Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Deer & Deer Hunting

Today's deer hunters are victims of media overplay. Videos, TV shows and social media posts glorify mature white-tailed bucks as the kings of the woods. You would think antlered deer are the only ones in existence. Yeah, we all love big bucks. They certainly are smart, crafty and majestic. But truth be told, they have nothing on wise, old does. In fact, I'll stick my neck out and say a mature, matriarch white-tailed doe is the smartest deer in the woods. Think about that for a moment. A mature buck only has to look out for himself during hunting season, and even then he becomes unglued at least once every year — during the rut. The same cannot be said of a fully mature doe. She's always on high alert,…

On Pursuit Channel Destination Whitetail is a TV show that investigates the people, places and ways to hunt white-tailed deer throughout North America. In the 43 states that have deer populations, their habitat varies greatly; as do the traditions and methods used to hunt them. The show follows every imaginable type of hunter and weapon used, from guns to bows, and in every kind of terrain and habitat imaginable. From bowhunting the humid Everglades in July to the big sky country of Montana, and to the far northern reaches of Minnesota’s Lake of the Woods, Quebec’s Anticosti Island and beyond — Destination Whitetail will take you on deer hunting adventures like you’ve never seen before. Tune in to Pursuit Channel’s D&DH Saturday Night Deer Camp…

These are easily the most effective deer decoys I’ve personally ever used for hunting. I first spotted them many years ago, while giving seminars at the Madison Deer & Turkey Expo. I knew immediately that they were about to become the only decoys I’d ever use again. Where electronics are legal, there’s a simple system for getting a higher percent of bucks to commit. When bucks are at a distance, “flicking” the tail is a good way to get their attention. If they fully commit, the job is done. However, when they hang up, turning the head to make eye contact is often a difference maker. Where electronics aren’t legal, simply remove the batteries and leave the remote at home. Even without the movement, I’ve found these babies to be…

"It might truthfully be said that the inveterate still-hunter gets as much satisfaction from the hunt itself as he does from bagging his quarry. He is actually more than just a huntsman out to get his deer, and he is a man with more than ordinary love for the solitude of the autumn woods." — George Mattis, “Whitetail: Fundamentals & Fine Points for the Hunter.” 1972 Solitude is one reason we hunt. And it can certainly be found while sitting in one spot and waiting for a whitetail to wander past. But more and more every autumn and early winter, I find that my deer-hunting solitude is even sweeter when I am moving out and exploring the countryside at a sneak-and-pause meander — looking for whitetails and observing what…

I don’t consume a lot of outdoor television/video, but when I do I’ve invariably come away struck by how little penetration many of the kill shots depicted show. In typical TV/video fashion, a drool-inducing buck saunters leisurely before the camera, our hero shoots said buck and the deer crashes out of sight — with 25 inches of a 29-inch arrow wagging grotesquely. Some of these deer fall in sight. Most do not. I spent enough time behind outdoor-television cameras to question some particulars of the later, but let’s not get into that. What troubles me in these scenes is the complete lack of penetration I see resulting from modern compound bows wielded by grown men. I do regular empirical bow tests in my capacity as an archery-equipment writer. I test…

In my early years, the “second rut” was described to me as follows: Because the majority of does all come into estrus within a fairly tight time frame, bucks aren’t able to find and breed all of the does during the rut. The does that are missed end up coming back into estrus 28 days later. So, you can peg the peak of the second rut by merely adding 28 days to the peak rut. That sounds great in theory, but many rutless second-rut sits caused me to question the validity of the second rut many years ago. Picking the brains of every experienced hunter I knew, including a handful of outfitters, I’d ask each if they’d ever seen a buck actually tending a mature doe a month after peak…

Acrophobia is wretched on a hunter who knows full well the best way to drop the hammer on deer is by hovering 17 feet up a hardwood tree in an aluminum stand about as wide as your shoulders. But that’s not in the cards for folks like me. Suffering with such irrational fear, we hear our teeth chatter like a rattling-bag the minute we depart land. However, and I won’t call this bragging, suffering from acrophobia does allow me a leg up on claiming credibility in advancing strategies about hunting deer from the ground. It can be done. FACTORS FAVORING THE GROUND I agree, particularly during bow season, that hunting from the ground is not as effective as from a treestand, but I would never go so far as to…

The whitetail rut is out of the gates in northern Idaho, but I’ve ignored some trail cameras situated on lower, traditionally productive private ground. We have suffered an exceptionally hot and dry summer, conditions particular to that area producing a devastating outbreak of blue tongue. Few bucks have appeared on camera during earlier seasons. I’ve tagged a massive-bodied, 6½-plus-year-old buck, but have a second tag in my pocket — the expensive nonresident leftover one. My public-land stands have simply gone dead since, causing some amount of urgency. The little voice in my head has been nagging me to check those neglected cameras for a couple of weeks; and, of course, that voice is right. It usually is. When I finally get around to it one of those lower spots has…

With the great variety of wine and beer available for enjoyment today, it’s virtually impossible to say with certainty that one is better than any other. Why? Because everyone’s tastes are different. Some people prefer flavorful red wines with meat, such as a Pinot Noir, Burgundy or Cabernet. But that doesn’t mean that a smooth, buttery chardonnay won’t be a nice addition with your favorite venison dish. Likewise, a darker beer such as stout or porter with richer, deeper flavors may be your preference. But don’t overlook a biting cider or IPA, and of course a good ol’ lager you can find in any store gets the job done well, too. Some would turn up their noses at the thought of pairing a chardonnay or other white wine with red…

lkeen “Dip” McMillian of Loxley, Alabama, looked forward to bagging a deer while hunting on his club property near Atmore, Alabama, one Sunday morning. He arrived at his stand before daylight and loaded ammunition into his 7mm Mag. chambered rifle. Then he waited for a deer to walk into range. At about 8 a.m., Dip saw an opportunity to put meat in his freezer when a mature doe stepped out from cover well within the range of his powerful rifle. “I put the crosshairs on the big doe and squeezed the trigger,” Dip recalled. “The shell just exploded in the rifle. All that burning powder came out of the gun and came back on me. I had fire and gunpowder in my face. It burned the hairs on my face.…

SHOPDEERHUNTING.COM Move past traditional processing methods with the Viking Deer Splitter, a helpful tool that greatly simplifies the process of splitting the chest cavity and pelvic bone. This stainless steel tool applies 19X force that will efficiently and effectively split these two areas, allowing you to keep your hands and knives outside of the animal. The Deer Splitter is compact enough to store in a backpack or fanny pack, but has the power necessary to tackle these two tough areas on your animal. It also works for jawbone extraction to help with your management strategy. Visit www.ShopDeerHunting.com and search for SKU T6252 to order yours. DEER OF  THE MONTH Congratulations to Sarah Walters of Troy, Ohio, who killed this 152 7/8 inch buck on Nov. 9, 2016. Walters…

Creator and owner of Robotic Wildlife, Brian Wolslegel, has dedicated his life to building wildlife decoys. Animals as big as a moose and small as a squirrel are created daily in his Central Wisconsin shop. Wolslegel is not on a crusade to eliminate hunting. He’s a hunter himself who was able to start creating some “deer camp lore” of his own this year with his oldest child. “Hunting is a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation,” Wolslegel said. “I want to do everything I can to help preserve that and poachers are a huge threat to that tradition. The only people who dislike what I do are the ones who have gotten caught, or are about to.”…

"Build it and they will come.” Not only is this an iconic line from one of the best baseball movies of all time, it is also a commonly used marketing line in regard to food plots. In the story line of Field of Dreams, all Kevin Costner had to do was convert a section of his cornfield to a baseball field and “magic” would happen. Isn’t that essentially what hunters are told about creating a food plot? All they have to do is plant a piece of ground with some kind of food plot seed and sit back and plan their taxidermy account savings plan. There is no question that food plots can help improve your hunting odds by increasing the likelihood of deer showing up on your property. Also,…

With experience, humans are supposed to learn lessons that benefit them from that point forward. Though I can be slow at times, I was able to learn early during my writing career that it’s very risky to make statements on a few pieces of anecdotal evidence or even what others state as fact. I still cringe to this day every time I think about how I parroted several generally held truths, only to later realize they were incorrect and that I helped spread disinformation. I sure can’t pretend everything I write or say is true, because I’m sure there is something I believe today that five years from now will cause me to shake my head in disappointment. I just don’t know what it is yet. What I can do…

Unfortunately for deer hunters, there is only a certain time of the year that they are able to pursue their passion … white-tailed deer. Depending on the state, the season is normally a three- to four-month period considering all of the days that can be legally hunted, but most hunters typically don’t hunt all of the season because they don’t hunt with all weaponry, or they have limited ability to break away from obligations associated with family and/or work. For gun hunters, the most common type of deer hunter, the season might be as short as nine days. I began hunting with a 16-day gun season, and I did everything I could to break away from my obligations at school during those short windows of opportunity. Usually, this meant I…

For many, January marks the end of the hunting season. The harvest has been processed, bagged and loaded into the freezer. The rifle is cleaned and stored. Post-season maintenance is complete on the bow. Icicle-moustached sportsmen and rosy-cheeked outdoorswomen migrate indoors, into the heartbeat of the home, into the warmth of the kitchen, filled with its softly wafting aromas of homemade wild game meals simmering in cast-iron pots. Now is the time for hunted meats, stored-up root vegetables and grains, and fresh herbs to happily combine in a one-pot cooking tradition over a single flame, or open fire. Stew, a succulent, nourishing slow-cooked dish of unguent tenderness, has always been an integral part of how we feed, nourish and sustain ourselves as hunters and gatherers. Just how far back does…

One of the hottest deer related topics is whether baiting should be legal — not just during hunting season, but at any time during the year. Valid arguments are made on either side; tradition, providing supplemental nutrition and increasing hunting success on one side of the fence and artificially increasing deer numbers and the possible spread of disease on the other. But biologically speaking, should baiting be banned in whitetail country? There is no easy answer, but there are biological reasons why baiting in some cases can be harmful. However, in other cases feeding deer can be beneficial — at least for the short term. So making a “blanket decision” for all of the whitetail’s range, might not even be feasible. First off, it’s a fact that increased deer density…

1 Realtree Strider Bike Your toddler can enjoy learning how to ride a bicycle just like everyone else but be even more cool doing it with the Realtree Strider 12 Custom Balance Bike. Strider’s no-pedal bikes are designed without training wheels to help riders as young as 18 months old learn balance and coordination. The bikes have an adjustable seat and handlebars so your young rider can grow into it as he or she ages, up to 5 years old or 44 inches in height. MSRP: $109.99. Info: www.StriderBikes.com/realtree-strider-12 2 CuddeLink Dual Flash Camera Cuddeback’s new Dual Flash is loaded with a ton of features that should make any deer hunter excited. The Dual Flash Model 1361 is compatible with the CuddeLink system, so you can check multiple cameras from…

Nature doesn’t play by our rules. It makes up its own, and breaks them whenever it chooses — like the time a friend and I hunted elk in New Mexico. We were a mile from the truck, as the crow flies, when the sky morphed from a soft, safe blue to an angry, dark gray. Within a scant 15 minutes, we went from bugling for bulls without a care in the world to dodging lightning bolts and praying that God would spare our lives. There was also that slow afternoon in the treestand when all nature seemed to be on break. I had been distracting myself with a giant maple leaf — stripping leaf material from the delicate spine — when I looked up and saw a sea of blue…