Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2021 i Deer & Deer Hunting

A college professor once told me that irreverence toward dead creatures (namely, from hunting) is common among humans. The way he explained it was that those who seemed most obnoxious in their displays of irreverance to slain creatures are those who, in the moment, feel surges of anxiety about their own mortality. He said these reactions are hard-wired in our human psyche and we are often cognizant of them. My professor also said it often takes but one reminder to trigger the necessary guilt to right one’s internal compass. Looking at what’s being posted these days on social media (namely Instagram) makes me wonder if this human condition is receiving national exposure to the detriment of our beloved lifestyle. To be honest, I really don’t have to wonder. I know…

One of the greatest innovations in whitetail hunting during the last few decades is arguably the trail camera. Making visible the invisible, this technology has changed the way many people hunt. Assuming they are telling the whole truth about deer activity, however, has led some hunters astray. It seems they have an affinity for fibbing. Like a lovesick teenager, we’ve been blind to their flaws, and putting the trail camera in a more realistic frame is necessary for making better hunting decisions. So let’s take a look at the good and bad of this technology, and how to pry the truth out of these potentially deceptive little liars. LIE #1: THINGS ARE EXACTLY AS THEY APPEAR. Do I use trail cameras? Absolutely. Do I completely trust them? Absolutely not. The…

Not too many years ago, there was no tra ditional bowhunting. It was just bowhunting. Sometimes, I think I was born in the wrong era. In a world where bowhunters rely on their sights, releases and drop-away rests to perform correctly, traditional archery spoke to me. When shooting a simple stick and string, you don’t rely on shooting aids or sights. If you mess up, you can’t blame your equipment. It’s all on you. It’s a harsh accountability, being your own deciding factor. As someone who hunted with a compound bow for more than 10 years, I recognize that everyone’s journey into traditional archery and bowhunting is uniquely their own. No stories are identical. And yet the mindsets of traditional bowhunters tend to be extremely similar. THE NEED TO KILL…

Cutting boards have an aggravating way of sliding on a dry surface, such as on a kitchen table or countertop. There’s an easy way to stop that and hold a cutting board in place, which is a good safety feature. No one wants to use a sharp knife, or any knife, on a slipping, sliding surface. You can use a wooden or plastic cutting board. (See sidebar for details.) Be aware that plastic can be put in the dishwasher to sterilize and clean it, but some people feel wood holds bacteria or germs. Don’t put wooden cutting boards in the dishwasher. Use bleach or warm, soapy water to sterilize wood. WOODEN OR PLASTIC CUTTING BOARDS A lot goes into selecting a good cutting board, but the first step is deciding…

1. REMINGTON MODEL 700 BDL The company survived Chapter 11 and is in transition, but Remington’s iconic bolt-action rifle remains one of the all-time greats. It doesn’t hurt that the gunmaker offered numerous variations of the reliable, accurate rifle, but when the 700 was introduced in 1962, the mid-grade BDL was probably the most widely carried. Its glossy walnut Monte Carlo stock with a black fore-end cap graded well above what was a pretty affordable rifle for its time. 2. WINCHESTER MODEL 70 The Model 70 earned its reputation as the “Rifleman’s Rifle” because of a near-mythical blend of accuracy and reliability. As Jack O’Connor and his acolytes told it, the pre-’64 models, with their controlled-round-feed action, were the greatest rifles ever built, but even those coming afterward are darn…

I may be the only deer hunter in the world who doesn’t expect to shoot a buck on opening day. I suppose you might say that makes me a lousy hunter. Someone who has diligently scouted prior to the season, learned which bucks were present and had a good idea of their movements could put a solid opening-day plan together, and would stand a reasonable chance of bringing home the venison the first time out. But not me. More often, the season sneaks up on me and I hastily throw my gear together the night before opener, rummaging around frantically to find stray hunting paraphernalia. Stuff is thrown haphazardly into my truck, and I’ll probably spend 10 minutes digging around for loose gloves or misplaced snacks before I slam the…

If not for their adaptive survival strategies, newborn whitetails would be easy meat for marauding wolves, coyotes, black bears and bobcats. This is not to say that certain predators aren’t proficient fawn-killers. To the contrary, there is mounting evidence that coyote predation of fawns, for example, is creating havoc and impacting annual deer recruitment rates in some environments (see the “Party Crashers” article about coyotes in the March 2011 issue of Deer & Deer Hunting). Recent research has also shown that white-tailed fawn-rearing behavior, as well as the pattern and magnitude of fawn mortality, tend to vary annually and often from one area to the next depending upon a host of factors. Therefore, successful deer management demands a firm understanding of deer reproductive behavior. It’s essential those involved recognize that…

EXCLUSIVE! AUBURN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE-BASED WHITETAIL INSIGHTS With the advent of quality deer management, opposition toward antlerless harvest in the whitetail world seems mostly a relic of the past. It’s no secret that proper deer management requires keeping the herd in balance with surrounding habitat, which often calls for reductions in deer density. Today, most well-informed deer management regimes include doe harvest as a major tenant in regions with abundant or overabundant populations. In the essential reading, Quality Whitetails, a book that laid the foundation of modern deer management practices, the authors explain how adequate doe harvest can lead to healthier densities, more balanced sex ratios and increased reproductive rates. Despite antlerless harvest becoming a widely accepted deer management tool, there still exists a plethora of questions concerning the best approaches…

We all know that person — the one who can’t find a sandwich in the front of the fridge but can tell you the minutest details about a buck grazing by the side of the highway. In my life, that person is my dad. Families have countless stories of mentorship. I was the child my dad considered least likely to hunt. It was a surprise to me and a shock to him when I said I wanted to go hunting. He had brought home hunter education books years earlier, but I never read more than a few pages. FAMILY DYNAMICS Something has always gone wrong when my dad and I attempt something together. It somehow devolves into miscommunication, and my mom plays referee. It isn’t that we don’t get along.…

When most bowhunters think “blind,” they think either the portable pop-up type, or a brush blind built themselves. But there’s another type — the box blind, those expensive, massive, heavy, hard-shell shooting-house-type blinds most commonly associated with Texas, that have become increasingly popular in areas with large agricultural fields and the wide open spaces of the West. Where the pop-up blind is easy to move and quick to erect, hard-sided blinds weigh hundreds of pounds, and require some sort of vehicle to transport. They may sit right on the ground, or be erected atop tower-type stands that elevate them as much as 20 feet or so. When properly set up, they’re as solid as your house. Inside they’re roomy, comfortable, completely block the wind, rain and snow, and are customizable…

One spring, I got a call from a rural mail carrier who wanted to know what he should do with a fawn he discovered bedded in the middle of a gravel road on his route. I told him to place the fawn off the edge of the road in some high grass, and its mother would move it when she returned. “Do you think she’ll return?” the man asked. “I don’t see any sign of her.” “Oh, she’s around,” I told him. “She’s probably looking at you right now from a distance. You just can’t see her.” RITES OF SPRING The birthing of a whitetail fawn, its bonding with its mother, and the way the doe nurtures and protects her young is a fascinating aspect of nature. Although no two…

I was going to begin this piece with examples of how I was on a buck only to have it switch patterns and disappear, unless I saw it in the back of a neighbor’s truck. I’m going to skip that, as most of us have experienced similar situations. Merely writing what I did achieves the same results in far fewer words, and I’ll need them to cover this. Basically, habitat and whitetail physiology change drastically during the season. If you want to be in deer from the opener through closing, you need a plan of attack that anticipates those changes and puts you in stands to capitalize on them before they occur. Here’s how to do that. UNDERSTANDING FOOD One of the more eye-opening lessons I’ve learned from a biologist…

The monster buck emerged from the thicket and stood just 40 yards from my stand watching the handful of does and fawns that fed under me. There wasn’t a blade of grass between me and the buck I had waited my whole life to see. There he stood, so close yet so far away. For many bowhunters, the 40-yard shot would not have caused a moment’s hesitation. That’s not the case with me, however. You see, my self-imposed shooting limit is 30 yards, and that doesn’t change with the size of the buck in front of me. I played the hand I was dealt and stood stone-still, hoping the does would feed past my stand and the giant buck would follow. It didn’t happen. The does and fawns turned and…

At my last physical, the doctor asked about the sources of various bumps, bruises and aches. My response to her was that life is a contact sport, and it really is for many of us. Along those lines, our hunting land is our home field that we play so many of these games on. Our team is every human that steps foot on that ground. For as cheesy as all of that may sound, the more you think on it, the more the parallels can be seen. If that’s the case, how do we build a championship team? That’s the question we will cover today. YOU GET WHAT YOU PRIORITIZE Since we’re talking sports, what’s one of the themes the great coaches have hammered on over the years? One I’ll…

Tyler Jordan is a devout deer hunter. He spends a lot of time behind bows and guns each fall and winter. For him, it’s a place of peace. For years, he’s hunted throughout the South, Midwest and West in search of big deer, but for him, the meaning of deer hunting has changed. Now, it’s more about the adventure and experience. The journey and path mean more than the destination or outcome. It’s a matter of personal growth, stewardship and understanding. “Hunting in general means a lot to me,” said Jordan (son of Realtree Outdoors founder Bill Jordan). “This industry has provided a lot to our family, but the true meaning of what hunting has meant to me has changed over time. It used to be all about shooting the…