The weather is still warm, but believe it or not we’re already well into a staple of fall and winter in Mississippi — deer season.

Archery season has been going on for a month. The youth season starts Nov. 4, only nine days from today. The gun season begins Nov. 18, and from then on thousands of people across the state will be waking up or leaving work early to get whatever time they can on the deer stand.

In full disclosure, I’m not a hunter. I have nothing against it, but my family wasn’t into it growing up and it just wasn’t something I was exposed to. If you don’t get into at an early age, it’s a hard hobby to pick up later in life.

And that brings me to my main point this week.

Despite being a noted indoorsman, I am nonetheless The Vicksburg Post’s outdoors reporter by default. I feel like I can write about almost anything, yet it’s hard to have an ear to the ground when you’re not in a certain world on a regular basis.

So I ask you, dear readers, for a little help.

For decades we have run pictures of hunters and their deer (or fish, or alligators, or whatever lives in the woods). It’s a tradition I enjoy and am happy — proud, even — to continue for as long as we’re here. Getting your picture with your first deer published in The Post is a Vicksburg tradition.

Obviously we can’t be there when the moment happens, though, or rush out and take pictures of hundreds of people when they emerge from the woods. So if you’d like to see you or your young hunter featured in the paper, please snap their photo and e-mail it to sports@vicksburgpost.com. We’ll run them as we receive them.

There are some rules. We don’t want to make anyone throw up, so please keep the blood and gore to a minimum. Take pictures of the kids before they get blooded.

We need to make sure people can see what’s in the picture, so try to get it in focus and well-lit. Daytime photos with a high-resolution digital camera are best. Nighttime shots with a cellphone camera can be dicey. Use a flash and try to get some other light if it’s at night.

Finally, give us some details of the hunt. When (date and time), where (a general location is fine) and how (what kind of weapon, anything interesting about the hunt). If it’s a particularly interesting story you’d like to share, feel free to write a little something and e-mail it to us. If it’s good enough, we’ll print it. Just keep it to a maximum of 500 words.

I appreciate the help. It’s cold out there in the woods.

Happy hunting!

•

Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com