Apex Predator

The Broken Bridge Buck

My brother joined me for a few days of hunting Red River Wildlife Management Area during the bucks-only season. Rain was in the forecast, but he drove up early for a morning hunt, and we decided to tough it out in our ground blinds.[…]

Deer Hunting

Back-to-back public-land bucks

I took some time off of work to enjoy the great outdoors. I was rewarded with some very exciting hunts, seeing both deer and hogs. I saw a nice buck on an afternoon hunt, but despite drawing back twice could not get an open shot.[…]

Deer of the Year

Young hunter kills second trophy buck in 2012-13 season

Miller Holt may never kill another buck in his life. No matter — the 6-year-old has already accomplished over a five-week period what few deer hunters ever have the opportunity to do in a lifetime.

After killing a 168 ⅛-inch 14-pointer on Nov. 16, the young hunter knocked down a 9-point deer on Dec. 23 that scored 149 6/8 inches Boone & Crockett.[…]

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Sibling Rivalry — How this brother-sister team hunt Atchafalaya WMA ducks

A midmorning hunt with a late arrival on the Atchafalaya Wax Delta was the plan. Adam Rhodes had no desire to get up at 3 a.m. to beat the weekend crowd to some of the better locations he already scouted and plugged into his GPS.

The diehard Morgan City waterfowl hunter had done the middle-of-the night thing before in order to beat others to a preferred location.

And he figured out it isn’t always necessary.

Rhodes is now accustomed to making later-in-the-day hunts on the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area, understanding the tidal conditions and advantages of scouting prior to hunting the vast 141,000-acre refuge that can only be reached by boat.[…]

Deer Hunting

Why a January rut?

Studies conducted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries indicate that whitetails in parishes along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers have a tendency to start pre-rut activities from mid-December, while the peak of the rut will often occur in January.[…]

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Bark up the right tree – How to make the most of squirrel hunting with dogs

Somewhere inside the small patch of woods surrounded by sugarcane fields, Hoke hunted. Maybe no more than 20 acres in size, if you flew over it the woodland would resemble a postage stamp stuck in the middle of an envelope.

A mix of hackberry, swamp maple, water and pin oaks, the isolated habitat wasn’t large enough to support a deer population, but it’s perfect for big red fox squirrels.

Hoke was used to the terrain, having hunted it before. There’d be no surprises on the afternoon. The goal was simply to spend a couple of hours hunting on a day already short because of winter, and if all went well the day would culminate with shooting a couple of the tree dwellers for the pot.[…]