An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Mississippi hog and deer hunt

Hello friends, This week’s and next week’s columns will be interesting and because there is so much to say in a small space. I cannot go into detail. My 22-year-old daughter Selina Walters and I drove 935 miles to the Delta National Forest in west-central Mississippi where we met my brother, Tom Walters. The three of us camped for eight days and did our best to make some meat. We have hunted here back in 2019 and 2022, and not harvested a deer. We keep going back because the deer and hogs were wiped out by the flood of the century in 2019 and we are confident that what we pursue will return.

Tuesday, Dec. 26 – High 51, low 28 Side bar story, I am driving and pulling a very loaded trailer near Rockford, Ill. There is lots of traffic; I have a semi to my right and a car 80 yards in front of me. Without any warning, the driver of the car stops on the interstate. Selina and I knew we were going to rear-end him; I went right in a last-millisecond effort into the median and no contact was made. Camp: We arrived at 9 p.m., in just under 15 hours, without stopping for anything but gas. Excitement: Tom has been bow hunting here a lot, as he has a lake house in the area, and has been seeing a lot of deer. Reality: Bucks have to have a 15-inch inside spread or a main beam of 18 inches. Due to the flood, the number of deer that meet these requirements is minimal but improving.

Wednesday, Dec. 27 – High 52, low 28 Our first hunt was an afternoon adventure and we left camp in two canoes. Tom and Selina would be together with a short paddle and a 0.75-mile hike through cypress and oak forests that are literally breathtaking if you are a forest person. Selina saw a buck she did not feel had an inside spread of 15 inches; she also saw six does. Tom had deer experiences and I had a couple of hundred turkey buzzards roost where I was hunting.

Thursday, Dec. 28 – High 48, low 26 Selina had a hog directly under her tree, but it was a half hour before daylight. I met some really cool Mississippi hunters down here two years ago, and the last two years they came to Wisconsin and hunted turkey. Let me tell you about my friends: They are Southern Baptists; they run dogs and also still hunt; honor is a part of every breath they take; and man for man, kid for kid, they are the toughest people I have ever met. Today I also made what I feel will be another friend. His name is Daniel Ainsworth and Daniel hunts with a family member off horses. Yesterday his partner flushed a group of hogs and shot four with his BAR .30-06 while riding his horse, which he said never flinched. Daniel is maybe 30 and is a lineman. In other words, he builds and repairs power lines and works a ton of hours until hunting season. These guys were camped next to us and kept their horses right in camp.

Squirrel hunters: There is no way I could possibly describe how huge squirrel hunting is in the south. They let school out when the season opens and everyone in the family group hunts squirrel and camps. In many cases they use dogs. Again, the honor and true grit of these people is amazing.

Dogs: We arrive the week the dog season begins for deer and the squirrel hunters are also in the woods en masse because of no school for Christmas break. We travel to our hunts by canoe and that helps, but it seems you can always hear hounds somewhere off in the distance and sometimes, right under your tree. Friday, Dec. 29 – High 53, low 25 Tom, Selina and I are having a blast and hunting hard. The deer are moving, and at night we also cook awesome meals and socialize. The hound hunters could be hurting us a tad, but our main situation is bucks that are not 15 inches. After my morning hunt, I paddled my canoe to where Tom and Selina stashed theirs for their hunt. I figured I would walk in and jabber with them, as I knew they would be headed back. About 80 yards off to my right I saw something I knew I had to check out. What I found was a tore-up buck rub and a brand-new buck scrape that had fresh dirt on the leaves. I am out of space but, let me tell you, the scrape and the following hunt would be a memory maker!

Hunt with family and friends! Sunset

Mark Walters