Last week Team Members Charlie Peck, Paul Sparks, Brannon Sparks, Guy Maxcy, and I spent some time in NW Missouri rifle hunting for whitetails.  It turned out to be a great trip as three of us took our largest whitetails to date.  We were invited to hunt with Clint Vanatta, Corey Endicott, and Robin Parks of Aim Low Productions on some farm ground they lease outside of Gallatin, MO.  We boarded a plane on Thursday Nov. 12th out of Orlando, and were touching down in Kansas City, MO a couple hours later.

Our first day in Missouri we did some sight seeing, and then headed north to meet up with the guys from Aim Low.  We got into Gallatin around 1:00pm on Friday, and immediately loaded up in the truck with Robin to help Clint and Corey recover a nice 8 pointer they had shot late that morning.  After taking turns dragging Clint's buck the 1/4 mile back to the truck, we loaded it up and headed back into town to meet up with the others for some socializing.  The farm that Clint shot his buck on, was the farm we would be hunting mostly during our trip, so we took a few minutes while there to get a feel of the terrain and stand set placements. 

Saturday morning saw us getting up to cloudy weather and heading to the stands before daylight for our first day's hunt.  I was sitting with Corey in a stand they call "The best dang tree in Missouri", and it wasn't long before I realized why they named it that.  We saw a total of 3 bucks and a doe that morning, one of the bucks was a nice 8 point, but being the first morning we let him pass.  Charlie Peck teamed up with Robin Parks and headed to a small track of timber owned by Clint and Corey.  They saw several deer, and shortly after 9:00am a big, wide 10 point came cruising by chasing a doe.  There was no discussing whether this deer was a shooter, and Charlie shot his biggest deer to date on camera.  Upon further inspection, the buck had broken off one of it's G2's, and both brow tines were rubbed to nubs.  It still grossed in the 130's with the missing tines, and would have easily been in the 140" range with those points still intact.

Dad sat with one of their good friends Charlie Ramsbottom, overlooking a beautiful creek bluff.  They saw several small bucks cruising for does, but nothing worth shooting.  Paul and Brannon Sparks went with Clint and saw two nice bucks and 4 does, but could not get a shot at either of the two bucks.  Saturday afternoon a weather front settled in, and it rained off and on for the rest of the day.  We headed back to the same stands, and everyone saw good deer, but no bucks were shot.  Sunday morning Corey and I headed back to the "Best dang tree in Missouri", and it wasn't long before I spotted a good buck with a doe bedded down up the ridge a couple hundred yards from us.  They were bedded down in some thick brush, so it was hard to get a good idea just how big he was. 

About 7:30am two does came down a trail from the corner of the property, and we got ready for a buck to be behind them.  Corey kept saying that he couldn't believe that a big buck wasn't following them, and at the time we didn't know how right he was.  Five minutes later we looked up the ridge to see a good buck coming down the same trail with his nose to the ground like a bird dog on a covey of quail.  Corey told me to get the rifle ready because he was a shooter, so I got positioned for a shot.  We let him come down the ridge to within 80 yards when I finally stopped him and put him down.  He is a beautiful 11 point with a split G3 on his left side. It is by far, my biggest buck to date.  The best part was we got the whole thing on camera.  We gave him a few minutes and then got down to take pictures before it started to rain again for the day.

We climbed back up in the tree and I grabbed the camera to see if we could double up on the morning.  About 9:00am Corey got a text message from Clint saying that Paul Sparks had just put a big 11 point down.  Mr. Sparks shot his deer at 30 yards looking at him, and Clint got all the action on camera as well.  The trip was off to a great start and it was only day two.  The rain finally moved in and chased us out of the trees about 10:00am, so we loaded up my buck and headed back to town.  Dad and Charlie saw two does, but he was just as excited as I was at the success Mr. Sparks and I had that morning.  Once the rain settled in on Sunday, it never stopped raining until our last day of hunting action on Wednesday.  We tried to hunt as much as we could, but we could only handle a couple hours in the constant rain at a time.  

Both Brannon Sparks and Dad had opportunities at bucks on Tuesday and Wednesday, but neither one could get the shot that they needed.  The wet conditions put a damper on deer movement, and they were staying isolated in thickets.  We packed our bags Wednesday night and headed back to Florida on Thursday.  We can't thank Corey, Clint, Robin, and Charlie enough for all the hard work and accommodations they provided for us while we were there.  Overall, it was an amazing trip and the only downfall was the 4 solid days of rain.  Three of us, shot our biggest bucks to date, and the other two had opportunities to do the same.  Mr. Sparks and I shipped our heads off to the Aim Low Sponsor Taxidermist and will have them back by Christmas time.  How is that for turn around?  If you haven't had the opportunity to take a Midwest Whitetail hunt, you don't know what you are missing.  This is one trip I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Good luck,

Chet Maxcy

Team NSSOutdoors.com