Youth hunt gets deer season going

The Missouri Youth Deer Hunt weekend found weather well suited for the young hunters including 11-year-old Josh Vance, Bolivar, who had a near perfect hunt in Cedar County.

Josh, accompanied by his father, Dr. Ronald Vance, climbed into their stand early Saturday morning. Josh was somewhat handicapped because his left arm was still in a cast from a football accident.

After about an hour of waiting and watching, a six-point buck came close to the stand and the youngster drew down on the deer and fired. After realizing he had just shot his first buck, Josh was so excited he could hardly wait to see the 110-pound deer.

After taking photos and still shaking over bagging his first buck, the father and son team headed home to show the deer to friends.

It was a great start to the youth season, bagging a buck within an hour of the season start. Josh had taken a doe last year for his first Missouri deer.

Autum is many Missourians favorite season of the year. It's crisp temperatures remind that summer is over and winter's snowy days are just around the corner. The trees are full of color, making the land a mixture of red, orange, yellow and brown.

Another youngster, Keith Taylor, Independence, said, "My favorite part of autum is sitting as still as possible in the woods with a gun in my gloved hands, listening to the shuffle of hooves against the dried leaves of the forest floor. I love to hunt and autumn marks the opening of hunting seasons. I started hunting several years ago when I was 12. My dad taught me how to shoot a gun and my older brother Bob, really introduced me to hunting. He has taken me deer hunting each year Missouri has had a youth hunt."

The first year the two brothers saw and heard nothing but squirrels and turkey hens. However, the next year Keith hunted near a pond where Bob had seen two different bucks come to the pond several days earlier.

"I carried my rifle while Bob carried the tree stand to the spot we were going to hunt. As it got close to dusk, I felt a sharp jab in my side and heard Bob frantically whisper that he saw a deer. His voice got even shriller when he discovered it was a buck. I couldn't see it, but I got ready for it to come into view. I adjusted my gun and heard my seat squeak with the movement. I was very nervous. The buck probably heard my movements because he stomped the ground and ran back into the woods. We never saw him again," Keith said.

The young hunter was disappionted that he didn't get a shot at the buck, but his brother tried to cheer him up and promised to go out again the next day. Bob told his disappointed brother that it was only a small buck and the promise cheered him up quite a bit.

That next morning found a strong wind blowing and rain not far away, but after taking a seat in the tree stand, Keith heard something and it wasn't the wind. "I heard a grunt and then Bob poked me in my side again and said 'it's a buck Keith, it's a buck.' Sure enough, a nice looking buck came strolling out of the woods at the same spot the other deer had the day before. I got ready as I was watching the deer, waiting for a good shot. The buck walked up the embankment of the pond, but I decided to wait for the deer to pass by some trees so I could make sure that nothing was in front or behind him. I took aim and fired. I missed, and the buck kept walking, It wasn't long before it was out of sight, That's when Bob started using the grunt call. After several grunt calls the deer appeared out of the woods again, on a ridge across the pond from us. It was a long shot, but I aimed anyway. The moment the buck gave me a clear view of its side, I shot. He fell with a thump and rolled over once. He never moved again. I couldn't believe it! I had just shot my very first buck."

I'm sure that weeks from today, Josh and other successful young deer hunters will be telling the story about shooting their first buck and will be keeping the hunting tradition going.

The youth hunt harvest statewide was 11,920, which was up from last year's total of 10,860, but still below the record set in 2004 when 13,466 deer were taken by the young hunters. This year's kill is the second largest in the youth season's six-year history.