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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.” […]

Deer of the Year

Hunter gets her ‘Oh My Gosh Buck’

January 9, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

Delise Menotti of Vicksburg loves deer hunting to the extent of few women. From the start of bow season to the end of the final primitive weapon season, she eats, sleeps and dreams the sport.

She hunts as often as possible, usually with her husband Scott.

Heck, she even wrote a country music song about it, which includes these lyrics: “I’m huntin’ deer and my dear is huntin’ me. Gotta Boone and Crockett in my scope, said a prayer asked for hope and steadied my rifle for the shot.” […]

Deer of the Year

Poor Mississippi State University Gator Bowl performance leads hunter to 200-inch trophy buck

January 8, 2013 Michael O. Giles

January 1 dawned dreary and rainy in Leake County, but that didn’t deter David Langford from going to the woods in search of a buck. After battling the rain and elements for a few hours without any luck, the discouraged hunter made a fateful decision to call it a day.

The Lena hunter decided to return home to watch his Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Gator Bowl — but that didn’t last long.

By the end of the day, he was back in his hunting stand and sending a bullet toward what turned out to be a 200-inch Buckmaster buck.
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Deer of the Year

Hunter gets ‘Bull Shark,’ all 164 4/8 inches of him

January 8, 2013 Bobby Cleveland

Following what is becoming an all-too-familiar plot of modern deer hunting, Taylor Chastain closed the book on a well-known buck’s story on Jan. 3 at Bozeman Farms in western Madison County.

It was the Bull Shark.

Chastain and the Bozemans had been watching the deer for three seasons. There are numerous trail cam photos dating back to 2010, when it finally achieved mature status, a close call from the 2011 archery season and sheds from both years. […]