No matter why you buy a piece of real estate, you do so because of a vision. Whether the property is a home, a building site for some future business or simply a chunk of land in the country, you buy it not necessarily because of what it is, but what you think it can become to you and your family.
It was with this perspective in mind that two friends -- Glenn Lange and Tommy Witt -- joined me in purchasing a 150-acre tract in far-northern Missouri's Putnam County last summer.
The author downed this mature Missouri buck on Nov. 18, as the deer cruised for does along the creek bottom in the background.
I'd hunted the area with local landowner Joe Ream in November 2007, taking a fine 9-pointer, and I'd come away so impressed with the whitetail potential that I'd decided to investigate buying land there. Thanks to several years of antler restrictions in northern Missouri (a buck must have at least four points on one antler to be legal), the average size and age of deer here continues to increase. With bow and gun tags being reasonably priced and available over the counter, this is a great place for the nonresident trophy hunter. Being able to hunt the November rut with a rifle was the icing on the cake. And land prices considerably lower than those for similar land in nearby Iowa and Illinois sealed the deal.
Even with all of those pluses, I still might not have pursued buying land in Missouri had I not had a great local contact. In that regard, Joe was instrumental. He and his brother, Dale, are both longtime Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young measurers, and they've lived in the area their entire lives. I've known these guys for years, and their knowledge of the trophy scene in the Midwest is hard to match. So when Joe told me he thought we could find land with great potential at the right price, I was all ears.
As usual, it took awhile to zero in on exactly what we were looking for, but we ultimately found it. The right place turned out to be a bottomland years ago entered into the federal Wetland Reserve Program. Most such properties are developed with waterfowling in mind, but that wasn't our primary interest. While we knew the small watershed lake on the south end held a lot of ducks and geese, we knew the thick ground cover and creekbottom timber would be a great place for whitetails, too.
After Joe inspected the land and determined that it looked even better up close than in the aerial photos, my partners and I made a bid on it through Doug Gilworth Realty (www.lakethunderheadmo.com). In short order, that bid was accepted. Thanks largely to the hard work and diligence of Doug's son, Ced, the closing process went quickly and smoothly. By Aug. 1, Glenn, Tommy and I were the proud owners of a new piece of deer ground.
Joe Ream of Unionville, Missouri, helped the author plant a pair of Buck Forage oat plots on the new property last August. More habitat improvements are planned for 2009.
I went into this first hunting season with low expectations. A local outfitter had been leasing the land for several years, and it had hosted many hunters. Typically, coming in behind that history means you're starting over on producing mature bucks. However, the area was known to hold good deer, and we hoped some remained on the property, or at least continued to pass through it on occasion. We'd know soon enough.
After planting a couple of small food plots in mid-August, we left the land alone throughout early bow season. But as the November gun season approached, we began to get a few trail camera images of good bucks. Tommy decided to give the place a try on opening weekend, while my plan was to get there after my Kansas bowhunt if possible.
As noted in my most recent blog update, cameraman Mike Clerkin and I wrapped up our successful bowhunt with Kansas Whitetail Properties (www.kansaswhitetailproperties.com) on Nov. 15. That gave us just enough time to try the Missouri land before heading west to South Dakota for a rifle hunt with Two Rivers Outfitters (www.tworiversoutfitters.com). We'd have only two days to hunt Missouri, but even if we only managed to scout it for future reference, we felt that would be worthwhile.
In addition to being a topnotch cameraman, Mike is a great whitetail hunter. As we scouted for a good tree stand location along the creek, he said he felt we needed to be in position to shoot to a certain stretch of treeline. Due not only to fresh sign but also to the layout of the property, I couldn't argue with his reasoning. In short order we had our Summit Copperhead tree stands hung and ready. Sure enough, that first afternoon we saw several deer heading out to feed on a neighboring property, so it was with some optimism we returned to the tree at first light on a chilly Tuesday, Nov. 18.
I literally hadn't even finished my morning on-camera "opener" when a big buck showed up. His neck and rack coated in frost, he was out cruising for does along the treeline Mike had insisted we be able to see. As soon as the camera was on the deer, and I could tell he was mature and had at least four points on at least one antler (minimum requirement for a legal buck in northern Missouri), I put the crosshairs of my Nikon Titanium scope on him and waited for a chance to slip a .280 Rem. bullet through the timber to him. After a bit the mature buck cooperated, moving into a small opening. My Thompson/Center Pro Hunter delivered its payload to the deer's heart; he jumped, went no more than 20 yards and hit the ground, stone dead.
It took me as long to write that previous paragraph as it did for the events to play out. Here we were, right at sunup on our first morning in a tree stand on the new Missouri land, and we had a trophy buck lying dead within 100 yards of our setup. And, it was a "new" buck, a heavy, high-racked 10-pointer that hadn't made an appearance in front of our trail cameras. Whether he was a local resident or just wandering through during the rut we didn't know -- but then, it didn't matter!
If there's anything better than shooting a big whitetail on someone else's property, it's doing so on your own place. We really had no reason to think we'd taste success there so soon, but we felt it would come at some point. Even though no other bucks were shot off the land in 2008, our grand experiment already has proven an unqualified success.
Northern Missouri really is a "sleeper" for trophy bucks, and we think the future holds great things for our little piece of land. But there are plenty of opportunities here, even if you don't own property. If you're interested in hunting this part of the state, or even the neighboring states of Iowa, Illinois or Kansas, my buddy Joe Ream says he'd be happy to talk with you (at a reasonable hour, of course). Feel free to give him a ring at 660-341-0895, and he'll try to steer you in the right direction for a big whitetail of your own.
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