Colby Burns and his father Chad headed out into the fog on opening morning of the initial youth deer season last Saturday with high hopes of harvesting a nice whitetail. The morning hunt was special to them, as it was Colby's first and the weekend youth hunt offered the perfect setting to get his feet wet.

Father and son arrived at their spot and hunkered down, patiently waiting for the dense fog that blanketed much of Northwest Missouri to burn off. As luck would have it, the fog started to lift at around 10 a.m. As the surrounding landscape came into focus, Chad and Colby discovered a nice seven-point buck had wandered into view.

The buck was just over 240 yards away when the two decided Colby could take the shot. As the report from Colby's rifle echoed across the landscape, Chad strained to get a glimpse and happily discovered his son's first deer was on the ground.

"I just couldn't believe it," Burns said as he described his son's successful hunt.

Colby's buck added to the total harvest of 70 whitetails taken in Gentry County during the initial two-day youth season. These were fairly good numbers, considering weather conditions during the two days of hunting were unseasonably warm and less than favorable for deer hunting.

Of the 10,389 deer taken during the November two-day season, 6,332 of them were antlered bucks, 2,772 were does and the remainder were button bucks. While the four-point antler restrictions now cover most of central and northern Missouri, antler-point restrictions do not apply during the youth portions of the firearms season.

Top-producing counties in Northwest Missouri were Nodaway and Daviess with more than 100 deer taken, followed by Andrew and Gentry with around 70. The top county in Missouri was Osage (east of Jefferson City) with 270 and the lowest county was Pemiscot (in Missouri's boot heel) with only five deer checked in.

Youth deer hunters in Missouri will get one additional weekend this year all to themselves as the Missouri Department of Conservation has created a second youth portion that will be held on Jan. 3-4, 2009.

During this late youth portion, young hunters can take deer according to the permits they still hold; however, the conservation department noted that each youth hunter may take only one antlered deer during the entire firearms deer season. If a youth has already taken one antlered deer during one of the other portions of the firearms deer season, he or she may not take another during this portion.

The 2008-09 season will be the last time youth deer and turkey hunting permits will be offered. In an effort to simplify the permit system, MDC is eliminating these type permits. In 2009-10 everyone, including youth, will hunt under the same general permits.

The department is doing this in an effort to dispose of inequities and confusion about bag limits and other regulations during the whitetail season. MDC has established youth pricing (age 15 and younger) for next year's deer and turkey hunting permits at 50 percent of the adult price. The department believes these steps will not only simplify the system but also make permits more affordable and more accessible to young hunters.

Outdoors correspondent Jeff Leonard can be reached at outdoors@npgco.com