Editor’s Note: When we asked Rod Magrew of St. Charles, Missouri, how long he’d been wearing Mossy Oak camouflage, he smiled and said, “Too many years to admit.” Rod is Mossy Oak ProStaff member Mike Magrew’s father and teacher. This father-and-son team really enjoys hunting.
On this particular hunt, we were in northeast Missouri during the 2012 deer season. The area we were hunting was ideal. It had timber, pastures and croplands that provided a diversity of habitat for the whitetails there. I had taken my 15-year-old granddaughter Paige into this same stand site in 2011, and twice as we were getting out of our blind in the evening, we jumped a big buck from the timber behind us. So, I decided this area would be a good spot to hunt during the 2012 season.
But I bowhunted this area 5 or 6 days during bow season and didn’t have any luck. I had seen two nice bucks go past my stand and into a food plot. When rifle season opened on a Saturday, I didn’t see anything Saturday, Sunday or Monday. The rut just had started. About 7:15 am on Tuesday, I was in my tree stand wearing my new Mossy Oak Infinity camouflage, and a big doe stepped out about 150-yards away to feed in the pasture. Shortly after, a 10-point buck that scored about 140 on Boone & Crockett came out and started chasing the doe. The doe ran right to my tree stand and stopped 25-yards away. She turned and started running toward some cedar trees. The buck was following about 20-yards behind her. He stopped and turned at the cedar trees. That’s when I took him with my Howa 7mm Magnum. I don’t know if this was the same buck Paige and I had jumped earlier or not. I believe trail cameras are great hunting aids, but they don’t always tell the full story. We had no trail-camera pictures of this buck. We tend to forget bucks move into and out of regions, and sometimes you never see a buck until you take him.
Tomorrow: Rod Magrew’s Timberland Buck
