ROGER McKINLEY, CLINTON
The story of what happened to Roger McKinley on the second day of the 2004 firearms season is enough to make a dyed-in-the-wool trophy-or-nothing deer hunter pull his hair out by the roots. Conversely, McKinley's story is more than enough to make the rest of us think, "Wow! Maybe there'll come a day when something like that happens to me."

McKinley doesn't have to think about where he's going to hunt: He owns land in Henry County. He doesn't spend much time agonizing over what he's going to shoot, either, because in his own words, "I don't try to hunt for big bucks." His comment notwithstanding, Roger had passed up shots at does earlier in the season.

He decided to spend Sunday afternoon standing beside a big hay bale in a pasture with a big, tree-lined creek running through it. He knew from past experience that deer often traveled up and down the creek. About an hour later, 4:00 p.m., he saw a doe trotting along the outside edge of the creek timber, followed by a buck. Reflex took over, and he raised his rifle, swung with the buck and fired. It dropped in its tracks.

McKinley describes himself as a "lifetime deer hunter." He told me it had been a long time since he'd been "shook up" by the sight of a deer. However, when he approached this one, he remembers thinking that he had never believed deer like that existed outside of museums.

As of press time, the buck was still in the hands of Roger's taxidermist. Although he isn't completely certain, he believes the buck has 22 points. He knows he netted 210 2/8 as a non-typical and 181 5/8 as a typical.

Before we leave these fellows to bask in their well-earned glory, let's take a brief moment to see if we can learn something from when, where and how they took their bucks.

Four of the bucks were taken from stands on private land, to which access is obviously limited; two fell on opening day, and two were taken on the second day of the season. All four of these scenarios fit the conventional wisdom to a T -- a conventional wisdom defied definitively by Marshall Sparks, who killed his trophy still-hunting on public land on the seventh day of firearms season.

Three of the bucks were shot before 9:00 a.m., one before noon and the other around 4:00 p.m. This fact leaves little doubt as to why four of the five hunters firmly believed in hunting continuously from first legal light to last. Additionally, two of the bucks had lived long enough to grow trophy racks without being seen by or reported to the successful hunter. Three of the bucks had been seen by or reported to the successful hunter either during 2004 or prior seasons.

The evening buck was shot while using a timber-lined creek as a travel corridor across a pasture/hayfield. The morning and midday bucks were all taken in or near tall grass, where they presumably had gone to bed down. Given that you can't tag any deer, let alone a trophy buck, unless you're outdoors, the type of habitat in which these bucks were found is by far the most important information you can glean from this article.

In Missouri today, trophy bucks and tall grass (e.g. CRP or swampland) go together like powder and ball. Bucks like it because its interior is nearly unhuntable. Wise hunters have learned that elevated stands covering trails leading into and out of the thick stuff are as near a sure thing as you'll find in deer hunting.