At 4 in the morning it’s difficult to get any kid up and around, but for Ryan Seger it wasn’t a problem. The 7-year-old hunter had a goal in mind and a little early morning grogginess wasn’t about to deter him from it.

Within an hour, he had eaten breakfast and headed out with his father, Mike, and his .223 Remington Model 7 in search of his first whitetail.

It was a slow morning in the blind. A little heater was doing its best to fight off the early January cold. This was Ryan’s very first hunt and he remained vigilant, awaiting his opportunity to help bring home some fresh venison.

At around 8:20 a.m., Ryan and his father spotted a single doe around 140 yards away. As Ryan readied his rifle to take the shot, the doe had other plans and hung up in a patch of cedars before disappearing from sight.

By 4:20 p.m., no other deer besides the doe had made an appearance. It looked as though Ryan’s first hunt wasn’t going to end as he had hoped. Then suddenly from behind the blind Ryan and his father heard a deer blow. And then another.

With hope of still pulling out a successful hunt, they waited patiently, but nothing appeared, and the woods fell silent once again. At 4:30 p.m, the hunters decided to try using a Vector grunt call in a last-ditch effort to bring a deer within range. After a series of grunts, three bucks amazingly decided to make an appearance about 120 yards to the right of their blind.

The bucks seemed intent on heading to a field near Ryan and his dad. Ryan placed his rifle to his shoulder. The first buck stepped into his shooting lane and began feeding. Ryan slowly lowered his rifle and whispered to his father that he thought it was too far to shoot. After being reassured by his father that the deer was right at 100 yards, the exact distance he had practiced all year long, his confidence was restored.

During the momentary pause, the first deer had passed his shooting lane and the second buck followed suit never offering a shot. After a quick blast on the grunt tube the third buck stopped in the opening. Ryan removed his safety and carefully took his shot as his first buck dropped right in his tracks.

Like most kids in this position, Ryan was very excited, but his excitement was not because he had taken a great buck.

“He would have been just as happy with a doe,” said his father, Mike.

He was excited because like his dad, Ryan was now able to be a contributing member of his family by putting a lot of fresh meat on the table.

Ryan’s deer was just one of 12,172 deer taken during the two portions of the youth firearms deer seasons in Missouri. Only 1,772 whitetails were taken during the final portion held last weekend.

Sixty-three percent of the deer harvested during the final youth segment were does. Seventeen percent were button bucks, and the remaining 20 percent were antlered deer. The final harvest count was a 1 percent drop from last year’s total.

While this is the third largest youth harvest on record, the 2008-2009 season also was the first to offer two youth hunting segments of two days each. Previously, youth seasons were held only once per season for two days only. The best season for youth hunters was in 2004, when they checked in a total of 13,466 deer.

With the close of the final youth season, the total firearms deer harvest rate in Missouri for the 2008-2009 season will end at 238,319. This is a decrease of 21,343 deer from the previous season.

The Missouri Department of Conservation attributes the decrease to several factors, including the implementation of minimum antler-point restrictions in 35 new counties, an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease in some areas, difficult hunting conditions during some segments of the season and the success of long-term efforts to reduce deer numbers in some areas.