Hello again, Miss-Lou. If you are one of the many area deer hunters who have not yet bagged the elusive whitetail buck this year, your time left to do so is getting short. The gun season for deer in Mississippi will end Jan. 21.

It will be followed by the final segment of primitive weapon, or muzzleloader season, which will run until the end of the month. That will mark the end of the 2003&045;04 deer season in Mississippi.

Fortunately this week the weather turned colder again, which is much more conducive to deer hunting than last week’s 70-degree temps.

Unfortunately for yours truly, I was back to work this week after taking last week off to hunt, so I have been unable to take advantage of the better weather as of yet.

I had a lengthy conversation this week with someone who was inquiring as to how in the world someone can sit on a deer stand for hours at a time, especially when deer aren’t moving and you aren’t seeing anything.

We all know it can be too easy to call it a morning if you haven’t seen anything by about 8:30 or 9 a.m.

For me, the key to being able to hang in there is getting comfortable and being prepared. Getting comfortable speaks for itself but also goes hand-in-hand with being prepared. You’re never going to get comfortable if you’re freezing, so you have to be prepared in that regard.

Also for me, part of being prepared includes at least something to drink, if not a snack as well. If you’re hungry, it’s much more difficult to hang in there.

More often than not, if you were to check my knapsack, you would find a lady in there, and her name is Little Debbie. Thank goodness my wife is not the jealous type.

Finally, when you’re trying to sit still for so long, your legs begin to cramp and your back starts to ache. Don’t be afraid to go ahead and stand up and stretch a bit.

Getting the old joints loosened up before you settle back in might be the key to staying that extra hour or two, which could end up yielding that elusive buck.

After last week’s lament over not receiving a single call with info for my article, I did get a couple of reports this week, so let’s get to them. I’ll start off with a &uot;family affair,&uot; for the Boo Brumfield family, who hunt at the Magnolia Hunting Club on the Cliffs Plantation.

Ten-year-old Tyler Brumfield downed a nice 10-point buck while hunting with his dad Boo, his 14-year-old brother Luke and his 22-month-old sister Geri. All were in the same box stand together. It was reported Geri dozed off to sleep about 30 minutes before the buck came out.

Also at Magnolia Hunting Club, I had a first buck report for a lady. Lynn Morace downed her first buck, an 8-point last week. Not to be out done, Lynn’s husband, Jamie Morace, bagged his largest buck ever, a real nice 8-point. Sounds like Magnolia Hunting Club was the place to be last week.

I also had a report that Ronnie Harris collected a big brute of a 10-point, but I didn’t get any details. Hopefully Ronnie will read this article and give me a call for next week about his big buck.

No Shirt Tail Club reports, so I’ll call that a wrap for this week.

Chuck Fields writes a weekly hunting column for The Natchez Democrat. You can reach him at (601) 446-7859 or by e-mail at

sports@natchezdemocrat.com.