A Typical Hunt
We ask that you show up around 1:00 the afternoon of your hunt, after you have had lunch. Laurel (south of us on I-59), Meridian (north of us on 1-59/20), and Waynesboro (east on Hwy 45) have various restaurants. You can also obtain your hunting license at any Mississippi Walmart before you arrive in either of these towns, as well as last-minute supplies and gear. Please – do not arrive before noon. We want to be ready for you and give you our full attention.
When you get here, we will have a safety meeting, get to know your needs and expectations, and have you sign liability papers, all standard. This form says if my ladder breaks while you are climbing, I’m at fault, but if you jump off, you are at fault. During the safety meeting, we discuss any health problems which may prevent you from climbing or walking far. We talk about any special needs to help with your hunt. Then we assign your room. Before your hunt, you may perform a rifle accuracy check. Everything from your physical abilities to your type of rifle to what kind of boots you brought determine which stand you go to. That’s right: if you’ve got on tennis shoes or knee high rubber boots, that helps me decide where you go. If you are a long-range shooter or a brush hunter, that tells me where you can hunt. If you can’t walk more than a few yards, then I know where to take you. We have been doing this for more than 25 years. There is not much we have not seen.
Many years ago, our Founder (Father, Steve McKenna, Sr.) said that we should never allow doe to be shot on the pipelines. He wanted the pipelines and powerlines to be a doe haven. We still follow his guidelines. My Father had many sayings. One was “the 1, 2, 3 rule: 1 – the doe runs into view; 2 – aim your rifle from whence the doe came; 3 – shoot the buck following the doe.” Another of his sayings was, “If the deer keeps moving, keep shooting.” This second saying may seem like overkill, but every year, a buck gets away because this advice was not followed. Another of my father’s sayings: “No binoculars!” Each season, hunters tell us they did not get a shot at a buck because of the lost time putting the binoculars down and finding the buck in their rifle scopes.
Your afternoon hunt will begin as soon as everyone is loaded up, before 2:00 PM, and you will hunt til dark-thirty. We provide transportation to and from the stands. Our staff will help load the deer and will clean it for you. Please bring coolers for your game.
The next morning, we get up before daylight, eat breakfast about 4:30 AM, and head out within the hour. We hunt till 10:30 AM. Some hunters want to hunt all day in the same spot. No problem. We can pack a lunch and drinks. The other hunters come in and eat lunch, served at noon. Our staff will help retrieve and clean deer from the morning hunt. We leave about 1:30 for the afternoon hunt. We’ll pick you up after sunset where we dropped you off. We serve supper about an hour after pick up, approximately 6:30 PM.
Here at McKenna Ranch, we have a walk-in cooler to hold the cleaned deer. We skin, clean and quarter the deer. We like to put the quartered deer into your ice chest and place the ice chest, with the lid open, into the cooler. If for some reason you don’t want the deer meat, we can use the meat. We are experts at skinning a deer for mounting. Sometimes the hunter wants us to take his trophy head to our taxidermist for mounting. Our taxidermist will UPS your mount to your home. Call us or email for any questions about this.
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