Ashley Mills scanned the cutover, looking for any sign of a doe in heat or rutting buck that she knew could appear at any moment. A veteran hunter, Mills had located a hot scrape line and trail leading into the thick cutover, and she knew that any doe that came down the trail might have a buck in tow.
Suddenly, a buck approached from behind her, grunting and looking for that hot doe. As it came down the trail, Mills centered the crosshairs on it and squeezed the trigger.
Tic-Boom! The rifle roared, and the buck lurched and ran about 25 yards before collapsing in a heap. The 8-pointer sported a rocking chair rack and weighed 196 pounds, a monster for her area.
When it comes to hunting and harvesting bucks during the rut, Teresa May and her daughters, Ashley Mills and Amy May, are about as successful as any hunters — and more than most. Their success didn’t come easy, nor did it happen quickly, but it’s all because Jeff May introduced his daughters to deer hunting, and they fell in love with it. Teresa May got in on the action after the girls did, and she is a successful hunter in her own right.
A couple of years ago, all three women harvested trophy bucks from central Mississippi that anybody would have been proud of. That put a lot of pressure on the father, but he got in on the action and harvested a nice one as well.
It all started when he took Ashley hunting, and her love for it prompted little sister Amy and mother Teresa to get involved, too.
Jeff May not only took the girls hunting, but he taught them to shoot and how to hunt and pattern bucks. He made it so much fun that they all got involved and haven’t looked back.
Ashley Mills had acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was a teenager, and as a result participated in a Catch A Dream hunt in southwest Mississippi. On the weekend hunt, Ashley, then 14, killed her first bucks — an 8-pointer and a 5-pointer — and she’s never slowed down. Thankfully, she overcame her illness and became an avid hunter and deadly shot.
Hot spots
“I scout for active buck sign and like to hunt trails, scrape lines and creek crossings during the morning and around food plots in the afternoon,” said Mills, who lives in Madden with her husband, Chris. “During the mornings, I’ll get in a stand before daylight and stay until around 11. I’ve killed most of my bucks on cold, nasty days, so I’m going to hunt during the rut, no matter how bad the weather is.”
While it is important to know the area you hunt and to place your stands in the proper places, it’s imperative to learn how to shoot your rifle and be proficient with it. Chris and Ashley Mills like shooting, and they attended long-range shooting classes in Meridian a few years ago.
“We practiced shooting at long range, and out of a class of 12, I was the only woman and only person to shoot a tennis ball at 540 yards,” Mills said. “I shot that one with a .308 Remington Model 700 rifle in a Magpul chassis with a Vortex Razor scope. That training has definitely helped me, but my favorite deer rifle is a Thompson Center .35 Whelan. After I shot a deer with that rifle, it’s been my favorite.
“Last year, I killed a buck coming down a trail in late December and then shot another buck about three weeks later coming down the same trail,” she said. “If you can locate a hot trail and place your stand far enough from it that you don’t alert the bucks, you can see a lot of does and bucks during the rut, and you’ll probably get a few shots, too.”
Teresa May and Split Brow
Theresa May prefers hunting green fields during the afternoon and evening.
“I like to hunt food plots during the rut and late season, because the food is scarce, and you’ll usually see a lot of deer activity. Two years ago, I was hunting over a green field near our house in Conehatta during the rut, and I saw a lot of deer activity all afternoon.”
May got in her stand around 3 p.m., and does and small bucks started pouring into the field.
“The deer ran back and forth, and a small buck ran them into the woods and chased them back and forth,” May said. “It was really entertaining, but suddenly everything changed, and I could sense something was about to happen. All of the deer in the field stared at one spot in the woods, and I could see a deer at the edge looking out.”
“When that big buck stepped out, as Fred Sanford used to say, ‘I’m about to have the big one.’ I was so nervous and excited,” she said. “I was looking at him through binoculars when he was in the edge of the woods and coming out, but (I) put them down and raised my gun as soon as he cleared the woods.”
When the buck looked down and turned broadside May settled her crosshairs on him and squeezed the trigger.
“Boom!” The buck was dead on its feet.
“We’d never seen this buck in this area, but Amy had been hunting him for two years and had him on camera,” Theresa May said. “Jeff had named him ‘Split Brow’ because of the split brow tine, and we think he left the area he had been in, looking for a hot doe.”
The 9-point buck weighed 180 pounds and sported a wide, rocking-chair rack with tall tines.
Transition areas
Amy May, who lives in Biloxi, has been hunting deer since she killed her first buck at age 10; she’s become an accomplished deer hunter since those early days spent with her father.
“I like to hunt trails and prefer hunting them in transition areas,” she said. “One of my favorite stands was overlooking a trail that came across from hardwood timber into a pine plantation. The hardwoods were on the adjoining private land, and the pine thicket was on our hunting lease. My stand was about 100 yards from where the trail crossed through a lane between the two sections.”
May had been seeing a nice 6-point buck cross the trail regularly, and one morning she was watching the trail and thought the 6-point was coming through again.
“I turned on the camera I had set up to film the deer and raised my gun just to check him out and realized it was the big deer I’d been hunting a couple of years,” May said. “I shot him right behind the shoulder with my .35 Whelan, and he ran about 30 yards and collapsed. He was walking all stove-up and looked worn out from all of the fighting and doe chasing.”
May had actually been hunting the area hard for a couple of months, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the big buck. Ironically, she almost skipped hunting that day due to the weather.
“I started not to go that morning, but I went on anyway because of the rut and due to the fact that I’ve killed most of my bucks during bad weather,” she said. “I went into the stand before daylight and was watching a food plot out front and looking at the lane that bordered the edge of the hardwoods and pine plantation.”
“This was a good crossing area, and I’d seen a lot of does crossing through and hoped that a big buck would follow one through as well,” she said. “I knew the buck was also using the trail, too, as I’d seen him on my game camera, but he moved only at night or when it was raining.”
While she’d hunted this stand at all times of day, she had passed up quite a few bucks, preferring to wait until the big one came through. Sometimes, she would come to the stand late morning and hunt through the mid-day hours.
“The one thing that kept me going to the woods and hunting, even when I was tired and worn out, was the fact that most of the bucks I’ve killed or seen in the woods were moving during the nastiest weather you could imagine,” May said. “Bad weather has been my favorite time to hunt, no matter the time of day.”
Tips from the fair sex
- Scout the land you hunt and learn where the deer normally bed and where available food sources are so you can catch them going to the food source or coming back to the bed.
- Hunt food plots or green fields during the rut from concealed stands. Remember, where the food is, the does will be, and the bucks will follow.
- Stay away from the deer’s bedding and feeding grounds to prevent disturbing the deer’s routine.
- Hunt trails crossing streams along the edges of thickets and transition areas where the landscape changes.
- Hunt near the most-available food source during the time you plan to hunt.
- Place your stands as far from trails as possible to prevent spooking deer.
- Hunt edge cover as well as lanes that separate different types of timber.
- Always look for fresh scrape lines and rub lines during the rut, as the bucks and does will leave their calling cards while looking for available suitors.
- Stay in the woods as much as possible, as deer move at all times of the day during the rut, no matter how tough the weather conditions are.
- Hunt power lines, pipe lines, cutovers or any areas that you can catch glimpses of bucks chasing does at long ranges during the rut.
- Learn to shoot the weapon of your choice and become proficient with it at all distances.
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