104-Year-Old Wisconsin Woman Bags Buck In First Hunt

PHILLIPS, WI — Florence Teeters was born in a small town in rural Wisconsin as World War I began to rage in Europe. She still lives in that small Wisconsin town.

She survived the great pandemic flu outbreak of 1918, lived through the Great Depression as a teen, and saw a man walk on the moon when she was in her 50s, and saw the Chicago Cubs win the World Series when she was 101.

And this past weekend, at the age of 104, Florence Teeters did something she’s never done before — she shot and killed a buck during her first-ever hunting trip. More than a half-million hunters applied for and received hunting licenses in Wisconsin this year. State officials are pretty sure she’s the oldest.

Florence’s son Bill went with her to the local gas station, Ball Petroleum, to get her first hunting license. The staffers working behind the counter were amazed as they tended to Florence’s license — and snapped a photo of her license.

Days later, they took another photo. But this time, donning an orange hunting jacket and orange hat, Florence was smiling in the parking lot with her first kill in the bed of a pickup truck.

“I took Mom out to the blind this year,” Bill said in an NBC 15 report. “I had a nice chair for her, and it was nice and warm. A little after 4 p.m., a buck shows up about 30 yards away. I tapped her on the knee, and I pointed. She nodded and smiled and was real quiet. Then she took the shot!”

Bill said his mother’s kill was a “spike” buck — a smaller animal with un-branched antlers.

This wasn’t Florence’s first adventure this year. Loved ones shared a photo on social media of the 104-year-old adventurer zip lining.

Wisconsin Hunt Down From Last Year

In total, 90,286 deer were harvested by gun and registered statewide during the opening weekend of the gun deer hunt in 2019, compared with 123,090 in 2018, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported. A total of 46,866 bucks were registered on opening weekend, compared with 67,636 in 2018 — a decline of about 30 percent.

“In 2018, we held the earliest possible deer season followed by the latest possible season in 2019,” DNR big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang said in a statement about the 2019 opening weekend. “This occurred between the 2012-13 and 2007-08 seasons as well, and we saw similar declines in opening-weekend registration totals.”

Despite the lower kill numbers, Wisconsin officials say more than half a million hunters purchased licenses to take part in opening weekend of Wisconsin’s 168th gun deer season.

According to state data released this week, sales for gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron licenses reached 782,815 as of midnight Sunday. Of that total, 555,227 were for gun privileges only. This number includes gun, patron and sports licenses.