I consider myself blessed in many ways. Among those blessings are the many great memories of childhood hunting adventures. Dad, my grandfathers and uncles made sure I got to tag along on lots of great hunts as a kid.[…]
Jimmy Riley knows bucks. It’s his job, since he’s the head guide at Giles Island Hunting Club, one of the South’s premier outfitters, and a star on Mossy Oak’s “Deer Thugs” on the Pursuit Channel.[…]
For the better part of a year, Judd Chapman’s trail cameras showed the image of a buck he wanted. After reading everything he could get his hands on, studying topographic maps and relying on photos from strategically placed trail cameras to determine the location of the buck’s sanctuary, Chapman hit the jackpot on Dec. 14 when the 150-class 13-point buck made a fatal mistake.[…]
The 7-point buck presented a perfect 40-yard broadside shot. Ben Fontenot had been waiting for this moment for a long time. A whitetail deer, his whitetail deer, the first he would shoot, was within his sights.
Fontenot expertly lined up his scope, and he held the crosshairs right behind the buck’s shoulder. All he had to do now was send a round from his .270 downrange and then go collect his deer, but something went wrong.
“My battery started going dead,” he said. “We had to get out of the blind and go back to get another one. I was nervous as all get out by the time we got back to my blind — didn’t know if I was going to get to kill that deer.”
But the buck did come back out. Only this time, it wasn’t in a good position. Try as he might, Fontenot couldn’t get his rifle lined up with the deer. It was too far to the side. In the commotion of repositioning his blind and his rifle, the deer left again.[…]
Where are all of the ducks?
This is the question that has been reverberating throughout South Louisiana after a generally weak opening weekend for the eastern and coastal zones’ second split.[…]
Most seasoned deer hunters have been on a hunt that lasts a couple of days. But how many of them can say they essentially shot, tracked and shot again to kill the same deer over the course of a two-day period?[…]
If only Pelayo were as punctual as wood ducks. The exasperating two-winged creatures keep a rigid daily schedule, flying exactly five minutes before and five minutes after legal shooting time.[…]
Lake Providence brothers Bo and Tim Holt, along with Tim’s son Miller, worked a spell of magic on three gargantuan East Carroll Parish bucks this season, with 6-year-old Miller starting the onslaught on Nov. 16 — the last day of special youth hunting season prior to opening of regular gun season.[…]
Ducks don’t talk to each other nearly as much as hunters think, especially during the late season. Just as a roomful of people will migrate away from a loud, obnoxious guy who tries to dominate the conversation, ducks will exhibit the same behavior.
The more you call, the less likely that you’ll attract ducks, especially during January.
Rod Haydel of Haydel Game Calls started going to the duck blind with his dad at the age of 5. Over the last 41 years, he’s hunted webfoots all over the nation, primarily in the marshes around Lake Charles in southern Louisiana.[…]
Call it beginner’s luck or call it fate.
Whatever you call it, James Faulk experienced it on the morning of Dec. 7 in a deer stand near Toledo Bend. Faulk, a 30-year old Erath resident, was hunting that day on his brother Clint’s Vernon Parish lease.[…]
Tommy Milioto Jr. knew the deer was there. He had seen too many pictures of the fine buck. The problem was all the pictures were snapped at night.[…]
I remember the first Ruger 10-22 carbine I came across.[…]
Now that the jet stream has finally dipped down far enough to give Louisiana a taste of the arctic chill, the ducks should be migrating in full force. This weekend (Dec. 15-16) is opening weekend for the coastal and eastern waterfowl zones, and any outdoorsman with a shotgun should be in a duck blind to get in on the action.[…]
Some people are lucky enough to shoot the deer of a lifetime early in life or on their first hunt. Others have to wait much longer to bag the buck of their dreams.[…]
If you like baseball, then you probably watched the World Series games between the Rangers and the Cardinals. If you did, you saw some excellent hitting — Albert Pujols hitting three homers in a game, Josh Hamilton hitting what Ranger fans thought was the Series winner in Game 6.[…]
The last thing you want when you’ve been hunting through dew, mud and muck for three days is to hear a click when you have the perfect lead on a decoying mallard or pintail. So it’s wise to carry the most-dependable shotgun when you head to the duck blind.[…]