Hello again Miss-Lou! After laying out Chuck’s White Tail Theorem concerning the beginning of the rut in last week’s article, here we are a week later, still waiting for the rut to really break loose.

Even folks a little to the north of the Natchez area say it just hasn’t quite kicked in yet.

There has been some preliminary doe chasing, but the general consensus is the rut is unquestionably later than normal this year.

You wonder why, but I don’t think any human could possibly know the answer. We’ll have to just chalk it up as one of nature’s secrets.

And we all keep going hunting anyway, each day thinking this could be the day the action kicks off.

I’ve had intentions for the past couple of weeks of mentioning the big buck taken Nov. 25 in Madison County by Jeff Saik. The Natchez Democrat ran the story in its Dec. 21 section but did not run a photo. Perhaps they have run it on a day when I was out of town. But if you haven’t seen a picture of this one, you’re really missing something.

Scored as a typical 8-point, the big bruiser net scored 168 on the Boone & Crockett scoring system after some deductions.

They tried to weigh the deer, but the scales they were using bottomed out at 260 pounds. So they field-dressed the deer, and the dressed weight was 230 pounds.

MDWF&P’s biologists say a dressed deer weighs approximately 78.5 percent of its total live weight. That would calculate to a live weight of 293 pounds. Wow!

Though it will fall a little short of qualifying for the B&C record book, it is absolutely the most tremendous 8-point I have ever seen.

This week’s good stuff leads off with a first buck report for a youngster. I had a report that 7-year-old Hunter Randall collected a nice 8-point for his first buck while hunting at Glasscock Ranch with his dad, Garlen Randall.

I had a report that Jim Sanders broke a six- or seven-year deer-less drought last week with a buck and a doe. No details on the deer, but just the fact of breaking that drought made me feel good about putting this report in for Jim.

I had a slightly belated report of a nice buck taken with a muzzle loader down in Wilkinson County. Old buddy Joe Ring bagged a big 8-point with a 19-inch inside spread that weighed in at 214 pounds.

Joe bagged his buck while hunting at Monclova Plantation. This one might qualify for &8220;Deer of the Year&8221; with a darn muzzle loader.

I also had a report that Drew Burns bagged a nice 8-point that sported a 16-inch spread, and Paul Burns bagged a real nice 9-point, with an 18-inch spread. Those two bucks were taken off of the same privately owned tract in Adams County.

Finally, my young friend Jacob Brown collected his third deer of the season, a nice 8-point last week.

I didn’t have any Shirt Tail Club reports this week, so I’ll call that a wrap. Until next week, happy hunting, and as always &045; think safety first.

Chuck Fields writes a weekly hunting column for The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at (601) 446-7859 or

newsroom@natchezdemocrat.com

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