Deer & Deer Hunting is written and edited for serious, year-round hunting enthusiasts, focusing on hunting techniques, deer biology and behavior, deer management, habitat requirements, the natural history of deer and hunting ethics
It’s almost the perfect afternoon for deer hunting. There’s just enough nip in the air to warrant this knit hat, and the air is crisp enough to turn my breath into small billows with every exhale. There’s not much wind, but what little there is creates a windchime effect with the red, yellow and orange aspen leaves. They’re tickling in the treetops above me in a confetti-like dance. I’m taking it all in, saying that I’m deer hunting but I’m just out here to relax. And think. And ponder life’s complexities. Have you have noticed how such vigils invariably bring profound moments? They happen all the time out here on the deer stand. The older I get, the more I realize that almost every hunt is wrought with higher meaning,…
I’M A PUBLIC land hunter for the most part. I pass on spike bucks and forkhorns for two reasons: 1. Here in Michigan we have a ton of does, and each hunter can get 10 doe tags per season if they want and can (in some areas) hunt all the way to February. 2. I like the idea of letting the little bucks have a chance to live a little bit, grow up, and get an opportunity pass on their genetics. Yes, I know No. 2 is wishful thinking and someone is going shoot them when they get the opportunity, but I personally see nothing wrong with that just not what I want to do. Now, if a 6-pointer walks out into range — that is a trophy to me, especially…
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COVID-19 hit America hard. Churches stopped gathering. Funerals were limited to a handful of mourners. Banks forced us out of their lobbies and into the drive-through. We wore masks everywhere. But the pandemic did not hinder hunters from pursuing white-tailed deer in 2020. In fact, the number of hunters increased and the number of deer harvested rose in at least 37 of 44 states where whitetails are hunted. Will the pandemic mark a reverse in the decline of hunting license sales? Will numbers hold (or be even higher) in the 2021-2022 season? Or will the increase be a mere blip, failing to counter the downward slide of hunter numbers? A CABIN FEVER EPIDEMIC Many people were never infected, but lockdowns led to another malady — cabin fever — and social…
It is a pretty picture. A heavy bodied buck with thick and sweeping antlers holds court in a section of woods recently shed of its foliage. A line of rubs and scrapes ring a kingdom into which no other buck will step for fear of getting thoroughly thrashed. The big-woods monarch spends its rut breeding doe after doe — every doe in its domain — making sure the fawns that hit the ground the falling spring carry one genetic code that promises to deliver big bodies and antlers. It is a great picture, but the only problem is it only exists in hunters’ minds. In reality, it is a far cry from what really happens during the whitetail rut. In the past, outdoor writers and hunters could only guess what…
I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard this kind of description of a previous year’s whitetail rut: “The rut didn’t happen last year like many were predicting. All the action I saw seemed to be early. During the first week of November, I saw all kinds of bucks cruising around. By the end of the first week, there was some chasing going on, then everything seemed to crash. From then on, I couldn’t buy a buck sighting. What happened to the rut last year?” What this frustrated hunter was sharing with me in a recent e-mail exchange is typical of what can take place during the rut. Too often, deer hunters envision the rut as a frenetic helter-skelter event that lasts for the better part of…
