Deer Camp: Where Boys Become Men and Legends

DEER CAMP: Where Boys Become Men and Men Become LegendsFor over forty years, my life has been measured not in calendar years, but in Novembers.In November of 1980, I was four months old, bouncing in a single-axle camper being dragged a mile up a dry creek bed in Bradleyville, Missouri. The air smelled like woodsmoke and Uncle Robert's cigarettes. Great Grandma Charlcie was already cooking in her tiny camper next door. I didn't know it then, but I had just been born into a brotherhood.This is not a how-to book. This is a how-we-lived book.DEER CAMP takes you from the rugged Ozark hollows of "Websters" - where we hunted by landmarks like Donnie's Point, the Rock Wall, and the haunted Silo - to the crop fields of northern Missouri, where the bucks grow heavy and the locals shrug at a 150-inch "Skyscraper."You'll sit with us on opening morning when sleep was impossible. You'll hear the deep BUUURRRRRRRR of the Taney County hammer that still haunts my dreams at the Silo. You'll taste Grandma Charlcie's peach pie and those jalapeno hushpuppies at noon, when the whole camp came back for fried fish and the morning debrief.You'll meet the legends: - Pop (Bob Rains), who swore by the Silo- Dad, who taught me to shoot at Donnie's Point- Coley, my brother in camo since we were in diapers- Great Grandma Charlcie, who never missed a season in 40 years- Uncle Roy, who drove from California every November- And the ol' magnum - a 7mm Short Mag that has killed more deer than CWDWith 16 never-before-published family photos from 1980 to today - from the Bradleyville camper to Big Steak Night to the full game poles up north - this is the visual history of a Missouri hunting family.From wool coats and bucket seats to heated shooting houses with swivel chairs, the gear changed. The trucks faded. The land at Websters sold. But the stories? The stories are built to last.If you ever sat in the dark waiting for legal light, if you ever measured your year by opening day, if you ever learned more about being a man in a deer stand than in a classroom - this book is for you.Welcome to Deer Camp.