62 YEARS AGO: Ozark County has good chance to top state in hunting success

The following article was reprinted from the Nov. 22, 1962, edition of the Ozark County Times. 

[1962] Ozark County has a good chance to be the top deer hunting county in Missouri when the final tabulations of the kill during the state’s 7-day gun season are compiled by the Conservation Commission, although there are fewer hunters in the woods in this county than in some other counties in the state. 

At the checking station in Gainesville, a total of 602 deer had been checked by 6 p.m. Tuesday with the hunting season still to be open another 24 hours. Hunters are required to check all deer within 24 hours after they are killed. 

The first day started off with a rush of hunters checking in early deer. Jimmy Coffey was the first to bring a deer, and he was followed by 124 other hunters before 6 p.m. Those who checked in after that time were credited on the Tuesday count. 

Ozark county has been at the top of the unofficial tabulations consistently during the week, but the final figures for the kill in this county may be higher than the number checked at the stations.

Last year the estimated kill in Ozark county reached 650 but figures were not accurate as there were no checking requirements that year.

There is no way of telling how many hunters were in the woods this year, although Art Pinet, conservation agent, says that hunting pressure was not heavy especially in the final days of the season. About 700 tags including about 40 non-resident tags were sold but this again is no indication of the number of hunters as many buy their tags at home before coming here to hunt. The ratio of success is again an estimate, although the Conservation Commission says that 80 percent of the hunters got their deer in Ozark county in 1960. Of the deer checked by 6 p.m. Tuesday there were among 275 bucks and 327 were does. Among the hunters killing deer with large racks were: Cecelia M. Wilson, 8 pts; Charles Pratt, 9 pts.; Elmes Hurst, 8 pts.; J. H. Simpson, 10 pts.; Alfred Newton, 16 pts.; Hester Hesterlee, 12 pts.; Loyd Hambelton, 9 pts.; Floyd Killion, 12 pts.; and Norman Smith, 7 pts.

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The biggest buck checked in was a 16-pointer with irregular horns killed by Alfred Newton of Zanoni. The large buck weighed 181 lbs. field dressed, which would mean the live weight was 216 lbs.

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One of the youngest hunters to score was Mike Willhoit, 9, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Willhoit, who knocked over a doe. Mike was hunting with his father. When he called that he saw a deer, Tom first told him it was a cow, but when Mike called over that it was a deer, he told him to shoot it. Mike did. 

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One farmer in the Thornfield area was not too happy with deer hunters. A sign on his farm entrance said: “Some --- left the gate open. It took two men two days to round up the stock. If you open this gate, shut it.” Agent Art Pinet said that he really meant what the sign said for the farmer was sitting nearby with a 30-30 rifle to enforce his order. 

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Roy (Pop) Baker, 69, of Theodosia, who specializes in lunkers, was bass fishing Sunday. He said he saw two hunters on the bluff above him and a big buck hiding from them under the bluff. He cranked up his outboard and sped back to the boat dock. He drove in his car to Theodosia to buy a deer tag and then stopped by his trailer house for his 12-gauge shotgun and two slug-loaded shells. He got back in the boat and returned to the spot where he had been fishing, pulled  into the shore and got out. He found the deer lying down next to the bluff and shot once. The deer rolled down the hill toward him, and Baker fell down. In an awkward crouch he shot again, this time as he said, “In self-defense.” His prize was an 8-point, 210-pound buck. The full action took an hour and a half. 

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Paul Menaul of Ocie probably had the quickest and easiest hunt of the year. Menaul saw a deer through the window of his home. He opened the window and shot it. 

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The Bakersfield School had venison on the lunch program. Earl White, on his way to work in Gainesville, saw a deer that had been caught in a fence and was badly injured. He called Art Pinet, conservation agent, who shot it. According to law, game killed in such manner can be given by the agent to a hospital, school lunch program or to welfare recipients. 

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So far only one hunter has legally killed two deer, and that was James Heiskell, music instructor at Gainesville School. Friday, he shot his first deer with a rifle, and then about 8 a.m. Saturday, he got the second one with a bow on the McDonald farm about 5 miles north of Gainesville. He was using a 50-lb. bow and he made the kill at 30 yards. 

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There were two other kills with arrows but both were made before the gun season opened. The first was by Carl Hunt of Gainesville, who got a buck at 20 yards by using a 45-lb.  bow. The second successful bow hunter was Johnny Evans of Hardenville, who downed a yearling buck at 10 yards with a 50-lb. bow. 

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In addition to Ozark county and Missouri hunters, there were sportsmen here from Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas. 

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On the opening day, Mrs. Velda Morrison checked in a nice 8-point buck. A. B. Morrison, her husband, was driving her around the square in mid-morning, showing the buck, but he failed to get one. But after they returned home, he went out again and was back by noon with a spike buck. 

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Roger Maris, star baseball player with the New York Yankees, was one of the hunters in Ozark County this season. Maris, who was accompanied by Mike Rooper and Lester Schuppe, Kansas City businessmen, stayed at Rainbow Trout and Game Ranch at Rockbridge on his trip here.