Bowhunters and youth hunters have been putting down some bruisers across the Midwest. It’s truly amazing how much change has occurred in buck harvests over the last 20 years. So many more bucks are living to maturity these days. When an event like Missouri’s Youth Firearms Season occurs prior to the Regular Firearms Season, a lot of big bucks are picked off over the weekend.
Hadley Lane is a 15-year-old deer hunter from Camden County, Missouri, and the Nov. 1-2 youth season was his last. So, he made the most of it. He killed a deer that morning. His father, Josh Lane, is a very experienced hunter who has raised three boys into accomplished sportsmen at a young age. Hadley is the youngest.
Josh said, “I was sitting with my 13-year-old niece, Lilly. Hadley was a couple of hundred yards away. I told him to keep his eye out for the ‘Big 8’ that we had several daylight pictures of. After I heard him shoot, I got a text that the Big 8 is dead. He gutted it himself, and he self-filmed the entire experience. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of all my boys loving hunting as much as they do. I know for a fact that having youth season experiences played a big role in building their passion.”
Lane said he was surprised he didn’t see any big bucks chasing. He knows there are more than a few around the property he hunts. He said the little bucks were running does around, but it didn’t look like many of them were closing the deal.
Down in southeast Kentucky, right outside of West Liberty, Realtree photographer Bill Konway has a couple hundred acres of hills and hollers. The bucks around there don’t rival the size found in western Kentucky, but there are plenty of old bucks running around the mountains, and a few of them are sporting impressive headgear.
Konway can sit on his porch drinking coffee while watching bucks run across the ground behind his house. “They’re rutting pretty good already. For us, it seems to have turned on a little early, and I feel like I’m seeing more bucks than normal. They must be coming around from farther away. It just feels like an aggressive rut is happening this fall.”
Just to the east of West Liberty are hundreds of thousands of acres of Daniel Boone National Forest. Kentucky sells licenses over the counter. The Modern Gun Season runs Nov. 8-23.
Up by Traverse City in the northwest Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Ken Kirsch, his brothers, and some friends have been conducting annual deer camps for decades. Ken said each year the deer hunting continues to get better, and this year the boys are staying busy filling freezers with does.
“We all want to kill the biggest buck in the woods, but we stay too busy early on stacking up does. The tide is turning now, though. The rut is going full bore. I watched the same basket-rack 8-pointer run does back and forth across a powerline cut all morning. He just wouldn’t quit. Quite a few bucks are showing themselves during daylight now, and just a week ago that wasn’t the case.”
Across the Midwest region, deer hunters are reporting a strong rut. Bill Winke mentioned in a video from Iowa that this is one of the more visible ruts we’ve had in a long time. Firearms seasons are still a week or more off in most of the states. Right now is the most exciting time of the year to be in the woods. If you have vacation time left, use it now. If you’re down to sick days, well, “cough, cough.”
See you down the trail…
Brandon Butler
bbutler@driftwoodoutdoors.com
Pic: Firearms season is right around the corner for Midwest whitetail hunters.
For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on HERE or anywhere podcasts are streamed.
