Last weekend I had a great opportunity. I got to go Deer/Hog hunting near West Point, Mississippi home to Mossy Oak Brand Camo. Now Mississippi might not be known for its monster bucks but it is home to the world’s largest camo company, Mossy Oak. Many of you are aware that I’m on Mossy Oak’s ProStaff team, what you might not know is all that it consists of. First and foremost No I don’t get free camo, bows, guns and/or hunts. We are not paid by Mossy Oak! As ProStaff we do however get some great deals (discounts) from lots of different partners of Mossy Oak, but little to none is free. We are required to work a certain number of events for Mossy Oak in a given year and required to continue to learn about our partners’ companies and products. You may run into one of us at your favorite sporting goods store, Sport Shows, even at a local NWTF banquet and I also attend many calling contest and 3D Archery Shoots as well.
At times we are given opportunities to go above and beyond what is asked of us as ProStaff members. There are programs that give us opportunities to compete among our fellow ProStaff members for guns, camo, and even hunts. Thus how I ended up with the opportunity to hunt one of Mossy Oak’s farms in Mississippi. The farm is managed by the folks at BioLogic & Nativ Nurseries, both part of the Mossy Oak Brand. This team of people did a great job with the management and hunt set up for this farm. Some of them even cooked for us!!!
Our guide for this trip was none other than THE, Jordan LaSuzzo, Wildlife Management Products Sales Manager! Jordan busted his tail to make this this hunt enjoyable for all of us. Also helping out with the hunt from Mossy Oak, Vandy Stubbs, Jesse Raley, and Riley Payne. Most of them thought I was crazy for leaving Iowa in November to hunt in Mississippi but honestly it was my pleasure. All of them are great people, who flat out love to hunt! It was great to meet all of them. Monster Thank You to all!
As for the hunters, four of us had earned this hunt thru 3 different contests. Bobby Barrett, from Dover, DE had all the luck this past weekend, he started it off by arrowing a doe the first afternoon and on the last morning killed a nice hog. Brian Beauchamp from Miami, Oklahoma shot two does that last morning of the hunt. Lance Howard from Theodore, Alabama, wasn’t far from home and even had a lease of his own just a few miles away. Like me, Lance wasn’t able to fill a tag.
The hunting was hard only because of the weather. There was lots of rubs and scraping activity. We had high hopes for knocking down a Mississippi Whitetail Buck but the shooter just didn’t get on their feet during shooting hours. The rut in Mississippi hits in mid-December! I had to toss out everything I knew about the movement of deer for this time of year because my knowledge is based on the Mid-West. I spoke to that fact, weather playing a big part in the hunt and it did. The first morning I woke to temps in the low 60s, even for Mississippi at this time of the year that’s warm. I checked the radar it looked like rain was on its way but we had a good window before it hit. I loved the treestand I was in. It had all the looks of a great location, I was sure I’d see deer movement. Well I didn’t, in fact nobody did that first morning, the deer just didn’t move.
That afternoon I hunted a treestand overlooking a BioLogic food plot a known point of entry into the plot. The weather again played a part in my hunt raining most of the afternoon. It was light rain but in the last half hour of the hunt (primetime) the fog rolled in, I could see maybe 20 yards. That afternoon Bobby shot a doe. It was my first chance to see up close the size difference in Mid-Western Whitetails and the much smaller body size of the Southern Whitetails. The size of what I was told was a four year old doe was about the size of an Iowa Button Buck. I took a look at the jaw bone and I’d agree she was an older doe. Having not ever hunted in the south I was shocked at the size difference from Iowa deer.
As the weekend went on the temps dropped every day. Now to me this meant one thing, Deer Movement! I was thinking to myself this will have to get the deer moving! It did, I saw a ton of deer the next afternoon, after an uneventful morning hunt it was what I needed. I also was on the lookout for a wild hog as I was told to shoot everyone I saw. I have never shot a wild hog so that wasn’t going to be a problem but see one to shoot was a different story. The next morning offered up what all of us thought would be what we needed to kill a good Mississippi buck, cold temps. Even for the Midwest upper 20s are known to be good days to be in the stand. It was a clear and cold morning! This was it the last hunt of the trip and the best hunting conditions we would see on our trip. After seeing the food plot full of deer the afternoon before I only saw one spike buck in the first hour of my morning hunt.
(L to R) Lance Howard, Jordan LaSuzzo, Bobby Barrett, Brian Beauchamp, & Curtis Goettsch
Than my phone started blowing up, it was Mr. Lucky himself, Bobby, he had arrowed his first wild hog. I was happy for him, he really wanted a shot at a hog and he got it. Then another text, Brain this time he had shot two does within minutes of each other. I thought well maybe it will get better but by 8AM and not seeing anything I slowly worked my way back to the area Bobby was hunting, to help him look for his hog. It took me the better part of an hour to get to his stand. He got down and we met up with Jordan and Lance. It wasn’t much of a tracking job Bobby smoked that hog and we found it a mere 40 yards down the trail. It was a small hog but it didn’t matter to Bobby he was putting it on the wall. I agreed with him, this hunt was a blast and he will always have a trophy on the wall to remember it by.
It was great to meet and share hunting camp with a few more of my Mossy Oak collegues. Not always is success measured in the number of tags filled but in the time spent, the friends you meet along the way and the pursuit of the game. It will go down as one of the greatest hunts I have ever been on because of the great people I got to share the hunt with. Thank You to everyone at Mossy Oak and all of the ProStaffers who shared this hunt with me. I need to thank my Regional Prostaff Manager, Perry Peterson, National ProStaff Manager, Tim Anderson for working hard to provide opportunities for ProStaff members, both of you always tell us thank you, but we too are also thankful for what you do for us!
