passing it on

[bnsafe]

I cant help much here in Colorado cause im brand new, but, if anybody has any questions about Missouri, deer, turkey, ducks or geese, throw em out there. I will be happy to answer to the best of my ability.
I know some have a desire to whitetail hunt an mo, while it doesn\'t have the huge bucks you see in other places, still has a ton of deer, otc tags, an fairly cheap for nr.

 

[Colorado_Lew]

The in-laws have a farm over near Stockton. First year they were on it I went out for a deer/turkey hunt.
All of the neighbors and town folks were hunting the place even with the painted fence post :downthumb: We saw one little buck and a bunch of turkey. I\'ve never been back to hunt it.
How is the hunting on the public out there?

 

[bnsafe]

first off yes mo is bad about folks trespassing, but if you show up an run em off for a few years, call the law an let them handle it, it will eventually get better. some of the public lands are pretty good. archery hunting is always better than rifle on public. the first week sucks, an it gets busy the first week of nov. but there are some places that get overlooked. if your interested in going shoot me a pm an I will give you some ideas. Im not familiar with Stockton area, but know enuf that I bet I can help. as far as the folks land, don\'t give up on it. especially round the first week of November, the rut kicks in a a decent buck can come by an any time. the bigger bucks are in northern mo, but there are still some running around down south. I used to own land in northern mo an we saw lots of little bucks til rut kicked in an swore all the big ones were gone, but when rut kicks in things change. hope this answers, pm me with any specifics. I grew up in mo an can help.

 

[Bob Frapples]

You notice any improvement since that bad year(s) of blue tongue? The map I saw showed the outbreak basically from Southeast Iowa down just below Southeast Kansas.

My buddy said he saw a lot of one horn or I should say 1/2 racks bucks this past year, he hunts KS, MO and IL yearly. I hunted NE KS last year but didn\'t see any like that, didn\'t see a lot of deer either tho. I\'ll be heading to north MO in November if we don\'t pull Iowa this year.

 

[bnsafe]

I didn\'t see a difference from blue tongue, but cwd hit a county away from us an the conservation wiped out a lot of the herd around macon mo, gonna take awhile to rebuild

 

[Bob Frapples]

Yikes, I didn\'t even hear about CWD in MO. Hopefully this year Sumer will be a little wetter than that 2010-12 stretch.

 

[bnsafe]

it supposedly game from a deer farm in macon co, an they killed a bunch of deer around that area. havnt heard anymore since we moved out here.

 

[bowhunter]

I doubt it was CWD. I live in Eastern Iowa and we have been hit hard from EHD. EHD is like Blue Tounge in symtoms. The deer get infected by a Midge, a small insect. The drought the last couple years has dried up a lot of land and I guess the bugs are in the mud around water. The infected deer hemoarage and crave water. They are found near water dead a lot. I found 2 last night while shed hunting on my land. One was a spike and the other a button buck. Both showed no signs of being shot and should have been healthy deer. I found a large doe last fall under one of my stands. From the peak population of 2006 only 25% are still alive in some areas. South Eastern Iowa was hit hard.

 

[Bob Frapples]

My buddy hunts Iowa zone 6 and told me yesterday he was going to wait another year or two due to that. I am yet undecided if I am going to try for tags this year as well, was looking at zone 5. Have you heard anything EHD reports from this area west?

 

[bowhunter]

My buddy hunts Iowa zone 6 and told me yesterday he was going to wait another year or two due to that. I am yet undecided if I am going to try for tags this year as well, was looking at zone 5. Have you heard anything EHD reports from this area west?

Thomas, I have heard from other hunters about EHD in many areas. The east half of zone 5 was hit good to. I am not sure about further west. You might try to email or call the DNR and ask about the area you are thinking of going to.

 

[Bob Frapples]

Thanks, I\'ll shoot them an email to see if/how they respond then lll call as dates get closer. I might looks over in zone 4. Do you know right off if crossbows are legal? My dad is 67 and used one in KS last year but I dot think IA allows them at all?

 

[bowhunter]

They allow crossbows for physically disabbled persons or residents over 70. I know of several people who have one and you need a doctor to fill out a form saying you have a bad shoulder or whatever handicaps you from pulling a bow.

 

[SGH31]

How is the hunting on the public out there?

If you want to hunt public land with a bow check out some of the archery only conservation area\'s. You can hunt them during rifle season(rut) and they won\'t be a bunch of people there because they will be rifle hunting. You will have to use a rifle tag to do this.

 

[Colorado_Lew]

How is the hunting on the public out there?

If you want to hunt public land with a bow check out some of the archery only conservation area\'s. You can hunt them during rifle season(rut) and they won\'t be a bunch of people there because they will be rifle hunting. You will have to use a rifle tag to do this.

Thanks for the info. I just might check it out this fall, I hate to hunt in a crowd!

 

[cohunter14]

Good info Seth. Welcome to the forum! :welcome:

 

[bnsafe]

if you guys want some thoughts on conservation areas shoot me a pm. ive duck hunted alot of them, an have seen some nice bucks cruising an not alot of hunting pressure, even the week before rifle season, which is the best time in mo. im more than willing to help out.