Missouri Life October 2023

they tend to like some areas better than others. They par ticularly thrive in fragmented landscapes, where woods, fields, and farms butt up against each other. “If you think about the great plains of Nebraska and Kansas and things like that, they’ve got white-tailed deer—and they’re big whitetails—but there’s just not that many of them,” Kevyn says. As a species, deer eat at least 600 types of plants and perhaps more that researchers don’t yet know about. “The soil here is able to produce a lot of biomass and a lot of highly nutritious forage for deer,” Kevyn says. While I had never hunted before now, I’ve been around hunters my whole life. I grew up in Michigan, where some schools close on opening day of rifle sea son. My first job was at a small daily newspaper. We ran photos of harvested deer every opening day. When I arrived at the office early that morning, the parking lot would already be packed with hunters eager to have their photos make it into that day’s paper. The vast majority of hunters learn the sport from their My dad “hunted.” My brothers and I suspect he spent most of his time in his trailer relaxing and would wander into the woods only occasionally. dads. Tim sent me a picture of himself and his son in their deer blind near Troy, with the lone deer they saw that day far in the distance. Another friend showed me a picture of his daughter, smiling broadly with her first deer that she harvested near Hannibal. When I told him of my missed chances, he told me she was available to serve as a hunting coach or consultant. My dad “hunted,” which I put in quotes because my brothers and I suspect he spent most of his time in his trailer relaxing and would wander out into the woods only occasionally. Maybe some years he remembered to bring

his rifle. His life with a wife and his four sons, who had been born within a six-year span, was pure chaos, and if his way of escaping was to flee the suburbs of Detroit for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for two weeks every year, I do not judge. In preparing this story, I learned he took my three brothers out into the woods with him. He never took me. My guess is that’s because he knew I wouldn’t shut up. He’s right! I would have asked him 10 billion questions. Just like I did during this trip with Aaron and Nate. ●●● My twin friends own the land with their brother, Dave, and parents, Carl and Sherry. They believe strongly that the point of having such a property is to share it. Among the friends who visit there often, the place is known sim ply as The Property. It was the ideal location for a new bie—abundant deer, lots of the fragmented landscapes Kevyn described, and private. By the time I arrived on the Sunday of opening weekend, the family had already gotten five deer. “There’s going to be none left!” I texted to Aaron. “Not likely,” he responded, and my three days there proved him right. Still, the number of deer and our success hunting them was only marginally important to the amount of joy the trip yielded. I’m not the only one who thinks hunting is fun regardless of my success. For proof, I submit that, according to stats provided by Kevyn, the average num ber of deer harvested in the last five years in Missouri is 290,586. Compare that with the number of hunters: 485,000. Considering many hunters get more than one, that means many, many hunters go home unsuccessful, and yet they go back again, year after year. It’s a strange sport that so many people fail and yet remain eager to try again. I learned why at The Property. The beauty, the silence, the reverence all make an indelible, lasting impression on us. Yes, the actual process of hunt ing is thrilling, and it always will be, no matter how many years we return home empty handed. At The Property, I discovered the camaraderie, the laughs, and the bonding are at least as important as filling a freezer full of venison. Aaron, Nate, and I spent downtime in the afternoon

The Washington County acreage owned by the Blough family, with its mix of thick woods and open fields, is an ideal setting for a deer hunting expedition.

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