Local 9-year-old boy bags a doe, six-point buck with one shot

The first time Colton Edwards ever bagged a deer, he did it right.

He shot two at a time.

The Cape Girardeau 9-year-old, a third-grader at St. Vincent de Paul School, made the shot Sunday from 80 yards in a tree stand on the Edwards family farm near Whitewater. He said a doe and a six-point buck were standing side-by-side, he aimed for the buck with his SKS rifle, and the doe raised her head into the line of fire.

The doe dropped 30 yards away. The buck went farther.

"I just knew I got the buck, too," Colton said.

His dad was less convinced, but Kevin Edwards and Colton spent two hours searching for the buck to no avail.

They checked the doe at a Missouri Department of Conservation station in Gordonville around 10 a.m. and went home. The phone rang a few hours later. It was a farm neighbor calling to say that another neighbor, Kyle McDowell, had found the buck in a creek behind his house. It died a mile away from where it was shot.

"I told Colton, and he was jumping up and down and hollering," Kevin said.

Kevin used his deer tag to check in the buck. Conservation agent Gene Myers said Colton legally could have taken credit for both because of the remarkable feat of killing two deer with one shot.

"It does happen. It's a rarity," he said. "But I've never heard of one around here involving a nine-year-old."

He said, in such cases, hunters should take both deer to the checking station or call the county sheriff's office.

"We presume, if a person shows up at the checking station, the person is trying to do what's right," Myers said. "If they try to sneak one home, that muddies the water."

Colton, who has been bow hunting since age 6, said he will have the buck's head mounted.

Firearms season runs through Tuesday. Muzzle-loaded season runs from Nov. 28 through Dec. 7. Tags are good for both bucks and does this year.

hhall@semissourian.com

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