How I Feel

Benefits Of Harvesting & Eating Venison

One of the greatest pleasures that deer hunting brings is the satisfaction of feeding the ones you love with the meat from the hunt. Filling the freezer with the meat from just one harvested deer could feed the family for months, or even a year which makes it a cost effective and convenient source of food. There are many reasons to harvest and eat venison. This detailed info-graphic created by GOODGAMEHUNTING showcases the many benefits of hunting deer and eating this tasty red meat and also compares how these benefits stack up against eating store bought beef. As the graphic highlights; venison is organic and natural, very healthy, and contains half the fat of beef when comparing similar cuts of the meat. It's no wonder why many consider venison the ultimate red meat.

Who I Am

Time-lapse Of Antlers Growth

Watch these two whitetail bucks grow huge antlers in 2 minutes.

These videos from the Mississippi State Deer Lab shows the antler growth cycle of two huge antlered bucks in their study group.

Deer drop their antlers at the end of winter and start growing them again during the spring.  It's interesting to watch a time lapse of the antler growth and MSU did a nice job with these two videos.

The first video is of a whitetail buck called Doc.  He grows a very impressive looking rack with a huge drop tine.



The next video is a whitetail buck called Meatball.  His rack doesn't grow quite as big as Doc's, but, it's still very impressive!

Pretending It's Hunting Season

Happy 8th Birthday Emma!

My second to youngest granddaughter is 8 years old today.  Emma lives in Virginia and wishing that I could be with her to celebrate her special day.  I sung Happy Birthday to her earlier today and she was getting ready to go to her skating rink birthday party.  That should be loads of fun!  Here she is at 5 years old before her baby sister (Kate) was born April 2013.  She came to Vicksburg to have Thanksgiving dinner with her extended family in November 2012. Gran Gran misses and loves you so much.  Wishing my sweet little Emma a very Happy 8th Birthday today! 

A Mockingbird Song

Today while I was out I decided to drive by the Louisiana Circle to see if I could catch a towboat in the MS River but unfortunately I just missed one going around the bend.  I then noticed a mockingbird on top of a rotten tree stump and took a picture of it through my windshield.  A couple of years ago I took a similar picture of a mockingbird on this very stump and submitted to our paper which was published. Below is a close-up of the mockingbird singing a happy song on a pretty hot day in my hometown of Vicksburg, MS.  

Singing a happy song!

A Warning!

Mossy Oak Song

Pass It On!

A BIG Catch!

My "new" Facebook friend Lainey Prejean Smith's grandson, Edward, is showing off his big catch of the day!  You can tell by the smile on his face that he's a proud fisherman.  I know his grandmother is very proud of him and so am I in our great wild outdoors.  Way to go Edward!

Hunting Near A Swamp

One day while walking to my deer stand to do an afternoon hunt, I stopped to take this picture at Jasper Bottom Hunting Club in Claiborne County, MS.  This camp is where I harvested my very first deer, a 6 point buck, near the Big Back River.  So many good memories were made at this camp and I had to leave a few years ago because of the dues going up.  I harvested many a deer during my 25 years there.  I'm lucky now to have friends that invite me to hunt on their land and hope to keep hunting for the next 10 to 15 years in our great wild outdoors! 

A Bear Scare

The Other White Meat

Shoot or Pass?

A Monster Buck

Buckaholics Anonymous?  Yes, I'm an addict...I love big bucks and I cannot lie!  The sun was setting and I started getting the shakes, just had to go for another ride!  Got all of this and some video to, without ever getting out of the truck!  The bucks are getting familiar and used to me in my truck!  I haven't bothered them in any way so they're getting more willing to pose for pictures and video! Published on July 11, 2015 by my hunting friend mrjbigfoot a.k.a, Mike Johnson of Ohio!

Innocence

Hunter Education Courses

Safety First:  Moriah Hixson, left shoots an air rifle alongside her mother Vickie, during a hunter education course at Hinds County Community College in 2013.

Hunting season is approaching, and now is the time to register for hunter education course.  In order to become certified, students must be at least 10 years old, attend all classroom hours and pass an exam.

Courses are offered and taught by Mike Richmond of Mahannah Wildlife Management off of U. S. 61 North.  Hunter education classes are also free, but unlike in past years students must pre-register online at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries web site: www.mdwfp.com

Richmond has scheduled classes for August 22, September 19 and December 5.

"We cover everything from firearm safety, recognizing game and survival," Richmond said.

One of the objectives of Richmond's classes is to teach his students how to be better person and the difference between right and wrong.

"If you're out in the woods by yourself there's no referee to throw the penalty flag," Richmond said.  "I hope when they come out of my class, they are ready to make those personal choices with the knowledge to make the right choice."

Richmond has been hunting since he was 10 years old.  He started off hunting deer and became a certified hunting instructor in Mississippi in 1978.

He's also certified in Louisiana and Arkansas and enjoys being in the woods.  Sometimes, he won't even hunt.  I'll go out there and harvest a deer early on in the season and just watch things go on around me," Richmond said.

Richmond decided to get into hunter safety and instruction in 1971, the year the program started in Mississippi.  Richmond was a part of the Optimist Club and the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks came to a meeting asking if anyone wanted to become instructors.  They were trying to get more volunteer instructors as demand grew for hunting certifications.

Hunter education certification is required to purchase a hunting license for anyone born on or after Jan 1, 1972.

Richmond enrolled his children in hunter education classes and the same woman who taught him instructed them.  She encouraged Richmond to get back to instructing and asked "Why are you in the class and not teaching it?"

Through a series of word-of-mouth events in Louisiana and trying to get hunter education classes started, Richmond became certified in that state.  Since the 1980's he has been doing a minimum of three to four classes a year there, and has taught as many as 10 in a year.

He received his certification in Arkansas after people from that state were traveling to his Louisiana classes. Richmond decided to help them start a local program.  He hasn't been to Arkansas and lets the young guys who he helped organize the classes handle them.

The certification exam consist of 40 questions.  A student must answer 70 percent - 27 questions - to pass. Questions cover proper ways to handle a firearm, survival and basic supplies.

"If you listened, it's multiple choice.  If you didn't, it's multiple guess," Richmond said.  
~ The Vicksburg Post

Biggest Catch Of The Day!

Cory shown here after saving this little bucks life in Lake Barkley, Kentucky.  Cory said it was their biggest catch of the day! Awesome!

Alligator Hunting Permits Available

Record Breaker:  Brothers Dustin Bockman, from left, Ryan Bockman and friend Cole Landers in 2013 stand behind their record setting alligator weighing in at 727 pounds.

Mississippi's alligator hunters can start buying permits tomorrow, but they'll have to move fast.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) has changed the process for issuing permits from a drawing to a first-come, first-served online sale.

Ricky Flynt, the MDWFP's alligator program coordinator, said the elimination of the drawing is intended to require people to put up the money for the permit before obtaining one.

"We've discovered that about 25 percent of the hunters every year are not participating in the hunts annually," Flynt said.  "Nothing has changed in alligator hunting season, except we've done away with the drawing and the process you obtain the permits."

Only 920 permits will be available when they're offered for sale starting tomorrow at 9 a.m. at mdwfp.com.

The 2015 Mississippi public waters alligator hunting season begins August 28 and runs through September 7.

Permits are now limited to residents only, and each person limited to one permit in a hunting zone of their choice, if available.  Payment for the possession permit and the alligator hunting license must be submitted immediately and is non-refundable and non-transferable.

To be eligible for an alligator permit, hunters must be at least 16 years old and have a valid Mississippi combination hunting or fishing license.

Hunting permits will now cost $150 and will require the additional purchase of a $25 alligator license.  Each permit will allow hunters to harvest two alligators over 4 feet long, and only one gator 7 feet long.

Mandatory attendance for the alligator hunting training class has not be voluntary.

Flynt said the class has been around for 10 years and 5,000 people have been trained in the alligator hunting process.

"Majority of those people were not first time alligator hunts.  They've been involved with the process and are familiar," Flynt said.  "We still have the course for the first time hunters.  We saw no need to require those people to attend if they knew those processes before hand,"

Course topics include alligator biology, research projects, legal capturing and dispatching methods, skinning, and processing.

Last year there were 682 gators harvested in Mississippi.  While there's no way to gauge the number of expected gators this year, Flynt hopes participation and the number of harvest gators will go up.

"With higher river levels during alligator season, traditionally it seems to provide for better access to the hunters and increase their success," Flynt said.

Run Squirrel Run

Hawkeye going in but not sure about the location of the squirrel!

A Great Catch!

Christian Stinson, 10, caught a blue catfish in the Mississippi River June 1.  He used a rod and reel, and with the help of his dad Clyde who netted the fish, he was able to catch it after 10 minutes.  The fish was estimated to be around 35 to 40 pounds.  

As you can see by the look on his face that he's very proud of his accomplishment.  It will be a great fish story that will remain with him the rest of his life.  My congrats to Christian on catching the big fish in our great wild outdoors!   ~The Vicksburg Post

Two Deer Held Captive!

I read this in the news this week where a West Virginia man was charged with holding two deer captive inside his home, according to the state's Natural Resources Police.

According to police, two officers were on their way Saturday to boat patrol duties in Cabell County, in the western part of the state, when they received a complaint of deer being kept inside a home.

Officers responding to the home found two bucks inside, where they had been living for "at least a year."

The male occupant of the home was charged and prosecution is pending, according to the statement by police.  The deer were set free.

In West Virginia, it is illegal to confine wildlife or secure them in an area where they are not able to roam free or come and go as they please, according to the agency.

Moose With Sleigh Hoof?

Anchorage - What's going on in this photo of an Anchorage moose with bizarrely shaped hooves?  An uncommon copper deficiency sometimes seen across south-central Alaska, explains state wildlife biologist David Battle.

Channel 2 viewer Becki Grady saw the animal crossing Elmore Road as she drove to work Tuesday morning.

"I've lived in Alaska my entire life and have never seen a moose like this," she wrote. "I thought it had been injured until I saw that all four of its hooves were curved like that."

Battle said the copper deficiency causes moose hooves to grow faster than they can wear away. The condition results in an elongated and curved hoof, commonly known as 'sleigh hoof.'

"We see them every so often here in Anchorage and I know sometimes on the Kenai Peninsula," Battle said. "We get reports of them in Anchorage about once or twice a year at best ... it's not very common." 

According Battle, the south-central region of Alaska has low levels of copper in the soil and vegetation that moose commonly eat, which could explain why more reports of the phenomenon are made here than in other parts of the state.

Why don't a higher number of moose in the region display this deformity? Natural selection, Battle said. "When you have a deficiency of a needed mineral in a particular area, some individuals will be more efficient at absorbing it than others."

Battle said there wasn't much known about whether this deformity could put the moose at a higher risk of injury or death.

"More often than not, the extended hoof will break off on it's own and it won't bother the moose but I would expect that if that moose was in a region where it was running into predators - bears, wolves, etc. - it would probably stand a higher chance of being taken down by a predator," he said.  Courtesy of Channel 2 KTUU

Who's Ready For Deer Season?

A Nice Hog Kill

A really nice hog killed by Brian Jackson in a huge cornfield.  My congrats to Brian in our great wild outdoors!

The Vine That's Eating The South

Photo by Jam Juice

The picture above is a train passing through my hometown of Vicksburg, MS, cutting it way through the kudzu off of Washington Street. 

Kudzu is a native of China and Japan and was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition that was held in Philadelphia to celebrate the nations's 100th birthday.  It is a creeping, climbing perennial vine that is a nuisance and is eating up the south.  A kudzu vine can grow as much as a foot per day and sixty feet during a growing season.   Kudzu kills the trees and plants by smothering and choking them with its fast-growing vines, and as the heavy vines engulf trees or shrubs their weight can break or uproot trees.  It's a love/hate relationship with it. 

It's not all bad news.  It makes excellent food for cattle and goats and controls erosion. The rubbery vines can be used for basket weaving.  Fiber from kudzu is referred to as ko-kemp and it can be used to make paper and cloth.  

It may be a permanent fixture in our landscape but we can control it but may never be completely rid of it. We have to learn to live with kudzu and keep our doors closed tight so it don't come in.  

4th Of July Celebration In My Hometown

Mustache The Band performed Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. during Vicksburg's 40th annual Fourth of July celebration in front of the Old Depot Museum.  (Justin Sellers/The Vicksburg Post)

Children slide down a hill Saturday evening during Vicksburg's 40th annual Fourth of July celebration in front of the Old Depot Museum.

Spectators brave the weather to listen to Mustache The Band Saturday evening during Vicksburg's 40th annual Fourth of July celebration in front of the Old Depot Museum. 

Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July America!

Mississippi Cities

Clever putting the cities in the shape of our state!

Top Hog Hunts

Doe-Doe Bird