Changing times: Deer hunters reflect on seasons past

When the 70th modern-day firearms deer season opened, it was much different from when the first modern-day deer season in Missouri opened, back in 1944.

Back then, there was a two-day season for bucks in only 20 counties, in southern Missouri. That year, 7,557 hunters took 585 deer.

This season, more than 400,000 hunters are projected to take more than 200,000 deer in the 11-day firearms season, statewide.

Over the years, the state's deer herd has grown and the interest in deer hunting has grown with it. Today, not only is there an 11-day firearms season, there are also several other deer hunting seasons.

The Early Youth Weekend Hunt, Urban, Anterless, Alternative and a Late Youth Weekend hunts added to the main event this November.

Most every deer hunter remembers the first deer they shot and the conditions surrounding it, very well. My first deer was in St. Clair County, back in 1970, but I remember it like it was last season.

The day before the season opened, I had been scouting an area where I had seen a big buck. On a ridge above a small creek, a whitetail buck stood in an opening between two oak trees, glaring down at me.

It sent a shiver down my spine and in a flash, he bolted away. His rack would have graced my wall and his meat would have filled the freezer.

The next day, I bounded out of bed and would soon be hunting, but I knew I would have to be careful. A smart deer hunter doesn't blunder into a big buck's territory, spewing scent and sound in all directions.

Just as cottontail rabbits were Missouri's most popular small game animals, whitetail deer are the states No. 1 big game animals. Deer are much smarter than rabbits, relying heavily on their sense of smell to detect danger.

Make yourself less offensive to deer by not using scented soap or shaving lotion before you hunt. Such odors are foreign and frightening to deer.

There are many differences of opinion about the effectiveness of commercial deer scents. Most successful deer hunters never use them, but it's better to smell like a deer than like a human -- at least, when you are hunting whitetail deer.

I, along with my hunting friend, Paul Hoffman, from Independence, cautiously started patterning the buck's movements. We found where he had nibbled leaves from small trees and had made tracks across an old road.

There were also prints around a pothole that offered him water. The next step was to find a spot where he might travel, far enough from the pothole, but close enough for a shot.

In the deer woods, I could feel -- without seeing or hearing anything -- that a deer was near. Then, I saw him, with his tall rack that swayed back and forth as he moved his head.

I tried not to move a muscle, but I lifted the gun up too fast and the buck stopped. In the span of a heartbeat, his ears fanned out as he watched me. Although I knew then that the game was up, he stared at me for a second and then he turned and disappeared.

There was no noise as he fled. He just vanished.

Later that morning, as I walked back to the truck, a deer appeared out of the brush. It was the only day of the season that I would be able to hunt, so I took aim and fired.

The deer leaped forward and I thought I had missed until I heard a crash. The hunt was over.

While I looked over the fallen deer, another shot rang out. Paul had also shot a deer.

When we compared the two button bucks, a third deer ran past us some 20 yards away, but I never saw that monster buck again.

This fall, there are many more deer in Missouri and hunters have more big bucks to hunt. The success of the opening weekend of the firearms season makes up a large percentage of the season total.

Once again, the Share the Harvest program will enable deer hunters to donate venison to the needy. The program has contributed 2 million pounds of lean-red venison.

Last year alone, hunters donated more than 100,000 pounds of deer meat to the needy.

For more information on the Share the Harvest program, contact Share the Harvest, Missouri Department of Conservation, PO Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102, call the MDC at 573-751-4115, or contact the Conservation Federation of Missouri, 728 West Main, Jefferson City, MO 65101, or call 573-634-2322.