Deer Hunting
From a female hunter’s viewpoint
I met my very first lady deer hunter the exact same year I participated in my first deer hunt in 1971 while in college. I hunted with a college buddy on his family land in Central Missouri. […]
Woods Wise
Hunting
Time for summer hunting tune-up
Ok, it’s hot as the dickens. August in Mississippi has got to be about the worst time of year for hunters except for the Wildlife Extravaganza outdoors kick-off show the first weekend. At least that event helps get us in the mood for the coming hunting seasons. […]
Bass Fishing
Is it too hot for bass in July?
I’ve heard many an angler bemoan the summer months for fishing in Mississippi. I mean, there is no escaping that the atmospheric conditions usually prevailing this time of year in terms of the ambient temperature, as well as the humidity (which can be the worst of the two comfort factors), keep many fishermen at the house under the air conditioning. […]
Freshwater Fishing
Doing the crappie jig
Now I’d be the first to admit that, at my age, my dancing days are over, but I sure do love to slip a bright colored, fluffy-tailed jig hook down into some prime crappie cover. […]
Columns
Feed deer now with spring plots
May is a good time for planting spring wildlife food plots for white-tailed deer. There are also spin-off residual benefits for other game like wild turkey, quail, dove and even small game like rabbits. […]
Turkey Hunting
Blind as a bat
Turkey hunting can sure seem like hunting blind sometimes. Gobblers can appear out of thin air as though in a vision. Hens pop up behind you with peering eyes picking up on every out-of-place detail in the woods. […]
Turkey Hunting
Freeze, you’re busted!
Don’t tell me you’ve never done this. You turkey hunt and you’ve never been caught on the short end of the stick? Yeah, right. I’ve been busted so many times the stick is worn down to a nub.
The best part of that means I have had the blessed fortune to turkey hunt a lot and be guided by some of the best, but I really wish I could say I have learned from my mistakes. I just chalk up all the goofs to the nature of the game of turkey hunting. […]
Other Hunting
It’s leisure time
By this time of year, most hunters are worn out. Deer hunters have been in the woods since way back in October. Bowhunters are tired, deer dogs are thin as wheat wafers, even the deer are glad the season has finally come to a close. […]
Waterfowl & Duck Hunting
The shotgun evolution
Duck guns used to be a big deal — really. In the old days, it was not all that uncommon to run into a salty waterfowler toting a 12-pound 10-gauge double slung over one shoulder along with a huge bag of real wood decoys over the other. Back in the way back day, it was still possible to catch a goose hunter carrying an 8-gauge, but by the 1950s, those were mostly long gone with modern duck guns taking over the scene. […]
Deer Hunting
Eyes in the woods
The firestorm over the use of digital trail cameras for deer hunting rages on. The debate among hunters is whether the information revealed by trail cameras is of any real value or is it just imagined? […]
Hunting
Precision scope mounting
With rifle season just around the corner, the calls and inquiries start each year about the proper way to mount a scope on a hunting rifle. The operative term here is proper. If you buy a new rifle with a scope and allow the store “gunsmith” to mount the scope, it had better be somebody you really trust. This is even more important if they also perform a bore sighting for the new scope on the rifle. […]
Hunting
Totin’ tools; Plan ahead for unexpected
When I was a kid back, my mom owned the local auto parts store with a full stock of hand tools. Every spring the farmers would file in the door to buy their annual restock of tools, which were lost or otherwise misplaced from the season before. This was an annual event in our store. It was proof, of course, of how valuable a good complete set of tools was. It still is today. […]