I met the grizzled hunter at a taxidermy shop when he came in with two huge bucks. One had eight points with tall, heavy antlers. The other, a magnificent 12-pointer, didn’t have antlers quite as heavy, but it had a very wide rack and extremely long tines — much wider and longer than the 8 point’s.[…]
David Hale has used motion-sensor cameras for years.[…]
I could see halfway down ivory antlers that looked wide and heavy moving above the gallberry bushes. I stood quietly, clicked my mechanical release onto the string of my bow and prepared to draw.[…]
Gilbert’s James McMurray was getting worried. Deer season was ending and his freezer was sorely lacking packages marked “venison” to carry his family through the months ahead.[…]
The snake was a moccasin, swimming downstream in what was called the “old” river — a channel off the Amite, running behind an elongated island. We were in Port Vincent on Butch Croom’s land. The lazy waters of the old river channel flowed behind the land with absolutely no discernible water movement.[…]
He missed the really exciting times in the swamp.
By the time he got out of the Army, back from Vietnam, and back in college, working on his graduate degree, it was several years after all the night hunting and control shooting had occurred.[…]
Something flickers, and my head jerks left. I tense up. My eyes focus. These are predator eyes, quick to spot movement. And they face forward, like the lion, leopard, falcon and wolf, the better to stalk and ambush prey.[…]
I admit I was pumped. The prospect of taking a deer with my muzzleloader on video set pretty well with me.
I was hunting with good friend Luke Lewis on a hunting lease that is adjacent to Jackson-Bienville Wildlife Management Area south of Ruston. Lewis, a wildlife biologist, planned to video me taking a deer on video, and was all set to preserve my special moment for my grandchildren to one day enjoy.
[…]
For more than 35 years, Mike Centanni didn’t simply hope to kill deer — he expected to.[…]
COVER: Louisiana Sportsman kicks off the hunting seasons with its forecasts for WMAs, ducks, and the deer rut.[…]
Some of the year’s hottest weather in Louisiana occurs during the oppressive days of August and September.[…]
It was hot in the woods, and mosquitoes rose in clouds each time a plant was disturbed.
On top of that, ticks crawled on anything with a pulse.
But Scott Durham was on his hands and knees, oblivious to the dangers of being sucked dry.[…]
NORTH COVER: Learn how biologists study a tract of land to determine the health of its deer herd. Photo by JOHN R. FORD[…]
When you mess with hunting privileges and traditions, you may as well be poking a stick at a beehive.[…]
The hunting season that just closed wasn’t typical.[…]
The woods north of my stand resounded with noise, and it was moving closer and closer.[…]