Broadway & Doe

My Facebook friend, Mike Persichini took some pictures recently of a buck he named "Broadway" with a doe on lock-down.  Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Halloween

Before & After Netting On Buck

This buck was walking around with netting on his rack for awhile and my Facebook friend, Mike Persichini was able to get help in getting it off.  The first picture is September 24th and the second is October 3rd.  A lot of hard work went into saving this beautiful animal.  Many thanks to Larry Piotrowki for all his help, Mike said. 

Before

After - Ta Da!

Just waking up.

Waiting for him to wake up after being tranquilized to get the netting off his his rack. He went down in 5 minutes after going 30 yards.  It takes one to four hours to wake up but he woke up within two hours.  

Many thanks to Larry and Mike!  Awesomeness!

Louisiana Hunter Dies In Accident @ Deer Stand

A Calcasieu Parish man died in a hunting accident last Sunday in Sabine Parish.

The Sabine Parish coroner’s office has identified him as 53-year-old Paul W. Landry.

It appears that the Iowa resident stumbled on a large tree stump, causing him to tumble forward and strike his face or head on the lowest rung of his 14-foot metal ladder deer stand, Sabine Coroner Ron Rivers said.

The accident happened several hundred yards down a a high line that crosses Rattan Road off Louisiana Highway 473 in southern Sabine Parish.

Family members found Landry dead on the ground at the foot of his ladder deer stand when they went to check on him after he failed to answer repeated phone calls about noon, the coroner said.

Landry had left his residence to go deer hunting about 5:30 a.m.

Evidence shows he made several trips to take his weapon and backpack up his ladder stand.

A Nice 10-Pointer Plus Online Hunter Ed Class

10-Pointer - Gary "Heat the Grease" Thomas killed this 10-point buck on the opening day of deer hunting season at Oak Ridge in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Warren County.  My congratulations to Gary and that is a very nice 10-point!   

Online Hunter Ed Class - The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is now allowing the state's hunters to complete a mandatory education course online.

The internet course, "Today's Hunter In Mississippi," can be found at the agency's website, mdwfp.com.  The class is video-narrated and interactive.  The certificate from the online course can be presented as a digital or paper copy to license vendors to purchase a hunting license.

Residents under 16 who choose to take the internet course will still need to attend a three-hour classroom course before being certified.

The next classroom course offered in Warren County is scheduled for October 19, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Fisher Ferry Fire Department on Lee Road.

Registration for the classroom class must be done online at education.mdwfp.com/Web/Event/CountySelection.

Buck Finally Freed From Volleyball Net

My Facebook friend, Mike Persichini and his friend last Wednesday were able to get the net off of this buck.  He said it started out bad when we saw the Volleyball net buck. He was in bad shape with the net covering his eyes. Without the help of Larry Piotrowski I could have never done this, Mike said. The well laid out plan went perfect and everything after that was just awesome!! Can't wait to get back and see the buck we saved!!! And even "The Freak" showed up to see if his buddy was OK!! Big thanks to Larry Piotrowski!!  Someone asked Mike how did he get close enough to rescue him and Mike replied, Magic!

The Freak

Believe it or not but this is the same buck that got tangled up last year. He freed himself last year!!

Volleyball Net On Antlers

My Facebook friend, Mike Persichini said this buck should be able to get this volleyball net off quick, looks like a weak one. 

It happens every year!!  

My Picture Published In Today's Vicksburg Post

THANKS FOR VISITING:  Marian Ann Love shared this photograph of the American Queen as it travels south on the Mississippi River Wednesday on its way to Natchez after a full day in Vicksburg.  In order to travel under the bridges, the boat has to lower its iconic smokestacks.  Readers are invited to submit photos to share with other readers of The Vicksburg Post.  Simply email high resolution images in JPEG format to photos@vicksburgpost.com.

It makes my day when our hometown paper, The Vicksburg Post publish my photos.  Thanks so much!  I truly enjoy sharing my pictures with everyone who cannot see what I see in our historic civil war town where I have lived all my life.

Mississippi Hunters Took 918 Gators!

13-foot gator caught on Aug. 31 on the Mississippi River by Jonathan Cheney, Bradley Sullivan, Joseph Coggin and Robert Thompson.

Great weather, high water and increasing expertise made for a good alligator season in Mississippi's public waters, says state alligator program coordinator Ricky Flynt.

Hunters took 918 alligators from Mississippi's public waters this year, up 153 from last year's harvest, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said. Paul Edwards of Okolona and five others tied a state record by catching a 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) female.

"Water levels and weather are the single largest benefits to hunter effort and success," Flynt wrote in an email Monday. Higher water makes most river systems easier to navigate, he said, "and the weather was absolutely perfect for the entire 10-day season."

He said he also thinks experience gained since the state's first season in 2005 has made hunters better at finding and catching alligators.

The state record is 982 harvested in 2015, when 997 permit holders and their guests went out on the water and 693 groups brought home at least one alligator. About three-quarters of this year's 816 groups harvested a gator or two.

The time needed to find and harvest an alligator averaged nearly 10½ hours in 2015 but less than 8 hours this year, according to data provided by Flynt.

The number of alligators harvested is far less than the number caught. Hunters caught and released 2,147 alligators in 2015, 1,671 last year and 2,018 this year.

Permit holders have a season limit of two alligators. To ensure a good mix of younger animals and big old gators, both must be at least 4 feet (1.2 meters) long, and only one may be more than 7 feet (2 meters) long.

"Hunters target larger alligators as a 'trophy' and also target alligators that are slightly under 7 feet long due to the bag limit parameters. Most hunters capture multiple alligators each year but will release many until they capture one or two that meet their harvest expectations," Flynt wrote.

Bait and artificial lures are illegal in Mississippi. Hunters can snag alligators with weighted triple hooks, use a snare pole to get a loop of rope around an animal's neck, or shoot them with either a harpoon that has a detachable point or an arrow equipped with a fish point.

This year, 3,065 hunters participated, including 816 permit holders. The department said 617 permit holders and their friends caught at least one alligator this year.

The 10-day public harvest ended Sept. 9. The private lands season, which has some different rules and requires state harvest vouchers, continues until 6 a.m. Sept. 23. Far fewer alligators are generally taken on private lands - the four-year total from 2014 through 2017 was 411.

Shorter Deer Season Possible In MS South Hunting Zone

Deer season could be shorter this year in parts of Warren, Sharkey, Issaquena and Yazoo Counties under a proposal under consideration by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

The plan would create a new South Delta hunting zone for the 2019-20 season that encompasses areas affected by the Yazoo Backwater Area flood. Deer and other wildlife in the area have suffered as their feeding and breeding grounds were inundated. MDWFP spokesman Warren Strain said the proposal is intended to give the area’s herd time to recover and to study the long-term effects of the flood.

"It gives us time to evaluate, and to study, and that type of thing,” Strain said.

Strain said the proposal has not passed yet. The public comments stage of the process has ended, and a public meeting will be held Sept. 26 at MDWFP headquarters in Jackson, at 1505 Eastover Drive.

After the public meeting, the MDWFP will decide whether or not to proceed with the plan. If adopted, the new zone would likely remain in effect for two or three years according to a statement released by the MDWFP.

In the South Delta Zone, deer season would begin on Oct. 15 and end on Jan. 5. The start is two weeks later and the end about three weeks earlier than the rest of the state.

Hunters would also be limited to two antler-less deer and two bucks. In the state’s other five hunting zones, hunters can take up to five antler-less deer and three bucks.

Those rules would apply only in the South Delta Zone.

“It’s shortening the season a little bit. It’s not going to affect anywhere else,” Strain said.

Currently, MDWFP has divided the state into five hunting zones for deer season, with highways and geographical landmarks such as rivers serving as the boundaries. Vicksburg and its surrounding counties are in either the Delta or Southwest zones. The bag limits and seasons for most of the zones are the same, but there are a few subtle differences in some.

The South Delta Zone would be a sixth state zone defined as lands south of Bunge Road; south of Mississippi Highway 14; west of Mississippi 149; west of Mississippi 3; west of U.S. 61, from Mississippi 3 to I-20; and east of the state line in the Mississippi River.

Roughly speaking, it would include an area starting on the northwestern border of Vicksburg’s city limits and fanning out for about 50 miles through the Delta north to Anguilla. The Mississippi River forms the western boundary, and Mississippi 3 the eastern boundary. Yazoo City is on the extreme eastern edge of the zone.

Public lands included in the South Delta Zone would be Mahannah Wildlife Management Area, the new Phil Bryant WMA, Shipland WMA, Sunflower WMA, Howard Miller WMA, Lake George WMA, Twin Oaks WMA and the Delta National Forest.

The proposal would effectively divide Warren County into three hunting zones, with I-20 and U.S. 61 as the dividing lines.

The southwestern part of Warren County and western half of Claiborne County, as well as the northeastern quarter of Warren County, would remain in the Delta Zone.

The southeastern portion of Warren County and the eastern half of Claiborne County will remain in the Southwest Zone. The northwestern portion of Warren County would be in the new South Delta Zone.

By Ernest Bowker ~ The Vicksburg Post

The Freak

My Facebook friend from Michigan, Mike Persichini took these pictures of "The Freak" that he named and thought you would like to see them.  Awesomeness!