Looking for some info on south eastern Mo. deer hunting.

[Blizzard Ridge]

My son just took a new job down around Jackson, Mo. We are avid deer hunter's in my family and he will be looking for a lease or good places to hunt close to where they will be living. We may entertain a trade for an Illinois hunt for a nice piece in the area. What is the trophy potential in that area? My boys have been hunting 150"+ caliber deer since they were young teens. I understand that this may not be the caliber of rack they will see on a regular basis in that region but if he could hunt 130"+ deer he would probably be happy. We are looking for a place that myself and other son could possibly join him on a hunt once or twice a season. He will always be taking a vacation and hunting at home the week before Illinois gun season through first gun season. He will bow hunt quite a bit early and late season in Mo. though.

Any help would be great! Thanks!

 

[Jeff H]

I've been watching for comments and surprised no one chimmed in yet. I'm in SW Missouri which would be an utter disappointment to a guy from central Illinois. SE Missouri is better and I would think being that close to Mississippi bottom land would be a big bonus. I would think there are pockets of really good habitat there. I can't speak for the genetics or trophy potential. North Missouri is probably as close to your standards as your going to find in the state. I had to move to sw Missouri to find out how good I had it in northern Illinois. It's going to be hard to find Illinois deer in Missouri.

 

[swat1018]

If I was closer, I could be of help. I'm about 35 miles from IA, and 25 from IL. One thing that shouldn't be overlooked, is Missouri's abundance of public land. I've found it's way more plentiful than the surrounding states, and some good bucks too. Pressure isn't too bad even, until prime-time.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

I did get to talk to a guy from the site the other day. He had some great info on public hunting ground in the area. Thanks for the information. We understand the trophy potential goes down a bit in Missouri but it sounds like there are some very big deer killed in this area every year. Hunting big timber will be a new adventure that we look forward to doing this year. We will attack the early and late season in MO and the rut in Illinois. We will keep our eyes out for a piece of private ground as well. It looks like there is approx. 35,000 public acres in the general area so we will definitely have a place to climb a tree. We are age structure hunter's so the rack size is not everything we are looking for when hunting deer. We are looking for 5.5 or older bucks to try to get on. Thanks again!

 

[Btaylor]

Not familiar with the area and haven't looked at a map but you should not have a problem getting on decent deer both age and score with some effort. I hunt a lot in north central AR. If you take northern 10% of the state here, all of it will produce 130-140 class deer but there are scattered pockets in all of the same area that will regularly produce much better deer than that. Southern MO is appears form driving through a fair amount of it to be very similar ground.

I would spend a good bit of time with topo and aerial maps and pick several spots for recon but spread them over a good size area. Mark Twain is a big chunk of ground and I bet you can find something worth chasin. Wouldn't hurt to get the onxmap for MO too to help identify private parcels mixed in there.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Thanks for the info Btaylor. I use Onxmaps so adding the infor for Mo will not be a problem. We are waiting for the final decision on his job to make sure exactly where he will be living then we will get out and start beating the ground until we find some good areas. We can run a couple dozen camera's so we will get a good idea of what is in the area about July.

 

[swat1018]

Thanks for the info Btaylor. I use Onxmaps so adding the infor for Mo will not be a problem. We are waiting for the final decision on his job to make sure exactly where he will be living then we will get out and start beating the ground until we find some good areas. We can run a couple dozen camera's so we will get a good idea of what is in the area about July.

Good luck. In case you don't know, Trail Cameras aren't legal on MDC properties. Ok on some of the Army Corp ground. Just a FYI....

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

That is good to know because I had no idea.