Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Deer & Deer Hunting

Just how did we already blow through a quarter of the year? Although we are all daydreaming about the fall deer hunting season, there’s so much yet to be done. And, yes, it is really easy to look outside, see the crummy weather, and declare, “There’s absolutely nothing to do.” Oh, but I beg to differ. There’s so many things on my to-do list that I don’t even know where to start. Here’s a glimpse at a baker’s dozen of the things I’ll be doing instead of watching sports on TV or goofing around on social media. Scout new (and old) hunting properties. Spring is the perfect time to see what the deer were doing last fall. Plant some apple trees. Or pears. Or plums. I’d highly recommend using root…

It’s an age-old question among whitetail hunters: field-dress the deer where it dropped, or drag it far and away from the hunting area? We asked the Deer & Deer Hunting Facebook fan base to provide their thoughts on gut piles and deer sightings. Here’s what your fellow hunters had to say. Stephen Morgan, Va. Animals die in the woods all the time. Harrison Seybold, Ind. I had a gut pile about 40 yards from my stand and had a smaller buck running a doe. They got about 10 yards from it, stopped, and then looked at it (both buck and doe). They stood there for about a minute and then turned around and went back the other way. So I’d say yes, but I think it depends. Tim Woodworth, Mich.…

Not every whitetail hunter is blessed with having large tracts of land available for them to hunt. That is alright though. Some of the biggest deer I have harvested, along with many other hunters in my family, have come out of very small spaces. This can be true for any hunter who understands why and when small pockets of cover hold big deer. I imagine every deer hunter has his or her idea of what is a small piece of property. In South Texas, several hundred acres might be considered small. In the Northeast, it could be as little as an acre or two. Too many hunters feel they have to have the biggest chunk of land available to hunt on to be successful. They are missing out on some…

It is perhaps most fitting to preface an article on out-of-state deer hunts with a quote from one of the greatest champions of fair-chase, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was not only our 26th president, he was one of the first true conservationists, naturalists and the organizer of the Boone and Crockett Club. The American statesman said it best when he said, “It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come, he is ready.” Mr. Roosevelt surely wasn’t talking about whitetail-hunting when he said that, but I think it’s safe to assume he would have agreed. After all, making the most of your opportunities is a tenant of our American lifestyle. I’ve been blessed…

Experienced deer hunters who are in the woods primarily to fill the freezer with high-quality table fare will tell you that young whitetails will be significantly more tender because as animals grow older, the meat becomes tougher. If so, the question then becomes: Is there an age when deer are most likely to produce the best quality venison in terms of tenderness when harvested? In general, the answer is a qualified “yes.” However, it’s complicated because meat tenderness depends on several different properties of individual muscles. Let me explain. TWO TYPES OF TOUGHNESS To understand what affects venison tenderness, it is useful to first consider how muscle structure affects tenderness. There are two structural properties of all muscles that control the tenderness (or toughness) of meat. Meat scientists describe the…

GROW 'EM BIG TV WITH STEVE BARTYLLA Watch only on Pursuit Channel Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. EST, Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. EST, and Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. EST and 10:00 p.m. EST. March 31: Mock Scrapes & Scrape Trees These are the most underrated deer hunting tools, and they’re practically free. Steve dishes out the secrets of their tremendous drawing power. April 7: High Odds, Low Impact Creating high-odds, low-impact hunting scenarios is a high priority. This episode discusses stand placement, camera scouting and more. April 14: The Plot Thickens What to plant, how much to plant and planting on a budget are all vital questions. We cover all of the details. April 21: Small Property Management Not everyone has a 5,000-acre farm to hunt trophy whitetails. Steve provides proven…

This is in response to Bryan Hendricks’ article, “Baiting is Not a Dirty Word,” in the December issue of Deer & Deer Hunting. Don’t try to convince me otherwise, because I’m not buying it: The only reason a hunter plants a food plot is to create a big bait pile/place to hoard the deer from non-baiting neighbors. It’s plain and simple, and it’s discrimination. It is also a known fact that most of these food-plot landowners simply don’t want baiting to be legal because the baiting neighbors (usually people of lesser means) will attract some deer away from their food plots. It’s pure greed, and it’s is no wonder why some people — like myself — post their land against all outdoor activities. I am in my 60s, I deer…

Do today’s kids lack the passion for hunting kids of previous generations had? Not if today’s kid is Madi Mantei. She is a certified deer hunting fanatic. This 12-year-old girl has already shot deer with a crossbow and a rifle. It doesn’t matter what she uses. She just loves to go hunting. And she has been at it for more than half of her life already. Even before she shot any deer, she was crazy about deer hunting. The family often sees deer in the yard, and Dad or Mom will take pictures, sometimes with Madi and her younger sister, Payton, in the foreground and the deer in the background. She has been going hunting with her dad, Jeff, since she was 3 or 4, and never just as a…

A PROTÉGÉ WORKS TO PRESERVE THE CRAFT OF WHITETAIL PHOTOGRAPHY HE LEARNED FROM ONE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIME. Most boys of my generation idolized athletes, super heroes or rock stars. Not me. My hero was a guy named Charles J. Alsheimer. “Charlie,” as he preferred to be called, obviously needs no introduction to longtime readers of this magazine. If you’re new to D&DH, he was America’s preeminent whitetail photographer and deer behaviorist for nearly 40 years. His untimely passing at the age of just 70 years old in December 2017 left many of us with a void we will never replace. Charlie’s pioneering, decades-long pursuit and documentation of white-tailed deer was legendary, and his work is the single biggest reason why I grind out a living behind the…

Lead is a concern of bird enthusiasts because individual raptors (eagles, hawks, condors) die from lead poisoning after consuming bullet fragments and shotgun pellets in unretrieved game animals and gut piles. Because of their concern for raptor mortality, some bird-based organizations and environmental groups are mounting an aggressive campaign to make hunters aware of human health issues associated with consuming venison shot with lead bullets. Suddenly, bird biologists are very concerned about my family’s health. How much of this is really just an effort to save birds, and how much is a legitimate concern for the health of venison consumers? First off, there are other reasons hunters might choose nonlead bullets. Lead bullets do kill individual birds when they consume even small fragments, but this is not an important population-level…

I have long preached that access is everything when it comes to selecting good deer stand locations. It really doesn’t matter where a stand is located or what it overlooks if you can’t get into it undetected. Furthermore, exiting a stand is every bit as important as entering it. Whitetails have a knack for picking up on hunting pressure very quickly, and if they see a hunter either entering or exiting a stand, it won’t be long before they are avoiding the area around it. Sometimes the natural lay of the land or thick vegetation will allow stealthy access to a good stand location, but this is not always the case. This can really be a problem with stands located near food plots and other feeding areas … where exiting…

Despite long, smart practice and cutting-edge equipment, it will always be the smallest details that separate decent from exceptional shooting. One of those tiny details is the seemingly insignificant arrow nock. Think about it: The arrow nock, that little piece of 25-cent plastic, is the last connection between you and the arrow on every shot you make. That makes it pretty significant. Yet most bowhunters take nocks for granted. Not only must they provide consistency, but they must fit your bowstring serving perfectly to assure you’re getting maximum accuracy potential out of your expensive equipment. NOCK QUALITY Before delving into the technical aspects of proper nock-serving fit, let’s touch on quality. Always choose top-quality, use-specific nocks from proven brands. There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Some arrow brands’ nocks are…

Since body growth takes precedence over antler growth, antler pedicle size among young bucks provides a good indicator of deer population health. Here’s a look at the research behind this phenomenon. If most yearling (1½-year-old) bucks in a given population are large and healthy, they’ll likely sport good-sized, multi-tined antlers. Conversely, a high proportion of small-bodied yearling bucks with short-spike antlers, less than 3 inches long, is symptomatic of inadequate nutrition or possibly other consequences of poor herd structure. There is no evidence that a short-spike antler gene exists. In reality, poor nutrition, late-births or social stress are more often responsible. THE PEDICLE Before any deer can grow antlers it must first grow pedicles, or stumps, on which the antlers form. This means that proper development of the pedicle plays…

As I stood over the 4½-year-old buck I’d just dropped, I struggled with wrapping my mind around just how unbelievably lucky, blessed, privileged, spoiled and a host of other adjectives I was to describe my situation. In a smidge under 24 hours, I’d filled my Illinois bow tag with a buck that I was confident was either 7 or 8 years old. And now, the first day of shotgun season, I’d just filled my gun tag with another mature buck. To say I was on cloud nine was a massive understatement. As a bonus, I self-filmed both hunts. No, they are far from the primo footage one gets with a dedicated professional behind the camera, but that’s just not my cup of tea. Although it may surprise some to hear,…

A Deer & Deer Hunting reader recently posed a scenario that had him perplexed. He shot a doe with his muzzleloader at 70 yards. The hit was a bit forward in the chest, passing through the lungs, yet produced only a scant blood trail. Fortunately, he recovered the doe with a last-ditch body search. His was an experience many muzzleloader hunters are familiar with and one that begs the question, “Why do so many muzzleloader hits provide little to no blood trails?” It’s a good question, even though experienced hunters know weird things can happen once a bullet enters the hide. I once shot a doe at 30 yards broadside with a .54-caliber ball-and-patch — on the shoulder crease in the middle of the chest. Three hundred yards of crawling…

When deer numbers are high, the owner of a small property that has improved his or her land is really at the mercy of their neighbors. If the neighbors aren’t shooting does too, new does are likely to move in just as fast as you can shoot them yourself. How many is too many? The answer lies in a topic we’ve covered many times over the years here at D&DH. In a nutshell, it’s all about deer population dynamics. The more we understand about deer, the better hunters we can become, and the basis for that understanding revolves around the land’s carrying capacity. To make that step, we must begin by understanding what carrying capacity is and how the relationship between deer numbers and the property’s carrying capacity impacts the…

1 Weatherby Mark V Weathermark Bronze The Weathermark historically represents the first Mark V® to feature a Cerakote® finish ready for the nastiest weather conditions. The #2 contour barrel provides accuracy, combined with the hand-laid fiberglass Monte Carlo stock with aluminum bedding blocks. Its spiral fluted bolt body in contrasting Graphite Black Cerakote® gives full weather protection and adds aesthetics. If you are looking for the best value Mark V® rifle for any adventure, you found it in the WeatherMark. The rifle features guaranteed sub-MOA accuracy, and its TriggerTech trigger provides true zero-creep break, extremely short over-travel and external adjustability. Plus, its 54-degree bolt is the shortest in the industry (as compared to the typical 90 bolt throw). This allows for faster chambering on follow-up shots and greater bolt-to-scope clearance.…