First Deer Hunt Turns into Experience of a Lifetime
By Kelly Christopherson, 12/5/05

The opening day of deer season was unusual this year in many ways. The temperature was in the 50s and the wind was blowing hard. Getting a deer within shooting range was going to be difficult. That was the consensus of man deer hunters in the area, but for one young hunter, it turned out to be a very rewarding day.

Fourteen year-old Marc Jensen, Higginsville, Mo., got to his stand at six that morning and waited for daylight. This was his first time deer hunting and he was very excited. When first light came, Marc watched some turkeys in the field he was hunting over. As he was watching the turkeys, Marc caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

“I turned around to find a nice eight-point walking around behind me about 20 yards away,” Marc said. “But when I turned around to get a better look, I scared him away.”

Marc continued to play the waiting game, but not for long. About 10 minutes later, Marc saw more movement directly in front of him. This time, he waited before moving. The buck walked out into the corn field and Marc pulled up his rifle for a better look.

“All I could tell was that it was a decent buck,” Marc said.

At this point, the buck was about 350 yards away. Marc decided to take a chance and pull the trigger. Just as he was about to squeeze, the deer stopped and looked right at him.

“That’s when he started running at me,” he said.

The deer ran straight at Marc until he was almost 30 yards away, getting bigger and bigger as he came closer. The big buck then stopped and turned broadside.

“I was shaking badly at this point,” Marc said. “I tried to steady myself and after about a minute, I took the shot.”

The buck dropped to the ground. The young hunter could hardly contain his pride as he sat there looking down at the deer. Then, the buck jumped up and took off running. He shot once more and the deer fell again, this time not getting back up.

“I still had no clue as to how big the monster was,” Marc said.

He hopped out of the stand and went to find his older brother, Nick. They returned with their Gator to load up his kill. When he and his brother got to where the buck lay, the reality of what he had just done finally hit Marc.

“All I could do was gasp for air and shake,” he said.

The two brothers stood in the corn field and stared at Marc’s prize.

“That thing is huge,” Nick said.

They loaded up the deer and drove back to town. The boys drove around town, showing off Marc’s first deer.

“We showed him off for awhile then took him over to the big buck contest,” he said.

The contest scored the buck with the Boone and Crockett Club official measurements. The enormous deer scored 185 7/8 gross and 177 3/8 net green. According to official Boone and Crockett scorer Mark Moser, the official recorded score won’t be taken until the rack has dried for 60 days.

“ The gross score is the total measurement of the inside spread, the main beam and the length of the tines,” Moser said. “Once deductions are taken out, that gives you the net green score.”

After the rack dries, the official score is taken. This is the score used by Boone and Crockett to determine eligibility into the record books.

Other hunters didn’t fair as well as Marc did opening weekend. According to a news release by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), opening numbers were down by 23 percent as 102,545 deer were checked this year during opening weekend as opposed to last year’s record of 133,136 deer. This reflected the MDC’s prediction of lower harvest numbers due to a larger than normal acorn crop which let deer find food easier without moving around and the warm, wet weather that kept both deer and hunters staying put.

Overall deer harvest numbers for the season put Callaway County first with 4,002 deer killed. Second place went to Pike County with 3,703 and third was Benton County with 3,690 deer harvested. The total deer harvest for the November firearms season came to 205,460 deer.

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