A deer hunt homecoming
It does not matter where you live or where you hunt. If you are a deer hunter this story will warm your heart. First, a little background.
I grew up in southeast Missouri, about an hour south of St. Louis. I have killed deer in a half-dozen counties down there ... but not for a long, long time. I moved to northeast Missouri in 1981 and began hunting up there. A few years later I crossed the Great River and began deer hunting in Illinois. File that info as we will come to it later.
My dad stopped deer hunting about a decade ago due to age and failing health. He still lives in St. Francois County. My best friend, Roger Lewis, also still lives down home. He and his boys have come north to hunt with me on many occasions.
Now let me pull this info together for you. Last summer Roger bought more than 200 acres of big timber near where we grew up. He was excited a couple of months ago as he gave the tour. He was also very excited when I accepted his invitation for me to come in November to deer with him and his boys. I was excited, as well.
Roger is working on getting his lodge constructed so I took the opportunity to spend a couple of nights with my dad on this trip. Seeing my father, fellowship with the Lewis gang and deer hunting in S.E. Missouri made this a true homecoming deer hunt.
When I was with Roger on his property I took the opportunity to scout and pick out my spot for opening day. Even with that it would be hit-and-miss hunting a new property for the first time. But we were all in the same boat.
Going home to Missouri to deer hunt also allowed me the chance to shoot a very special rifle. Another great friend from Farmington is Adam Busse. Adam is a custom gun maker and owner of Gunware LLC. (gunware.net).
He had recently completed building a sweet little 6 mm bolt action and said I could use it for opening weekend. This just added more pleasure.
The spot I picked out to start my season was on the edge of a small pasture adjacent to many hundreds of acres of big timber. I found two good trails entering and leaving the field about 200 yards apart. I set up right between them hoping for a rut chase to enter the field. As the sun rose it was 18 degrees and I was tickled.
I recall thinking there was not much shooting for an opening day. I can remember opening days in Washington and Ste. Genevieve Counties that sounded like a young war. I hardly moved a muscle for three hours but saw no deer movement at all.
After hours of sitting in the cold air, Mother Nature called. As I reached for my pee bottle in my pack I remembered that there was a good sized creek at the foot of the hill. My decision was to go to the creek to relieve myself. I slipped down the field edge and into the creek to "git er dun".
As I stepped out of the creek bed a breeze hit me right in the face. Years of memories began flooding my thoughts. "I have to hunt into this breeze," was ringing in my ears. I love to still-hunt and it had been way too long since my last still-hunt in actual timber. I began "slipping" down the stream.
My normal pace for this type of hunting is about 100 yards an hour. There is no such thing as "too slow" when you are trying to move and see deer before they see you. My heart was full and my smile was wide as I dissolved back into my youth in the woods.
I had been on the stalk for about an hour. My creek bottom was running out and I had to make my way back up the hill toward another pasture. As I reached the top I stopped to glass the field. In the pasture south of me four deer were feeding. It appeared to be a doe and three yearlings.
I ranged the bigger deer at 202 yards. Knowing the flat-shooting Gunware 6 mm would be dead-on at that distance I steadied the crosshairs on my target. She was dead before she hit the ground.
As my dad and I visited that night I told him about the day's hunt and we got together to do some math. By our calculations the deer I killed that day was the first one for me in S.E. Missouri since 1981. That is 37 years since I last came here to hunt. It was great!
I took my deer to Walker Meat Processing to get some great summer sausage and venison bologna. Contact them for your S.E. Missouri deer processing and other custom meats at walkermeatprocessing.com or at 573-366-6372.
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