Deer

The Wind Is Your Master When Hunting Deer with Giles Island’s Jimmy Riley

A major mistake that hunters make is what I call the fudge factor. They’re walking into their stand, and they realize the wind is blowing from the wrong direction for them to hunt from the stand where they planned. So, they say to themselves, “I'm almost to the stand. If I go to another stand where I have a favorable wind, I can’t get there as early as I want to be in my stand.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak

What Causes Hunters to Not Take Trophy Bucks with Giles Island’s Jimmy Riley

One of the reasons many hunters don’t harvest more trophy bucks is when they see those big-body deer with big antlers, they often go into panic mode and get stressed out. To help solve that problem, our hunters sit with their guides, and their guides are accustomed to seeing big deer. They try to help calm the hunter down, before he prepares for the shot. Another reason hunters stress out is they put way too

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak

Secrets for Producing Trophy Bucks Each Year with Giles Island’s Jimmy Riley

Let me explain from the beginning, taking trophy bucks whether they’re on Giles Island or anywhere else involves a lot of luck. The management system we have in place for our deer herd is the reason many of our hunters are so successful. First of all, we want to make sure we have plenty of deer for the hunters to hunt, and we want to be certain no one harvests our bucks, until they reach

Big Game, Deer

Early Season Whitetail Social Groups

Knowing the social structure of the herd during the time you intend to hunt is a key to getting calls, decoys or scent to work for you. In the “whitetail world” the time during early season (typically late August through October) is all about being social with other deer. However, they may not be social with the specific deer that you might think.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Gamekeepers

Why Giles Island Has So Many Big Bucks and the One Named the Rock

We’ll harvest about 75 bucks per year off Giles Island. We classify our bucks as management bucks or trophy bucks – all shooter bucks. Less than half the bucks we take are management bucks. We define a management buck as an older-age-class buck with antlers that will score less than 125 on Boone and Crockett. We classify a trophy buck as a buck that scores more than 125.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak

Giles Island Monster Bucks

Giles Island in the middle of the Mississippi River is famous for two reasons. On a sandbar on Giles Island is where the famous Jim Bowie, who fought in the battle at the Alamo in Texas, earned his reputation as a knife fighter, and where the legend of the Bowie knife started. Giles Island is also a legendary place to hunt and take big bucks. The lodge manager for Giles Island is Mossy Oak Pro

Big Game, Deer, BioLogic

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