Articles by Bobby Cleveland

About Bobby Cleveland
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.
Bobby C's Outdoors

Bills would allow crossbows, change primitive weapon rules

February 1, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

Two pieces of legislation that would definitely lead to changes in the way Mississippians hunt have cleared their first two hurdles in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate.

Senate Bill 2048, passed by the Senate’s Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee on Monday (Jan. 28) would allow any hunter with a primitive weapon or archery permit “irrespective of age or disability” to hunt with a crossbow during any archery or primitive weapon deer season.

House Bill 1139, which got committee approval Thursday (Jan. 31), would allow hunters on certain private lands to use their “weapon of choice” during any regular or special primitive weapon season. […]

Deer Hunting

In Southeast Mississippi, deer hunters remain stuck in a rut

January 31, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

While most deer hunters have already put their guns and bows away for the season, or will after today’s final day in the Hill and Delta zones, those in the southeast corner of Mississippi remain in a rut.

Make that, The Rut.

“It’s true that down here in the southeasternmost part of the state the primary reproductive period for deer is much later than the rest of Mississippi,” said Justin Thayer, the region’s deer biologist for the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “We have such a large geographical difference between north and south that we see a large variance in the rut. […]

Deer of the Year

Hunter takes rare weekday off, gets a 15-point

January 24, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

In mid-December, Burton Swoope of Belden had a gut feeling and a few days off remaining. He put those two together and drove south toward his deer camp near Columbus for a day he won’t soon forget.

“I knew the rut was on and I just decided to use a vacation day and hunt this particular Wednesday,” said Swoope, the plant manager of a concrete plant in Pontotoc.

The result: a 15-point buck that green-scored a gross of 167 5/8 and a net of 153 6/8. It is a thick and long but not particularly wide mainframe 11-point with four sticker points.

It is a brute, and the result of two decades of management on family property in the Golden Triangle area of the historically productive deer region known as the Black Belt Prairie.

“I killed him on family land outside of Columbus, where we’ve been under some type of management program for about 20 years,” Swoope said. “We started back in the early 90’s just trying to shoot 8-pointers or better. Now we try to only take fairly mature bucks, regardless of points, and a few does. It’s paid off with some really nice bucks over the years but as far as I know he’ll be the highest scoring ever killed on our land.” […]

Bobby C's Outdoors

It’s crazy, but it’s politics

January 23, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

For several years, the Mississippi Bowhunters Association has been looking for help from the state legislature in confirming the right to hunt with bows during open gun seasons.

So don’t expect them to be happy after Monday’s deadline passed for introducing new bills in the state’s House of Representatives and Senate. No such “pro archery” legislation is on the table.

For the third straight year, no bills were introduced that would extend the only true archery season set in statute — the one that opens Oct. 1 and ends on the day before the first gun season begins. […]

Events & Announcements

Changes proposed for Sardis crappie size and creel limits

January 22, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

Crappie fishermen at one of Mississippi’s best perch-jerking holes would be able to take home a higher percentage of the crappie they catch, but they won’t be able to take home as many each day under a regulation change proposed last week by state wildlife officials.

The size limit at Sardis Reservoir will drop from a 12-inch minimum to a 10-inch minimum, but the daily limit will be reduced from 20 per person per day to 15 per person. The boat limit, with three or more anglers, will fall from 50 per day to 40 per day. […]

Breaking News

DeSoto County buck is new state record for typical archery

January 19, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

Kevin Medlin didn’t have time to think about such things as rewriting Mississippi’s archery record book when a monster buck walked out of a thicket 50 yards from his stand on Nov. 11 in DeSoto County.

“I didn’t even have time to get nervous,” Medlin said. “It all happened so fast. I guess from the time I saw him to the time I watched him crash down in a thicket wasn’t much more than a minute, if it was that long. It all happened that quick.”

A green score that day produced over 190 inches gross, beginning a long wait for the 60-day drying period to pass. Friday, the wait ended when the 13-point — a mainframe 10 with three sticker points — was proclaimed the new state record for typical deer by bow. […]