Hunt results

Missouri Department of Conservation

Robert McGrath, a World War II Marine veteran from Callaway County, took home a 9-point buck on private land as Missouri hunters completed a strong early firearms deer season.

The Department of Conservation congratulated McGrath, 98, who is from the Millersburg area and still owns property there.

“His family sent us the picture and says he has inspired and encouraged many generations of hunters, anglers, shooting sports enthusiasts and nature lovers,” a department spokesman said.

“They find it quite incredible that he can continue to go out and enjoy one of his lifelong passions. No matter what your

In Illinois, hunters harvested a preliminary total of 47,147 deer during the first weekend of the Illinois Firearm Deer Season, Nov. 20-22, compared with 50,173 deer taken during the first firearm weekend in 2019.

Illinois’ seven-day Firearm Deer Season was Dec. 3-6. The muzzleloader season was Dec. 11-13.

Hunting opportunities in January are the late-winter antlerless season, Dec. 31-Jan. 3 and Jan. 15-17; CWD deer season in select counties, same dates; and archery deer season, through Jan. 17.

For more details on deer hunting, open counties and other information, check the Department of Natural Resources website at https://

www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/ Pages/DeerHunting.aspx

COUNTY TOTALS

Preliminary firearm deer harvest totals by county for the first weekend of the 2019 season, age, you can still get out and enjoy the outdoors, and bragging rights!”

The department reported that 80,525 deer were harvested Saturday and Sunday during firearms opening weekend, Nov. 14 and 15. Of those, 48,695 were antlered bucks, 6,867 were button bucks and 24,963 were does.

STRONG SEASON

In the full November firearms season, Nov. 14-24, deer hunters in Missouri harvested 176,604 deer – 95,654 antlered, 16,045 button bucks, and 64,905 does.

Top harvest counties were Howell with 3,496 deer harvested, Franklin with 3,409, and Texas with 3,374. In the previous year, hunters had checked 179,960 deer during November, with 91,917 being followed by comparable totals for 2020, in the southern Illinois region include: • Alexander, 311, 257 • Clinton, 453, 474 • Bond, 500, 426 • Fayette, 1,004, 980 • Franklin, 853, 743 • Gallatin, 249, 232 • Hamilton, 717, 657 • Hardin, 602, 419 • Jackson, 1,422, 1,227 • Jefferson, 1,251, 1,080 • Jersey, 401, 350 • Johnson, 1,026, 857 • Macoupin, 1,025, 987 • Madison, 442, 379 • Marion, 995, 910 • Massac, 261, 219 • Monroe, 699, 667 • Perry, 882, 716 • Pope, 1,064, 884 • Pulaski, 209,177 • Randolph, 1,553, 1,340 • Saline, 602, 534 • St. Clair, 478.474 • Union, 913, 772 • Washington, 640, 599 • Wayne, 943, 861 • Williamson, 1,220, 943 antlered bucks, 17,330 button bucks, and 70,713 does.

“Hunters posted an impressive harvest total given the challenging conditions, particularly on opening weekend,” MDC Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle said. “Typically, about half of the harvest occurs during the first two days of the season. Unfortunately, hunters were greeted by rain and high winds to start the season, resulting in harvest numbers falling behind last year’s mark early.”

MDC reported three firearms-related hunting incidents during the November portion of the firearms deer season with all being non-fatal and self-inflicted.

THE HUNT CONTINUES

Preliminary data shows that deer hunters in Missouri harvested 15,425 deer during the antlerless portion of the firearms deer season, Dec. 4-6. Top harvest counties were Callaway with 438 deer harvested, Morgan with 377 and Osage with 352. Last year’s antlerless-portion harvest total was 10,597.

“Much like the late youth portion of firearms deer season, Missouri deer hunters had some fantastic hunting conditions for the antlerless portion,” Isabelle said. “Cool, crisp mornings were followed by comfortable afternoons with very light winds. Weather-wise, we couldn’t have asked for much better conditions this past weekend.”

For current ongoing preliminary harvest totals by season, county, and type of deer, visit the MDC website at extra.mdc. mo.gov/widgets/harvest_table.

For harvest summaries from past years, visit huntfish.mdc.

mo.gov/hunting-trapping/ species/deer/deer-harvestreports/deer-harvest-sum-

maries.

OTHER SEASONS

Archery deer season runs through Jan. 15. The alternative methods season was being held Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.

Find more information on deer hunting from MDC’s 2020 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where hunting permits are sold and online at huntfish.

mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/

Robert McGrath brought home the buck. – MDC photo

Illinois opening hunt down a little

downloads/2020FDT.pdf.

Outdoor Gallery

Send in your favorite outdoor photo to news@outdoor-guide.com and you could be the winner of a $50 gift card from Kenrick’s Meats & Catering.

EYE ON THE PRIZE – Marty Eye, brother of turkey hunting icon Ray Eye, took this monarch in Mountain View MO during the firearms deer season this past November. What a rack! BONUS ROUND – Jeff Friedman of O’Fallon, MO, killed these two bobcats in a flood corridor just off the Missouri River, and also shot a buck, all during the Missouri firearms deer season. After he shot his buck, the bobcats came out to see what happened and he took them both. FOURTEEN POINTER – Paul Hollis, owner of Redexim Turf Products in Fenton, MO, killed this nice 14-point buck in Crawford County, MO. It scored a 174!

Jim Spencer, the bard of turkey hunting, has published a new book, “Bad Birds 2,” that is actually his third book about hunting turkeys, and he says it’s the best one yet.

“My life has been enriched by the pursuit of wild turkeys,” he writes in the epilogue.

“Bad Birds 2” is a collection of 33 columns under the title of “Bad Birds” that Spencer has written since 2001 for the magazine Turkey & Turkey Hunting, developing a dedicated following. Topics also include “The Gift Bird,” “The Loaner Gun” and “Epitaph for a Turkey Hunter.”

Spencer sent along this sample, from a chapter called “The Homebody.”

“I clucked and purred a couple times on the slate, and when he gobbled again two minutes later he was closer. I kept mum. Two more gobbles and he was there, looking for the timid hen, coming through the thick woods in that jerky-headed way turkeys have.

“Andy had told me he thought the gobbler had a thick, bushy beard, judging from what he’d seen of it the week before. The old bird was still riding the invisible bicycle to nowhere when I called Andy and told him he was right.”

This next sample is from “Hunting on the Shady Side of 70.”

“And I kill some turkeys these days. Not as many as you, maybe, but I tag one every once in a while. Enough over the years, at any rate, to have dampened that desperate hunger for the kill that dominated my early turkey hunting.

“It hasn’t, though, lessened my desire to hear them gobble, to work them close, to converse with them in their own language on their own turf, to bend them to my will. That desire is still as strong as ever, and if that need to get inside their heads ever weakens inside mine, that’s when I’ll quit.”

“Bad Birds 2” is $22 plus $4 for shipping. Additional copies are $18 with no shipping fee. Spencer’s other books (“Bad Birds” and “Turkey Hunting Digest”) are $12 each when ordered with “Bad Birds 2.” Send checks to Treble Hook Unlimited, P.O. Box 758, Calico Rock, AR 72519. Include an email address for confirmation.

FIRST DEER – Hannah Schilly,11, of Crystal City MO, got her first deer in Ste. Genevieve County while hunting with her father, Thomas Schilly, and her cousin, who also got a 10-point buck. NICE TEN-POINTER – Cody Wiley with his nice ten-point buck taken on a family farm in Monroe County, IL. RIVER RANGER – Mike Phelan took this behemoth during firearms deer season in Missouri right off the Missouri River. He is from the old town of Centaur, now part of Wildwood.