If you've ever spent much time around me, you know I have a tendency to get a spur up my ass about things and because I know no moderation, I tend to follow through with a lot of hair-brained ideas. I've always lived for the story and been thankful for the memories. One of the most recent things to hit me was a burning desire to hunt deer somewhere other than Ohio, something I have yet to do. From my first deer hunt at 8, every deer hunt I've ever been on has taken place in three or four counties in Ohio. I needed to see something new. After doing a little research last year when a close friend and hunting partner of mine mentioned going west, we settled on Missouri as the place to go. Unfortunately I lost my job and that ended any trip we may have taken. However the desire to go west did not go away, it only grew in intensity and when my buddy said he could not go this year due to a new baby and home purchase (right choice), I posed the question to a few other buddies and only one asshole was crazy enough to say "yes". lmao
So this November, Chad and I are venturing west to the Ozark Conservation District in Missouri to try our hands at shooting a whitetailed deer in the big woods of south central Missouri near the Mark Twain National Forest. We agreed to make it hard on ourselves by finding places we can get a mile or more off a road. Our plan is to apply our knowledge of terrain to the most remote places we can find, then work our asses off to get back there and hunt. We've both decided to shoot just about anything that wanders through and the purpose here is to #1, have a great time and #2, come back with a couple coolers loaded with Missouri-sourced venison.
As we continue to plan and mark off boxes on the "Pre-Hunt Checklist", we'll check in here periodically to update you all on things. Hopefully we can find a little service out there to update you all while we hunt as well. I plan to share some of our approaches to things along the way as well. I was raised my a surveyor and have been navigating via USGS Quadangle Topo maps since I was 5 or 6 years old. We're going where an aerial means jackshit because it's all green. We'll be navigating off topo lines and I feel I can really use this experience to help people who may not have a firm grasp on how useful they can be to getting around unfamiliar terrain in the pursuit of whitetails.
Stay tuned TOO. Good stories and great memories to come!
So this November, Chad and I are venturing west to the Ozark Conservation District in Missouri to try our hands at shooting a whitetailed deer in the big woods of south central Missouri near the Mark Twain National Forest. We agreed to make it hard on ourselves by finding places we can get a mile or more off a road. Our plan is to apply our knowledge of terrain to the most remote places we can find, then work our asses off to get back there and hunt. We've both decided to shoot just about anything that wanders through and the purpose here is to #1, have a great time and #2, come back with a couple coolers loaded with Missouri-sourced venison.
As we continue to plan and mark off boxes on the "Pre-Hunt Checklist", we'll check in here periodically to update you all on things. Hopefully we can find a little service out there to update you all while we hunt as well. I plan to share some of our approaches to things along the way as well. I was raised my a surveyor and have been navigating via USGS Quadangle Topo maps since I was 5 or 6 years old. We're going where an aerial means jackshit because it's all green. We'll be navigating off topo lines and I feel I can really use this experience to help people who may not have a firm grasp on how useful they can be to getting around unfamiliar terrain in the pursuit of whitetails.
Stay tuned TOO. Good stories and great memories to come!
