MissouriWhitetails.com

Saline County yields yet another big buck.

Charlie of Harrisonville, MO harvested this super buck opening morning 2002 in Saline county.

It was matter of being at the right place at the right time. The guy I
normally hunted on leased all of his ground out so I called another friend
of mine at Saline county to see if JT (my 9 year old son) and I could go
hunt with them. I was gone to meetings all week so I had not had a chance
to scout or check on the deer stand. The guys I was hunting with went out
the day before the season and fixed the ladder and checked out the stand to
make sure it would hold both JT and I. They said they had seen a nice buck,
(probably an average 8 point). JT and I had climbed up in the stand about
6:15 and like with all young deer hunters it is hard to sit still and not
make a whole lot of noise. I didn't think we would see a thing. We had a
tree stand in a clump of trees out in the middle of a pasture that went down
to some big timber that we have seen nice deer in the past. At approx. 6:50
I caught some movement to my left. He had to have been pushed out by other
hunters because there was virtually no timber that way for a quarter of a
mile or he was "looking for love". He trotted out into the open probably a
hundred yards away and turned and looked straight at us. "Oh, JT he's a nice
one!" were my exact words. My first shot....didn't shoot. In the
excitement I had not pushed the safety all of the way in but he was standing
still so I was able to sink one right in the lungs. He took off running for
the big timber to the south of me and I did not want him to get in there!
So I shot again but missed. The third shot he was starting to break stride
and slow down so I went for the guaranteed stopper...right in the neck. He
fell in his tracks about twenty yards shy of the timber. This is the
easiest way to turn a youngster into a hunter for life. Green score on this
deer was 229.5 with an inside spread of 24.5 inches