GILES ISLAND

Giles Island Deer Management

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jimmy Riley is the lodge manager and hunt master for Giles Island, an island in the Mississippi River near Natchez, Mississippi, and Ferriday, Louisiana. He constantly learns more and more about the bucks on this island each season, and his management program has proven success.

Question: What are you doing to harvest deer?
Answer: Here are the rules.

If ...
* the deer is less than 8 points, without a guide, you can't shoot him,
* he's exactly 8 points, he has to have 16-inches inside spread,
* the buck has 9 points or more and you hunt him with a bow and arrow, he must score 130 points on the Pope and Young scoring system,
* you're gun hunting and he's 9 points or more he must score at least 150 points on the Boone & Crockett system and
* you take a guide with you, although guides are an additional charge, the guides will let you shoot a cull buck, a 3-1/2-year-old deer with less than 8 points.

You're allowed one trophy buck during a three-day hunt. A guide will also let you shoot a management buck, which is an older-age class deer, 6-1/2-years-old, that doesn't meet trophy requirements, but we need to get him out of there because he's maxed-out. The reason for these rules is to genetically increase the number of 10-point bucks versus 8 points. We believe a deer at 3- 1/2-years-old is telling you how many mainframe tines he's going to have from now on. We've found this to be true, for the most part. At 3-1/2 years, if he's an 8-point buck, he'll always be an 8-point buck. We're taking those out over 16-inch rules with 16-inch deer coinciding with a 3-1/2-year-old deer. As a result, our trophy system is working. During the past two years, we've seen an increasing number of 9-, 10-, 11-, 12- and 13-point deer. We've never seen that before.

Question: Tell me about your management bucks.
Answer: A management buck is a 5-1/2- to 6-year-old deer that doesn't meet our 130/bow 150/gun rule. If you see a 125-class 10-point come out, and the guide thinks he's 6-1/2-years- old, we'll take him out. He's maxed-out. He's eating everything. We'll take him out while we have a chance.

Question: How many does do you harvest every year?
Answer: 150 to 175 per year.

Question: How many 150-points-or-better bucks do you take a year?
Answer: Six or seven. But we average 132 to 140 points on our average scores. We take some really good 8 points. While we may not kill a whole lot of 150-class deer, we do take plenty of deer that are truly trophies. We get 8-point bucks all the way up to 17-point bucks.

Question: Why'd you lower the standards for the bowhunter?
Answer: To give them a better chance to take trophy bucks. Getting these big deer within 30 yards is hard. We lower the standards for the bowhunters to increase their odds.

Question: How many stands do you have?
Answer: We have about 130 ladder stands that range from 14- to 20-feet tall. We have 37 all-weather box stands. Some of them we bow hunt from, but we mostly gun hunt out of the box stands. We have a few lock-ons scattered around, and the guides use lock-ons when they guide hunters.

Question: Why do you favor having two people in the stand when hunting?
Answer: Some of the advantages to hunting with a guide include increasing the possibility of getting a buck, avoiding the fee that's assessed to a buck that's taken that doesn't meet the requirements -- like having an insurance policy. You get a video of the hunt. There's two sets of eyes in the tree. That helps a lot.

Question: How many times will the guide see the buck before the hunter will?
Answer: We're professional guides so we try to be courteous and let our hunters see the deer first. If I have a hunter I know is a good hunter and woodsman, I'll let him or her know whether or not I can tell him when I see something. Each hunter is a different situation.

Question: What's the best deer taken on the island?
Answer: The highest score is 17 points with a gross score of 182 B&C points. He netted 176-3/4 points. He was the number-two non-typical deer in the state of Mississippi taken with a bow and arrow. The biggest typical deer was a 10-point that scored 173 B&C gross points.

To learn more about Giles Island, write 461 Old River Boat Camp Road, Ferriday, LA 71334, call (877) 944-5374, or visit www.gilesisland.com.

TOMORROW: BEING A DEER GUIDE ON GILES ISLAND