Running Down A Duck-Country Giant
By Mark Melotik
The almost-magical powers of the whitetail rut have helped many of us get the drop on typically reclusive mature bucks. But it was bit of unusually early rutting activity — an unexpected bonus — that seemingly played a part in the taking of one of Mississippi’s best bucks of 2022.
That year, Mississippi’s Steven Ginn and three others — his brother, cousin and a good friend — had drawn a group tag for a special gun hunt in the state’s Delta area. Ginn, 27, had previously bowhunted the large public area on several occasions, and all in the group were excited at the prospect of a quality hunt for the type of heavy, mature bucks for which the area is known.
“I wanted to hunt a particular spot in that area, because I have a buddy who had gone duck hunting in there, and he’d seen a lot of deer,” Ginn said. “He figured we could do pretty good if we hunted in there for two or three days.”
The group had brought along a small boat — a 12-foot jon boat with 6.5 hp longtail outboard — to access a particular remote section off a slough. But despite that extra effort, when Ginn was dropped off on shore in the early morning of Nov. 19, it wasn’t long before he could see another hunter hanging in a treestand nearby.
A few text messages later, and at about 9 a.m. Ginn’s cousin arrived in the boat to pick him up for relocation. His cousin said he had found an area where he believed he had glimpsed some rutting activity — what looked like a buck chasing a doe. Ginn was hopeful, but a bit skeptical.
“I was like, man, that seems a little early for rutting activity. We usually don’t get much of a rut around here, but late December is typically when it’s supposed to hit.”
Once at the spot his cousin had found, the two hunters split up about 9:30 a.m., agreeing to scout around and be back at the boat about 10:30 a.m.
As Ginn slowly still-hunted his way through the area, he soon came upon a large group of feral hogs — he got three of them! Several minutes later, after coming upon some fresh buck rubs and a large fresh scrape he marked in his OnX app, he began making his way back to the boat. That’s when he caught sight of a doe in a large open area some 200 yards away, and what looked like a few other deer off to his left.
Next, a second, weary doe trotted into range, obviously tired from a chase. Then Ginn caught a brief glimpse of a giant buck followed by another buck that he quickly judged too small to shoot.
Regulations in the area call for legal bucks to be 16 inches wide or possessing 20-inch main beams, but Ginn would later realize the second buck was likely easily legal; it just paled in comparison to the giant he glimpsed earlier. As all deer left the scene, Ginn felt he had no other recourse than to walk quickly to where he’d last seen the huge buck.
“At that point, I went into panic mode,” he said. “I figured I had to do something to get a shot at that deer, because he was a giant.”
Ginn quickly covered 30 yards, when he could see what looked like a deer up ahead, staring back at him.
“I picked up my gun, and sure enough, it was him in the scope, standing broadside.”
Ginn searched frantically for a tree to use as a rest. There was one on each side of him, but when he turned his head to either side, he could no longer see the buck.
“I figured I had to free-hand the shot and hope for the best,” Ginn recalled of the 175-yard shot.
Although shaking with nerves, he leveled his Remington 700 bolt-action chambered in .270 and squeezed the trigger.
“I got up there and he was lying there dead,” he said. “I’d dropped him in his tracks. I’ve killed several deer and turkeys, but I have never felt an adrenaline rush like I had when I saw him lying there.”
Both Ginn and his cousin were so excited neither of them ever checked to see where the buck had been shot; while checking in the buck to get it tested for CWD, state officials found it had been shot high in the snout, below the eyes. It had died instantly.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Ginn said of his off-hand shot at the waterway giant.
And what a buck it is. The mainframe 10-pointer features a longest tine of 12 inches and has a 22-inch spread. It scores 163 4/8 gross.