A Young Man's Story of What Deer Hunting Means to Him

By David Mann

Peck Ranch Conservation Area-Stegall Mountain...the scene
of this story.

It all started almost exactly a decade ago, when my father decided that Daniel, my older brother,  (who was then eleven or twelve years old) was ready to go on his first deer hunt. We had moved to Missouri from Northwestern Colorado just a few years before, and I know my father yearned in his heart to find a place here in Missouri that would remind him of the comparatively boundless beauty and wildness of that country.  My brother and I probably felt the same way, although we may have been too young to know it then.  After researching the matter for quite awhile, my father ended up taking Daniel to a tract of public land in the very heart of the Ozark Highlands for that year’s youth deer season.


When they came back late Sunday afternoon, they were without a deer, but as excited as any two unsuccessful hunters ever were. My brother had seen a deer the first morning, and nearly gotten a shot, but that wasn’t what they were excited about. They talked endlessly about how beautiful the area was, the vast forest of shortleaf pine, the mountainous, broken country. “It’s just like Colorado”, my brother said.  Naturally I was quite envious, and begged to be taken along next year. My father said, “We’ll see”, which I knew in this case meant yes. Still, I don’t think any of us had any clear idea what this would lead to. This part of the Ozarks would in the years to come turn into our home away from home, the wild and peaceful corner of our state that we would constantly look forward to visiting.



The next fall, I got my first look at this wonderful place on a scouting trip, the weekend before youth season. When we rose up into the Ozark Mountains I felt supremely comfortable. This was just like Colorado. Sure, the mountains were much smaller, but there was the familiar smell of the pine trees, the winding, twisting mountain roads, the clear, fast water in the rivers. It was love at first sight, put simply.



That fall I tagged my first, and to this point only deer. Deer densities are not high in this part of southern Missouri. The food base is not prolific, and local hunters take deer using every method imaginable, legal or not. But with the help of my father and a stroke of blind luck, I got an opportunity on the afternoon of the first day, and managed to bring down a small doe. I’d never been so excited in my life, and I’m afraid the emotions were not mixed. There was none of the sadness and regret that should come with killing another animal for food.  The idea of mortality just hadn’t sunk in yet.

I’m not much of a hunter anymore, but I still go to this conservation area every year with my father, and sometimes when my brother when his busy schedule as a college athlete permits.  I carry a rifle, and I guess if a deer walked right in front of me I would probably take it. I’m not totally sure though, and I don’t think there is any shame in that. I am out there to spend valuable time with my family, to absorb the stillness of the Ozark woodlands, to feel the frosty chill of a cold November morning. It is all so blessedly uncomfortable, the early morning scramble in the dark to get to the area we are going to hunt, the rocky ground where I’m sitting, the icy morning breeze. I may think of home or some other place that is warm, comfortable, where I could get a hot meal. But really I don’t want to be anywhere but here, in the middle of nowhere, watching brown leaves fall from the trees and the thin current of the little brook at the bottom of the hollow sliding over the slick rocks. It is total, healing peace. The only sounds are those of the birds, and the clucking of the squirrels. Every one in awhile a plane will fly overhead, or I’ll hear a car in the distance, but it’s infrequent enough to not be a distraction from the wildness and beauty all around me. In a part of the country where so much has been paved, clear-cut, and tilled, this infertile, rocky, hilly place is still so untouched, so much like what all of Missouri must have been before the first white men made their way to this continent. It still has the poetry that so many places have lost, the purity that only is found in that which remains natural and unbroken.  After a couple of days out here, absorbing the rhythms of the deep woods, I understand fully that this is the real world.


David Mann is a journalism major at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His outdoor writing can also be found at http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/ and throughout Family-Outdoors. He aspires to make a living with his writing in the future.  In the next few days, read David's dad's perspective on these early days of outdoor excursions.

Related articles

• Fall in the Ozarks (fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com)
• MDC's e-Permits let hunters and others buy online and use right away (missourioutdoors.blogspot.com)

Chesterfield sighting confirmed to be a mountain lion

Image via Wikipedia

This third recent confirmed report brings the total to 13 in Missouri since 1994.

JEFFERSON CITY Mo – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has confirmed a mountain lion sighting in western St. Louis County. Garrett Jensen, of Chesterfield, recently contacted MDC with photographs taken Jan. 12 from a trail camera showing a mountain lion in a wooded area.

“We have examined the photos and visited the location,” said Jeff Beringer, MDC resource scientist and member of the Department’s Mountain Lion Response Team. “While we did not find further evidence, such as tracks, we can confirm that the photos are of a mountain lion at the reported location. We don’t know anything else about this cat other than it was here.”

This is the third confirmed report of a mountain lion in Missouri since November.A landowner in Platte County contacted MDC in late November with photographs of a mountain lion in a tree on his property. On Jan. 2, a hunter shot a mountain lion while hunting raccoons in rural Ray County.

“The three reports over the past several months bring our total number of confirmed reports over the past 16 years to just 13,” said Rex Martensen. Martensen is on the Mountain Lion Response Team and supervises MDC’s wildlife damage control program. He has hunted mountain lions in Colorado and has worked with cougar biologists in South Dakota and New Mexico.

“We get hundreds of calls and emails from people who claim to have seen a mountain lion,” said Martensen. “When there is some type of evidence we investigate. More than 90 percent of these investigations turn out to be bobcats, house cats, or dogs. Our investigations involving claims of pets or livestock being attacked by mountain lions typically turn out to be the work of dogs. We have no documented cases in Missouri of mountain lions attacking livestock, people or pets.”

He added that mountain lions are nocturnal, secretive and generally avoid contact with humans.

“To date, we have no evidence to suggest that a breeding population of mountain lions exists in Missouri,” added Beringer, “In states where even small populations of these big cats exist, there is plenty of hard evidence. Florida, for example, has a population of only 100 mountain lions, yet several are killed  by automobiles each year.  They also have other clear, hard evidence like tracks, scat, and kill sites.”

Beringer explained that mountain lions seen in Missouri are probably young males roaming from other states in search of territory.

“Young males seek new territories at about 18 months of age,” explained Beringer. “With most births peaking in the spring, young males typically begin roaming in their second fall and winter. And it makes sense that these big cats could roam into Missouri from the west and use the Missouri River corridor to cross the state without being easily detected. These three recent confirmed reports, along with one in Callaway County in 2003 and one in Clay County in 2002, have all been pretty close to the Missouri River.”

Mountain lions (Puma concolor), also called cougars, panthers and pumas, were present in Missouri before pioneer settlement. The last documented Missouri mountain lion was killed in the Bootheel in 1927. The closest populations of mountain lions to Missouri are in South Dakota and a small population in northwest Nebraska.

Beringer said that MDC has never stocked or released mountain lions in Missouri and has no plans to do so. 

He added that there are 32 people in Missouri with permits to keep captive mountain lions and MDC maintains records of these animals’ DNA and identifying microchips.

Mountain lions are protected under the Wildlife Code of Missouri. The Code does allow the killing of any mountain lion attacking or killing livestock or domestic animals, or threatening human safety. The incident must be reported to the MDC immediately and the intact carcass, including the pelt, must be surrendered to the MDC within 24 hours. 

To report a sighting, physical evidence or other mountain-lion incident, contact a local MDC office or conservation agent, or email the Mountain Lion Response Team at mountain.lion@mdc.mo.gov.

For more information on mountain lions in Missouri, visitwww.MissouriConservation.org and search “mountain lion.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Comments on Draft Environmental Assessment on Farming and the Use of Glyphosate-tolerant Corn and Soybeans on National Wildlife Refuge System Lands

Image via WikipediaThe Midwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is inviting public comment on a draft Environmental Assessment that considers two issues: 1) the use of row crop farming as a technique to manage National Wildlife Refuge System lands in the Midwest Region, and 2) the use of glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans on these lands.

Montauk Trout Park Fly Fishing

I sure don't want to present myself as the expert on this area. I have been to this park probably five or six times. Of the parks, I do enjoy it the most, especially when I can get there on a weekday. A week or so ago, I fished it with my younger son, he concentrating on the bait area while I stayed exclusively in the "fly area."

I put fly area in quotes, because if you are not familiar with the park, spin fishing is also allowed here, but there are restrictions regarding terminal tackle allowed. Generally speaking, there is no negative interaction between spin and fly fishermen here as I have heard there can be in some places. Some of the spin fishermen here have shared pointers with me that even though I am using a fly rod, I have found very helpful. The caveat I will throw in is that there seems to often be a lack of stream etiquette in the parks.

This lack of etiquette seems to be equally displayed by spin and fly fishermen. I do not have a confrontational personality, so when someone comes thrashing through the stream right by where I am fishing, or casts directly into the area where I am drifting my flies, I usually just move on. I always hope they get the idea, but doubt they do.

More often, folks are polite and stay an acceptable distance, and sometimes pleasant conversations ensue. Last time I met a couple of retired gentlemen from Illinois. One of them had grown children who lived in Alaska and Colorado - both places where I have lived. We shared stories of streams, lakes, and ocean areas where we had both fished. He was spin fishing, but was also a fly fisherman and shared some advice on what to try. Because I didn't know the flies he was talking about I nodded like I did, but remembered the names so I could learn about them later. I wasn't having much luck (it was slow for everyone) and when I told him I wasn't sure I was gonna catch anything, he said "sure you will."

We parted ways and a bit later I took a break. I went back to my truck, rested awhile and re-hydrated. I then tied some new tippet and headed back out. I got to my favorite hole and started cycling through the options I have had luck with in the past. This time I used a strike indicator, which normally I avoid. First I went through my offerings at a depth where I was just ticking the bottom. Then I shortened up to a depth of about 24". When I tried this with an orange and red glo-ball I started getting meager taps. Ten minutes of this later, the fish for reasons inexplicable to me began inhaling my offering.

Some trips at this park I have limited in a very short time (4 fish). Other times I have had to work at it a bit. I enjoy the latter more. My thought on being successful in the fly area is to find and area that I know or can see (depends on clarity of water) and keep trying things until I find what is working. In these parks, I am convinced that generally, fish in a given area are just waiting for the right offering at the right time. It really is like a switch gets turned on and then off.

For information on the park, visit their official site at Montauk State Park Official Site. For more information on trout fishing in Missouri, including trout parks, visit Missouri Trout Fishing.