Deer Management

The story of Whitesocks continues in this week’s episode of The Management Advantage. Morgan James, daughter of TMA prostaff Tom James, had her heart set on harvesting Whitesocks as a 3.5 year old during the 2011 season. As James Luck would have it, Whitesocks finally entered a Pennington food plot late during the 2011 Indiana gun season, but Morgan shot just over his back.

As the 2012 season started, the now 4.5 year old Whitesocks frequented the James property just as he did the year before. Many of the other “hit list” bucks they had been seeing had disappeared as the season began, but the deer Morgan had hopes of taking as her first buck was still around. She hunted as often as she could, but her bad luck with this deer continued. Her sister, Lauren, and boyfriend filmed Whitesocks directly under one of their stands, but Lauren knew Whitesocks was Morgan’s deer and allowed him to walk off. Later in the season, Tom saw Whitesocks in a food plot as Morgan was driving home to hunt for the weekend. The next day, Morgan and Tom were on the very same food plot as a 3.5 year old injured 8 point stepped out. Since it was a mature deer and appeared severely injured, Morgan elected to take the shot even though she had her sights set on Whitesocks. With a well placed shot, Morgan was finally able to harvest her first buck. It wasn’t the deer she had chased for 2 years, but it was a mature buck that had been previously injured. As they looked over the deer the next day, it became evident that the injury had come from a previous gunshot wound and the deer had been a survivor of EHD.

The very next day, just as anyone would have guessed, Whitesocks visited the food plot with only Tom in the stand. The story of Whitesocks isn’t complete. We hope Morgan and the deer that has consumed her the past two years will cross paths in the 2013 season and finish the story.