Missouri man kills deer with ancient weapon. ‘Beyond the coolest thing I’ve ever done.’

Over the weekend, a Missouri man took down a deer in southeastern Callaway County the hard way.

He used a weapon with ancient DNA — a spear launcher used in prehistoric times called an atlatl.

The feat earned Johnny Williams of De Soto a congratulations from the Missouri Department of Conservation, which posted a photo Monday of Williams, the deer and the spear on its Facebook page.

“Johnny said he’s been practicing two times a day for the last couple months to prepare for the archery season,” the department wrote. The dart used was 7’ long, and Johnny made the spear head himself.”

Williams felled the doe while hunting at Reform Conservation Area, the department wrote.

“I have harvested several deer with a bow and three with a recurve, but this was beyond the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” he told conservation officials.

Atlatls “are one of the allowed methods hunters can hunt with during archery deer and turkey season,” the department wrote.

It’s an “ancient hunting tool that uses a hand-held, arm-propelled launcher to project a 6-foot spear at its target,” the Missouri Conservationist — the department’s monthly magazine — wrote in June, noting that only a small group of hunters in Missouri use them.

“It has a handle on one end and a socket on the opposite end that holds the end of the spear or ‘dart,’ much like the nock of an arrow fits onto a bowstring,” the magazine wrote. “The additional leverage provided by the atlatl allows the user to throw the dart much quicker — up to 100 miles per hour — than he or she could with arm-power alone.”

The weapon was approved for hunting small game in Missouri in 2007 and for deer hunting in 2010, according to conservation officials, which makes successful use of them notable.

According to Conservationist, no one felled a deer with an atlatl in 2010, the first season they were allowed for deer hunting. But then “two Missouri hunters harvested deer with darts and atlatls within 24 hours of one another in 2011,” Conservationist wrote.

Dawn Wagner of Truxton, Missouri, made headlines last year when she became the first woman in modern U.S. history to take a deer with an atlatl, reported the Springfield News-Leader.

“Most people don’t give the caveman or early man enough credit,” she told The Kansas City Star. “Cavemen were very smart. They figured out how to attach a stick to a stick, to give it that much more leverage and power.”

Jerry Nevins, the president of the Missouri Atlatl Association, told The Star the difficulty of using one “is so high. It’s one thing to throw at a target, it’s another to throw at an animal that’s watching you.”

More than 500 comments left under the photo of Williams on the conservation department’s Facebook page include cheers and jeers. The post has been shared nearly 500 times.

“A small deer, yes,” wrote one man. “But he probably made a better shot on that little deer than you can with a rifle. Don’t put people down for doing something you’re completely incapable of doing yourself.”

Caustic comments caused the department to post this note: “This hunter harvested a legal deer using a legal, unique, and difficult method. We congratulate him. Keep comments respectful and on topic or they will be deleted and you may be banned.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2018 at 12:59 PM.