#Deer game way to the woods full

McEvoy said that deer hunting allows him to appreciate the outdoors. Now, “I’ve been hunting with McEvoy for 15 years.” Horton said that’s how he began hunting as well. McEvoy loves introducing others to the outdoors and to their hunting party, and will teach anyone to hunt. He said hunting has been the catalyst for other friendships he has made as well. “If it had not been for hunting, we would still just be neighbors waving at each other,” Horton said. “You get to know people when all you have to do is talk-talk about the hunt, talk about everything,” he said. “It’s a good way to get to know someone,” he said. Willy Horton, 56, McEvoy’s neighbor and one of his frequent hunting partners, shared McEvoy’s sentiment that hunting with others creates friendships. McEvoy said it’s “back to the way it was 25 years ago or longer.” “So you sit and you talk with people,” he said with an air of nostalgia and appreciation.

#Deer game way to the woods full

In the evenings, he said, “we sit around the cabin talking about hunting, talking about life, and the different things we’ve done over the year.” He continued, “they have your full attention and you have theirs,” noting that there is little cell service, no internet, and no TV. “We always fix breakfast together,” he said of each morning, adding that they split up during daytime hunting hours. Every year, he looks forward to spending this quality time with them. Every year, he and his hunting party-regularly consisting of his nephew and neighbor-sleep in a small cabin near the Missouri River. To McEvoy, hunting is about friendship as much as anything. “We talk about our families.” McEvoy enjoys bringing them gifts to show his gratitude. He feels bonded to the land, and so he is bonded to its custodians. McEvoy pursued a relationship with the current owners, in part to keep the tradition going. Now, age 67, he continues taking an annual trip to the Boyd County farm where he, his nephew, and his neighbor harvest deer, and have done so for 28 consecutive years. He began harvesting deer as a young man in the mid-1970s with his father and brothers. McEvoy has been an avid hunter most of his life. “Then, just after legal shooting time, the deer stepped right in front of me-about 12 yards away. I’m looking at my watch and looking at the deer…looking at my watch and the deer.” recounted Phil McEvoy, a retiree and an avid hunter. Before legal shooting time, I saw a deer a couple of hundred yards away in the alfalfa. I was sitting in a scrubby tree on a fence line, overlooking an alfalfa line.