With the last few decades of urban sprawl, we have all heard of big bucks that have become encapsulated in the wood lots left over from growing communities. There are even shows on the hunting channels geared toward hunting in these urban areas. A high school buddy of mine sent me these pictures of this big buck that he and his brother have been seeing as they drive through Madison, MS.
Here is his story:
You are familiar with Madison-Ridgeland area. It has been growing extremely fast over the past 10 to 15 years and what used to be farmland is now either residential neighborhoods or commercial property. Madison county has always had some of the best hunting in Central MS, and still does in areas. Problem is, as I’m sure you know, deer populations don’t really move that much. Deer born in a certain area will live and die in that area. The Madison deer have been forced into smaller and smaller woodland areas as the City has grown. Today there are small pockets of land all over the city that are holding large populations of deer. This is one of those deer.
I work at an industry park here in Ridgeland. Here’s a satellite shot, courtesy of Google Maps. You’ll notice just north of my office, a couple of small patches of commercial land for sale on the east side of HCP that today are covered in pines. These small parcels of land are where these pictures were taken. This trophy buck, as you can see in the picture, was seen feeding alongside the Highland Colony Parkway Baptist Church. They are the last building on the right when driving north on HCP from my office.
All over Madison deer populations are thriving because the city has incorporated almost all the land they live on making it illegal to gun hunt. Bow hunting with landowner permission is allowed if you are fortunate enough to get it. My brother lives in one such area and everyone in his neighborhood complain about the deer that come into their yards at night and completely wipe out their manicured flower beds. They are viewed as complete nuisance animals. It won’t be long before something will have to be done. They are already being hit in great number all along Hwy 463 where the aristocrats of Madison have chosen to build their million dollar homes. This area has a huge population of deer. It is where Reunion Golf course was built and there is no hunting allowed in the area. With no real predators and no hunting pressure, the Residential Deer are growing.
I would like to thank Heath McCoy for sharing this story with me so that I can share it on this blog. I scored his deer using the BuckScore software and I measured him at 153″ gross B/C. The photo is a little blurry and I had to zoom in to score it, so it is possible that he could be bigger. Click here to view the PDF of the scoring breakdown.
So the next time you are driving by the wood lot in your neighborhood, look around and maybe you will see a big buck or big gobbler that you had never noticed before.