Dean Gericke and Bill Coder
Posted By
Myndi Clements
at
8/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Dean 
Gericke (age 44) is known as the Road Warrior of the Missouri team. He resides in SE Michigan with his wife, Lisa, daughter, Mara and son, Kyle. Dean hunts the NE corner of the Show-Me State some 600 miles from home. Back in Michigan, Dean is employed as an Engineering Manager for an automotive parts supplier. In his spare time, Dean likes to develop his hunting properties, work out, shoot bows and chase the kids around. “Mara is active in pom and Kyle likes to play sports, which keeps both my wife and I running," Dean admits.
Dean has been managing his Missouri property for years to produce mature whitetails. When asked about the Missouri property, Dean comments, “I have been working that property for years to grow and hold big bucks. My neighbors and I try to follow QDM to varying degrees and it has paid off over time. 'Let ‘em go, let ‘em grow' is a motto we try to live by”.
Entering his second year hunting and filming for Midwest Whitetail, Dean Gericke has some new challenges entering the season in Northern Missouri. “I have a new hunting partner and more audio/video gear than last year to work into the hunts. Bill Coder and I have hit it off great so far this year through shed hunting, our turkey harvest and filming velvet bucks. The additional equipment should make for a better hunt for the viewers to watch.” When asked about his expectations for the year, Dean commented “Our goal is educate and execute. I will be doing everything I can to take a hit list buck early, and then get behind the camera for Bill. We really want to focus on the strategy behind our hunts, as well as improving the audio and video part of it as well”. When asked about the buck prospects for the year, Dean laments: “Our bucks took a pretty good hit a couple years ago, when blue tongue swept through the area. We, along with our neighbors, found evidence of this while shed hunting this past spring. This explains the lack of mature bucks we saw last year. There are a few good ones around, and you’ll have to stay tuned to see if we can close the deal on one”. You can bet Dean and Bill will be going in early and staying late.
Bill Coder
A new addition to Midwest Whitetail this year is Des Moines, IA resident Bill Coder. Although Bill resides in Des Moines with his wife and two children, Bill is filming and hunting with Team Missouri this year. Bill grew up in Northwest Missouri and that is where his Dad introduced him to the wonderful world of whitetail hunting, Bill said this about the experience “When I was seven my Dad took me deer hunting for the first time. A buck chased a doe right past our tree that morning and I watched him harvest that deer up close and personal. I’ve been hooked on hunting whitetails ever since.”
Bill hunts a series of family farms in North Missouri, as well as a piece of property he recently acquired in Southern Iowa. Both spots hold several mature bucks and you can bet that Bill will be keeping tabs on them throughout the season, Bill comments, “I’ll be focusing foremost on filming for my hunting partner Dean Gericke this season, but after that I plan on laying down a nice buck in both Missouri and Iowa this year. Between Dean and I, well, you’ll just have to watch this fall. It’s going to be a good year”.
Dean and Bill's 2010 Hit List
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"Opie"
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"Sugar Daddy"
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"Vlad the Impaler" (VTI)
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Dean's 2009 Hit List
When Dean was asked why he travels all that way to Missouri to hunt, he simply said “take a look……”
“DG SPECIAL” – this guy is certainly on the top of Dean’s hit list. Dean has never shot a non-typical deer let alone one of this magnitude. Dean has not seen this buck in the past. Dean remarks, "'DG Special' started hitting my new mineral site about a week after I put it in this summer. I don’t think I have ever seen bases like that.”
“CASPER”: Dean has watched this buck for the past 3 yrs. “This was the first drop-tine buck that I ever photographed. Now he has two drops, ” Dean commented. Casper never comes onto the property until Oct. and is only around for a day or so, then he is gone. That is how he earned his name; he's a ghost. We will all have to wait until October to see if he shows up again.
Here is a picture of "Casper" in 2006. You can see that he has a drop tine on his left side. You can also tell that he is a fairly young deer and still has a lot of room to grow.
This picture is of "Casper" in 2007. He put on some tine length and his bases really started to get bigger.
In 2008, you can tell "Casper" made a big jump. He grew another drop tine and grew split brow tines. Look how much it pays off to let this type of buck grow.
“OCHO”: This buck is the biggest 8 pt. Dean has on his property. Fully mature, this buck will make a fine trophy. “I usually have a good 8 pt. running around each summer. I like to try to harvest that buck because they are typically fully mature, and I like to take the 8 pt. genetics out of the herd if I can,” Dean says.
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“HOLY BUCKETS”: “This was my initial comment when I first laid eyes on this buck back in mid-July” Dean exclaims. “I am pouring over pictures from last year to see if he could be a buck from last year or if he is new to the territory”. Regardless, this fine typical will certainly be my target this fall.
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“SHOOTER MCDAVENFORK”: He got the name because the split brow tines (forks) with buck sports. The buck has not been seen since the video was shot back in mid-July, but there are plenty of cameras out trying to get some still frames of this fine buck.
