small 5 acre patch of good grass and a few lines of small maple trees that had been planted several years ago. The field was also hidden surrounded by timber mostly oaks and some brush the small field even had a nice deer stand with a roof tucked away on the edge of the field

Opening morning I arrived at 6:00 a.m. It was just getting light enough to make my way to the stand. It was a little warm with temperatures in the 40's but hardly any wind and of course with any opening morning it sounded like a young war by 6:30 a.m. But my hopes were still high and it wasn’t very long until deer starting showing up in the field I was hunting. A few does and a couple of small bucks making scrapes and lip curling some branches. What a morning the Lord had made, it was just relaxing watching the sun rise and all critters coming to life.

The morning went on and the shooting continued about every five minutes it seemed but I was still exited just to be there even when a doe shows up it still gets my blood pumping, by now it was about 8:00 a.m. and thought of going back to the truck and getting a little coffee, but I decided to do a little raddling so I got my rattle bag and grunt call and bleat can ready. I first hit the grunt call followed by the rattle bag and then a couple of bleats with the long can I had just put my bleat call down when I heard a limb snap. I looked up and seen a glimpse of what I thought was a fairly nice buck but he turned and walked in to some thick brush and I lost him. I reached down quickly and grabbed my grunt call and gave it a few loud grunts and here he came from around the brush heading along a creek toward me. He looked like a decent shooter buck with a huge body though I couldn’t see his rack clearly I knew I wanted to try to harvest this buck. I quickly got my gun positioned and found one good clear hole to shoot through without any limbs in the way and when I got my cross hairs on him he stopped perfectly in the lane I had picked. I put it on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger and much to my surprise he dropped in his tracks. I couldn’t believe it. I was shooting a Savage in 243 with a Hornady 100 grain round and just could not believe he dropped that quickly.

From my position I could not see him in the tall grass where he had fallen. I decided to wait 15 minutes before getting down just to be on the safe side and to collect my nerves. When I finally climbed down and walked over to him I was in shock to say the least it was the biggest whitetail I had shot. The Lord had truly blessed me that day. In my 17 years of hunting I never dreamed of shooting a buck this big; it took me 30 minutes to drag him thirty yards out to the edge of the field. He field dressed at about 190 pounds and had a 19.50 spread his bases were 5.75. Needless to say he is at the taxidermist already.

It just goes to show with hunting whitetail you never know what will show up or when they will show up especially during the rut and in rifle season. You just can’t tell when a deer could get pushed to you by another hunter or a big ole buck might be chasing a doe right toward your location so stay optimistic and stay in the stand.

 

Stacy’s field bag:

Nikon optics

RedHead clothing in real tree camo

Lacross boots

Savage rifle in 243

Hornady ammo 100 grain 243

Primos long can bleat call and rattle bag

MADD calls buck growl call

Case knives