Kennedy's First Deer

 

Nine-year-old Kennedy Turner got her first deer, a spike buck. My congratulations to Kennedy in our wild Mississippi outdoors! Way to go!

Father & Son Hunt

Scooter Whatley and his son Connor killed these bucks with their bows on the opening day of gun season in the Delta. Connor's was a 12-point buck, and Scooter's was an 8-pointer. 

I hunted at the same deer camp years ago with Scooter at Browns Pont on Kings Point Island north of Vicksburg, MS.   Scooter is also a  Producer/Director/Videographer for MS Outdoors TV and Marketing at Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

What an extraordinary hunt to hunt with family in our great Mississippi outdoors!  My congratulations to Scooter and his son Connor.

Paisley's First Deer @ 3 Years Old

Paisley Dwon Ashley, only 3 years old, shot her fist deer, a 9-pointer, on November 110 in Unica.  Paisley Down is the daughter of Evie Hilderbrand and Joshua Ashley.  

Now, that is awesome.  Starting young!  My congratulations to Paisley in our great Mississippi outdoors!!!  Way to go, little one.

Victoria's Massive Buck

 Victoria and Maverick with a 230-pound buck. 

Because of its rich ground, the area yields bumper agricultural crops and offers wildlife a cornucopia of food. Eastern turkeys and puddle ducks (during the fall migration) are abundant, and so are whitetails. And Delta Bucks can grow big. It’s flat ground, offering hunters long vistas to spot game. It also allows rifle hunters to make shots as far as they can see through optics. Victoria Darden Garland, a 30-year-old South Delta farmer, has shot multiple deer at a distance.

“I’ve shot deer out to 444 yards with my .243,” says Garland, who took her first deer 20 years ago at age 10. “We hunt the big open fields in the South Delta, and my .243 is the perfect rifle.”

She shoots a custom-built Remington 700 bolt-action rifle with a special aftermarket barrel and hand loads her .243 ammo using 105-grain bullets.

“I’ve shot it a lot over the years, and my Burris Eliminator laser rangefinding scope helps in judging yardage and makes my .243 the perfect gun for me,” she says.

Victoria’s husband, Thomas Garland, began getting trail photos of a large farm buck he’d passed the previous season because of a broken tine. By Dec. 2021, the buck had returned to their 1,200-acre farm, and on Christmas Day, Thomas got a long shot at the buck but missed.

Two days later, Victoria was hunting in a box blind during an unusually warm December afternoon. She thought she should be sitting poolside instead of in a deer stand when she happened to look up to see a giant buck. She instantly recognized it from trail cam photos as the deer Thomas missed.

She got on the buck, standing 173 yards away, and shot … but the deer didn’t move. So she chambered a second round, aimed, and fired again. The buck turned and ran, showing no sign of being hit. Checking where the buck stood, she found no blood trail to follow. So the Garlands got their trusty two-year-old black Labrador, Maverick, to trail the deer.

“Maverick got on the scent right away and went to the buck,” says Victoria. “There was no blood to follow, and the deer only went 100 yards. Thank goodness for Maverick.”

My congratulations to Victoria in our great Mississippi outdoors!!!  

Brooklyn's First Deer

 

Brooklyn Ross, 9 years old, killed her first deer on family property while hunting with her father in Vicksburg, MS. 

My congratulations to Brooklyn on a nice buck in our great Mississippi outdoors!!!  Way to go!!!