DEER SEASON!!!!

I am going a little different direction with this blog away from college football toward deer hunting. One of the great joys in my life is deer hunting. The reasons are really endless. In my opinion there are really 3 opening days for deer season in Mississippi. They are bow season, rifle season, and rut. Today/tonight there will be a lot of people across the state of MS loading up with family and friends to go to deer camp. Weekends like this are when I appreciate living in MS where spending time at hunting camp with people close to you are a part of life.

This hunting season may be my most special one yet just because of how hard it has been to get back to this point. The last 5 months have been about trying to get things back to normal after the flood that will be known as the Great MS River Flood of 2011. The road back has been far from easy, and it is something I hope I don’t have to ever deal with again. I have had countless people spend hours and hours helping me. To everyone that helped me I say THANK YOU because there is no way I could have done it without all of you. All things being said everything is getting close to normal. From the 6,000+ pictures I have gone through since September the deer herd looks solid on Davis Island. The pictures I have pulled have been a serious help with motivation through the middle of all the hard work.

Over the last few years I have grown to learn more and more about deer. One thing that consistently comes up is hunting a mature white tail deer (4.5 years or older) is extremely difficult. These animals are typically very smart. Most serious hunters are well aware of how smart these animals are because if you have hunted one you have failed before. Many people are constantly talking about how much a deer scored, and I will admit I am one of the worst about it. The real truth is that if you kill a buck, whether it is small or large, that is a mature animal you should be proud of yourself.

I have been thinking back the last few days about my hunting experiences last year. Last year I killed the biggest deer of my life up to this point, but as crazy as it may sound that was not my best hunting experience of the year. My last hunt of the year last season was one with Stephanie. During the hunt there were deer everywhere. I can’t remember the exact amount but it was around 13 or 14 with 5 nice bucks in the field at one time. After the hunt we talked a little about what had happened. I don’t know if she realized how unbelievable of an experience that was until I told her that was the best hunt I had ever been on in my life. It is afternoons like that where you really appreciate the opportunity to experience something like that.


These experiences I talk about do not start or end on the stand. They start with hunting camps. One of the things I have discovered over the last few years is that hunting camps are more along the lines of a social club than a hunting club. There are some people who are serious hunters. However, these people are way in the minority at my camp and at most camps I have been to. Hunting camps do start with people hoping to kill that great trophy buck, but they are more about everything else than actually killing something. If you read that and don’t understand what I am talking about you are missing out on one of the finer things in the life of a hunter.


I hope everyone reading this that is hunting this weekend/year has some good “experiences”. You will know when they come because it will be something you don’t forget. This is probably not being read by many people who don’t hunt, but if you are one of them then get someone to take you. At the very least you will get to experience some peace and quite which is valued at a premium these days. Thank you for reading and Good Luck! Wally