Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors

I got a little tied up with deadlines last month to the point I never got to report in on a hunting trip I took with David Dellucci, his family and Captain Eric Dumas. Dellucci, a former Ole’ Miss Rebel and Baton Rouge native played most recently for the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays , and two years ago he purchased some prime deer hunting property that he is managing to produce big, mature bucks.

Dellucci and his nephew Calvin worked with me to gather some story information and images for some future stories. Whether we were playing baseball naming games in the box stand – I snuck in Phil Niekro – hunting in the rain, eating a boudin breakfast or skinning deer in the shed, Dellucci and his family were wonderful hosts.

Dellucci’s main emphasis on his property is to keep his deer as comfortable as possible. Their comfort level was obvious after an 8-point walked out just moments after Calvin made a shot. One of the ways he accomplishes this is to keep unnatural noises to a minimum throughout the year. He only uses electric carts in the interior of his property, he asks visiting hunters to take a bow and rifle with them so they can shoot does with bows and save the rifles for the long-range trophy buck shots.

Dellucci, who takes a lot of good-natured ribbing for his ruthless rules and requirements, also has some solid advice for turning a new property into a big buck paradise. One of his most stringent management methods is to shoot mature deer rather than using a point restriction. Mature deer, regardless of their horns, are the true trophies, and old deer with good genetics will generally score very high.

Look for the full stories to run in Louisiana Sportsman during the 2010 Louisiana deer season.