Meridian Star - Outdoors

The Sounds and the Fury of Deer Hunting
Shuffling leaves on the hillside above your ladder stand; movement in the brush at the far end of your green patch; melodious cries from the hounds approaching from the swamp. These are sounds of the hunt for whitetail deer.
There are others. A white oak acorn splatting into the leaves just ten feet away, shattering the charged silence and scaring you silly; a pair of wood ducks swimming by in the creek that runs just three steps from your shoot house; crows screaming nearby at some unseen creature that you imagine to be a trophy buck.
At camp one might hear the crackling of hickory logs in a big iron heater; rounds of boisterous laughter following good natured ribbing; the call of a barred owl celebrating the emergence of a full moon.
Ganey harvests first archery buck at The Shed
Trophy bucks and the glimpse theory
Area Bear Report
Roberts harvests bull elk
Deer hunters and superstitions
Tooney Hill’s Opening Day Buck
A massive eleven point buck approached Tooney Hill’s stand site warily and stopped for just a second as something just didn’t look right. Taking one more step, the buck froze for an instant as he presented the perfect shot. With a simple click of a camera shutter, Hill’s season changed, even before it had begun. From the moment the trophy buck came into Hill’s sights via his game camera, the expert bowhunter thought of little else except harvesting the monster buck with his bow.
Be a Better Deer Hunter This Season
The big stir that a hunter causes while preparing for an upcoming deer season is rooted in the fact that getting ready is much of the fun. Here are some things to consider that might apply to the days ahead in your pursuit of the esteemed whitetail deer.
Outdoor lady superstar coming here!
If you are a woman, 14 and older and you would like to learn more about the outdoor life style from the pioneer of women hunters, you are in luck. Brenda Valentine, “First Lady of Hunting,” will be at Roosevelt State Park near Morton beginning next Friday, October 30, for a session of the wildly popular Women in the Outdoors events. This is a three day event with expert instructors, including Brenda, that women with even a remote interest in the outdoors simply must attend.
Photo of The Week
Outdoor Notes
Hot Duck and Pheasant Action
A pair of mallard drakes and a hen swooped down right in front of my duck blind and I quickly centered my crosshairs on the lead duck and squeezed off several shots connecting with a duck each time. As I fired several more shots with my Canon Digital Rebel camera the ducks quickly darted toward the next blind. This time the drakes lucky reprieve didn’t last for long as guns blazed and a pair of ducks splashed into the water and our hunt had begun with a bang!
A journey with an angel
Living at Bellamy, Alabama and being a forester, hunting was a way of life in earlier times when few ladies hunted. The Lockard Hunting Club held a ladies day hunt and the ladies came basically to eat. My wife, Ann, went with me on a deer drive. She slipped down a creek bank for about 10 yards and got mud all over her clothes. This was upsetting but she went on.
We dove hunted at Mr. Joe Ward’s farm. He loaned Ann his 12 gauge shotgun and placed her on his personal stand. When the first dove came over we all told her to shoot. Well, the gun kicked her down onto a cow pad. That ended her dove hunting.
As the children got older we took them hunting. Ann would not take a gun but she always went along. I remember taking them to the Naheola Swamp one time. She shot a squirrel dead center and declared that she was a good shot.
Once we sat beside a large white oak tree eating a picnic lunch. A giant eight-point buck came by and I shot four or five times with my 30/40 Krag rifle. I missed. Ann said I should have let her shoot it and she would have killed it. The only thing we got that day was one squirrel and a lot of redbugs.
Tess Randle Jolly: Breaking down barriers
Tess Jolly peered intently through her scope, centered the crosshairs on a magnificent whitetail buck and squeezed the trigger until the rifle roared. In a split second the buck of her lifetime collapsed in a heap with a precision shot. The beautiful buck sported nine points and gross scored 153 and was the buck of her lifetime. My how times have changed!
Born in Kansas to Ned and Ernestine Randle, young Jolly moved with her family to Ocala, Florida around the age of six. The rural Florida landscape fit Jolly to a T and she thrived in the outdoors. “I’ve been chasing bugs and picking up toads as far back as I can remember,” said Jolly. “After we moved to Ocala Dad joined a deer club and started deer hunting. Women were welcomed at the camp on Thanksgiving and Christmas days only.”
William Center
It is time for my loosely adhered to biennial or triennial tribute to teachers, specifically today those who taught me how to write sometimes coherent prose without my even knowing what they were doing and often not caring
I envy teachers. They influence us when we can best be influenced; when we are young. We are usually too young to realize what valuable lessons we are absorbing from these who, for little pay and less recognition, shape and equip us for facing the world. My gratitude is directed toward every discipline, but especially toward teachers of the sciences and, for today’s topic, the English language.
Though I had no clue at the time, what my Jr. High and High School English teachers were trying their best to teach me as I resisted daily, would become a passion of mine in early middle age and last for life.
The year of the wrong elk tag
We decided to go to Colorado for the Muzzle-Loading Elk season because that’s the time of the start of the rut and would likely provide the best opportunity to hear the ear-piercing sounds of the bugling bull elk. It would mean we must get closer for a high percentage shot since no scopes are allowed and the effective range of the muzzle loader is much less than that of a rifle. But we wanted the experience of getting within 100 yards of this majestic animal, referred to by the Arapahoe Indians as “ghost creature” for his ability to inhabit an area continually while rarely being seen. We wanted to observe his mannerisms and maneuver in his habitat without disturbing him.
Brad Bound’s monster autumn buck
With the opening day of bow season now behind us hunters like Brad Bounds are fired up and already in full hunting mode. Last fall Bounds made his first trip to the Nebraska farmlands in search of a trophy buck and was rewarded with the buck of a lifetime.
Though Bounds had bow hunted briefly many years ago, he only recently took the up the sport in earnest and he has been very successful. A couple years ago Bounds purchased a Mathews Drenalin bow and began his bowhunting adventure. The first year he harvested his first deer with a bow and missed an eight pointer. Undeterred, the avid bowhunter kept practicing and set his sights on a Pope and Young buck.
With visions of a Pope and Young in his dreams Bounds, and fellow hunter Lamar Arrington, made the trip to Nebraska in search of that elusive trophy. Bounds was going to bow hunt while Arrington scouted and waited for opening day of gun season.
A bear has got Kate!
During my elk hunt last month in one of the most remote areas of Colorado, its northwest corner, I got yet another taste of what day to day living out there is like. I have hunted there many times since an early mule deer hunt on Douglas Mountain some 30 years ago. So I am not surprised when a bear mistakes something of yours for its own and a mountain lion sighting is interesting but not unusual for my friends Wanda Walker and her daughter Dawn Nottingham who live there.
Quest in the West
It was a repeat of many earlier blessings. Once more I spent the Colorado black powder elk season in some of God’s most beautiful country. For 10 of September’s finest days I lived among the cedars and pinion pines and sagebrush of northwestern Colorado and never felt more at home anywhere.
Youth Turkey Calling
Hot dove hunting action
Shortly after entering the field and taking our stands at strategic locations, doves started lighting on the “dove wires” in the corn field and surrounding trees. But not a shot was fired. As more doves flew in there was only silence; still no shots were fired. Could something be wrong? As soon as the last hunter was positioned properly the answer came swiftly.
Outdoor Notes: NWTF goes wild
Wooldridge Wins 2009 J. P. Nolen Conservation Achievement Award
Mason Wooldridge pitched a Norman crankbait next to the bank, hesitated a second and started cranking the lure down. Seconds later the crankbait slammed to a stop as a lunker bass crushed the lure and headed for deep water. Young Wooldridge set the hook and fought the monster bass like only a seasoned angler could. Had he done any different he would not have caught the bass.
Meridian Outdoor Extravaganza
The Lauderdale County Agricultural Center will host the an outdoor show this Friday from 5 to 9 p m, Saturday 9 to 9 and Sunday afternoon from 1 to 6 p m. This show will have something for everyone including many children’s activities. A special guest will appear at the show to help with the John O’Neil Johnson Kids Casting Contest.
Susan Gregory, of Kiln, will accompany Mike Giles during the casting contest and offer tips, and explain various techniques to young anglers. Gregory is an accomplished angler who fishes on the Women’s Bassmaster Tour, as well as on a professional Crappie team tournament trail sponsored by Bass Pro Shops.
Effective dove loads
Dove loads can make a lot of difference in shooting success, but one can find almost all types of shotgun shells on the dove field. The hunter who worries that he might cripple birds at the limit of his gun’s range or who wants to take birds farther away than anyone else often loads up with skybusting shells for doves. This fellow may or may not kill a lot of doves with these high brass shells, but he almost always will nurse a sore shoulder after the hunt.
Fly My Way Outfitters Duck Scramble
Fly My Way Outfitters of Waynesboro will host their second annual Duck Scramble Saturday October 3rd. The event will test the shooting skills of 25 three man teams, with the First Place Team receiving three Benelli 12 gauge automatic shotguns!
Each team will have a chance to score on 27 ducks during a single round for their top score. The overall top score after one round will determine the champions. In case of a tie at the top, there will be a skeet shoot off between those teams around 5 p.m.
Opening day at Breckenridge Farm
Three doves suddenly darted by just over my right shoulder flying at sizzling speed right down the middle of the standing corn field, just out of range. As they neared the safety of the tree line shots rang out and two of the three doves dropped from the sky like rocks. Justin Giles had just opened his afternoon dove hunt in style with the help of his new Benelli Vinci shotgun. The young hunter had recently purchased the high tech gun with the help of recently acquired graduation funds. Obviously no finer purchase could have been made for this young outdoorsman.
Choosing dove guns
Besides the socializing that happens on most dove hunts and locating flocks of the birds, shooting, and its tools, are the significant elements.
Significant? One might question the importance of using a specific shotgun and load for doves because many hunters consider dove shooting mere practice to sharpen their shooting eyes for hunting other game, and they shoot doves with whatever gun they take afield for ducks, quail, squirrel or whatever else they hunt. There probably isn’t another wingshooting sport where hunters use the variety of shotguns, shells and chokes that one finds in the dove fields. The thinking that most any shotgun of any gauge and any shell that can be poked into it will be okay for dove shooting is widespread.
Abercrombie Memorial Shoot a success
Stepping to the shooting station, Mike Heard loaded his shotgun and searched the skies for birds. Suddenly two birds flew into range and Heard quickly dispatched both. Following close behind came Bob Martin. Martin quickly busted five out of five birds.
Shortly thereafter Nina Martin stepped up to the plate and busted bird after bird. It was obvious that this lady was an expert wing shot rivaling any other shooter that I observed during the afternoon. As it turned out, Bob and Nina Martin rarely missed any birds or clay pigeons on this fine afternoon.
Thanks to the Meridian Police Benevolent Association and the Meridian Shooting Club, the Jackie Abercrombie Memorial Shoot was a rousing success. Though the shoot was initially threatened by showers during the midday hours, the event went off really well. According to Meridian Shooting Club President Jimmy Sides the event progressed without any problems. And that’s a credit to Sides and all of the volunteers that helped make the memorial shoot a success.

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