4 minute read
Darrell Cureton reflects on the excitement of opening day
PARKLAND HUNTING GUIDE
The night before opening day is
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Darrell Cureton
Every fall, Missouri hunters prepare to hunt the ever-elusive whitetail deer.
Young and old, we all dream of harvesting a giant buck in a soft green meadow with a beautiful sunrise or sunset in the background.
For hundreds of years, men and women alike have been hunting these animals for food to feed their families. Hunting may sound like a cruel practice to some, but it is a must to control the population.
I usually shoot my bow 12 months out of the year. I not only hunt for food, but I enjoy shooting my recurve just for fun. I might just pick it up to target shoot in the backyard or try to get a squirrel or some other small game that wanders into my backyard that might be in season. It sounds a little crazy, but if I take some sort of game, I eat it. Small game tastes just as good as big game as long as it’s prepared correctly, and for me, it’s a huge challenge to hit a moving squirrel or rabbit compared to a 150-pound deer. Shooting those small targets hone my skills to make my shot count when that huge deer is standing in front of me.
The night before the opening day of deer season is almost like Christmas Eve, waiting in anticipation for the exciting morning to come. You really don’t know what to expect the next morning, you just know that you are super-excited and can’t sleep. You pack your backpack with whatever you think you need in the woods. Besides drinking water, you don’t want to forget doe urine. You can’t go into the woods without soaking your boots in it, hoping that a huge buck will follow your trail straight to where you are hunting.
In the 30 years I’ve been hunting, I don’t think a deer has ever followed a trail I’ve left, but it’s something my dad taught me, and I have passed it on to my children.
You also have to pack snacks. Our snacking tradition has always been peanut butter crackers and cans of Beanie Weenies. I am completely convinced that the smell of peanut butter is something that draws every squirrel within a mile of where you are hunting straight to you. It’s amazing how a little three-pound squirrel can sound like a 200-pound deer walking through the woods.
Now comes the time for getting up in the morning. Of course, you are completely exhausted because you didn’t get near enough sleep. You slide into your camo that you haven’t worn in at least eight months, and it still smells like the doe urine you sprayed on your boots the year before. It almost makes you sick to your stomach, but then it hits you — you’re headed to the woods to take part in one of the most amazing activities you’ll do all year.
Typically, on the way to your hunting spot, you will see a deer around every corner on the road. It makes your excitement grow and grow. Finally, you arrive. In my case, I park at the end of the cornfield, climb out of the truck and start grabbing all my gear.
Guaranteed, I will have forgotten something. All the years I’ve been hunting, I have still forgotten a wide variety of things like the release for my compound bow. One year I even forgot the bullets for my rifle. Good thing I happened to have one round in my orange vest from the year before! The old trusty Marlin 30-30 just needed that one round to get a doe that day. I make the walk around the woodline up to my trusty spot and get comfortable.
Words can’t explain the peace you feel sitting in the silence of the woods right before daylight. As the sun starts to rise, then the woods seem to start coming alive. In my spot the past few years, I typically see fawns playing in the field almost every opening morning. There is something majestic and beautiful about baby deer playing and enjoying just being alive. You can sit there and hear the sounds of the birds and the wind just drifting around. If you close your eyes and smell the different scents of flowers — even the dirt that’s around you — it almost brings you to a point of pure relaxation.
It sounds funny, but you haven’t even seen a shootable animal yet, and you have gotten more out of the day in an hour than you usually get in all 24.
Once a deer walks out within shooting range, you feel all these emotions. Your heart starts to race, and sometimes your hands start to tremble. You must make sure to settle your nerves to get the perfect shot placement. You want to harvest the animal as quickly and cleanly as possible. Once you have made your shot, you have hopefully dispatched the animal quickly. Then the real work happens. Now that you have made your harvest, you must tag it immediately and telecheck it with MDC.
Finally, you must then prep your harvest for the table. This may sound like a cruel process to some and there are a lot of people out there that disagree with it. But without hunting animals, their numbers would get out of control.
It is a powerful thing to take an animal from the wild and place it on your table to feed your family. It is the circle of life. Humans and animals alike have been eating other animals since the beginning of time and will continue to do so.
I wish all hunters the best of luck this fall and winter.
