Hello again Miss-Lou! As this article arrives on your doorstep, we are fast approaching the end of the gun season for deer in Mississippi. Next weekend will be the final weekend of the gun season, followed by the final segment of the deer season, the dreaded muzzle-loader season.

As you are reading this article on Sunday morning, your favorite outdoor writer will be out of town on a hunting trip. I will rendezvous in North Mississippi this week with several old college buddies, for what has become an annual get together.

I will let you know how that trip goes next week, if anything happens that can be put down in print without charges being filed against someone.

As I enjoyed a cool one at a local watering hole one evening this week, several of the patrons mentioned sightings of snakes moving around this week. Sometimes once we’ve had a good frost, we put snakes out of our minds, and usually that’s OK.

But this year, with the prolonged spell of unseasonably warm weather, we all need to be on our toes out in the woods.

This week, the main topic with the hunters that I have had a chance to talk with is what happened to the rut. Some folks say they have seen no sign of the rut. Others, me included, have seen some rutting activity, but not the full-blown, bowed-up doe chasing that we would have usually seen already in this area.

On a Thursday evening hunt, I saw two small bucks just calmly wandering around with apparently nothing on their mind. The two does I saw on that same hunt, for a total of four deer seen, was the most deer I have seen on a hunt in the past two weeks. A few weeks ago it seems like I was seeing 10 or 15 deer every time out.

I didn’t get any details, but I did hear a second-hand report of a couple of real nice bucks being taken by some guys down at Second Union Hunting Club. Maybe someone could give me a call and share a few details.

I also had a report of the guys up at The Pines Hunting Club having some success on one of their famous Hoop-Stomps. When things get slow, the guys will line up some standers, and make a man drive through a hollow and flush out some deer.

I heard they collected four bucks, one of which was a 10-point, and a couple of does, and had several other bucks seen. Just goes to show the deer are there.

I had a report of several new Shirt Tail Club members this week and I’ll start off with Austin Williams and Steve King. Mike Williams get a double mention for two misses on the same day.

Last but certainly not least this week, I received a story about my old friend, local dentist Tommy O’Brien. Not for any one particular miss, but for what was called several misses over the course of the season. Apparently, it had gotten so bad for Doc, that all of the other guys at the camp were fighting over the stands in Doc’s vicinity, in hopes that they would get a shot at a fleeing buck. I’m sorry Doc, but that’s the way the report came in. You and I may need to get together for a little pay back on your buddies.

I’ll call that a wrap for this time. Until next time, happy hunting, and as always, think safety first. To submit items of interest, call (601) 446-7859.

Chuck Fields writes a weekly hunting column for The Natchez Democrat. Reach him via

christian.schmidt@natchezdemocrat.com

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