Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i Deer & Deer Hunting

We all love venison, but these famed explorers took it to gut-busting extremes. How extreme? How does 6,500 calories a day sound? Not much is known about the specific deer hunting exploits of famed explorers Lewis & Clark’s team, but what we do know is they loved venison. That might be due to its great flavor, or it might be because, well, meat’s meat and a man’s gotta eat. And when you’re lugging boats and supplies around the wilderness, well, you burn a lot of calories. Their expedition started on May 14, 1804, when they left Wood River, Illinois. Their final stop was an area near what is now Astoria, Oregon. The entire trip took a little more than 28 months. They returned on Sept. 23, 1806, completing the nation’s…

I readied myself as soon as I saw the heavyantlered velvet buck emerge. I had to — the tree holding my stand demanded it. Scouting had made it clear that I needed to be in this spot to fill my August Alberta tag. Unfortunately, the trees didn’t seem cooperative. My only choice was a spindly aspen with an alarming lack of cover. Although large enough to safely support a stand, any major shifts caused the tree to sway. That made it critical to be in shooting position well before the shot. Now, it was the moment of truth. My early move had allowed me to be in position with the buck unaware of my presence. Sure, there were a few nervous moments as he approached, glancing my way several times.…

The first week of March, 2012 saw me actually working dirt and planting Antler King Trophy Clover. Little did I realize that the worst drought I’d ever face was merely a couple months away from starting. By that fall, all farm crops and fall planted food plots ranged from horrific to nonexistent. One needs rain to grow crops, but the early planted clover received just enough to limp through and literally feed the resident deer. Repeatedly, Antler King’s TROPHY CLOVER has bailed me out. With traditional fertilizer costs sky rocketing, it’s about to bail me out again. Here’s how. COSTS Clover is typically a forgiving crop. If one merely gets the pH to 6.2-7, though we’ll cover some cost effective techniques of doing so, we really don’t have to apply…

If you keep up with the hunting world or read whitetail social media forums, you roll your eyes when you see the standard food plot question that’s been asked a thousand times, “what should I plant in this field?” Invariably, a hundred different responses demand the author of the question to ‘plant this or else’, implying that it would be an epic failure if he or she planted anything different. If you ask any hardcore, whitetail-crazed food plotter, they’ll tell you clover is a staple in a whitetail’s Autumn diet and should be a part of your whitetail food plot program. I can’t disagree. Clover provides nutrition throughout 75% of the year for most states in the U.S. Clover is easy to establish without large equipment and stays green deep…

Longtime DDH supporters Ralph and Lenora Dampman of Trophy Ridge Outfitters have been successfully guiding archery and firearms clients for whitetails, mule deer, elk, pronghorn, prairie dogs, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, and Merriam’s turkeys for more than two decades. Based in Carlile, WY, on the Belle Fourche River near the historic Devil’s Tower National Monument in the state’s northeast corner, the region is loaded with game. There are so many deer you have to be extremely cautious driving after dark for fear of hitting one! They have tens of thousands of acres of private land leased and do not overhunt their ranches. Ralph is also a skilled taxidermist. After a successful hunt, they’ll transport your meat to a nearby processor (I recommend C&A Meats in nearby Sundance.) They will also…

Grabbing my bow, backpack and freelance pack I set off through the public land timber to a patch of white oaks I’d hunted the previous season. To my disappointment none of the oaks had acorns, the two scrapes from the previous season were inactive, there were no nearby rubs and the heavily used runways from the previous season were barely noticeable. It was late October and the mature bucks were beginning to break their nocturnal habits in search of early estrus does and because of that it was the first time in my hunting career that I had to improvise and search for a location offering doe traffic and henceforth, visual buck sign. The breeding season concept in this big woods area was simple; find a white or red oak…

The grizzled old buck stood at the edge of the cover and silently scanned his surroundings for any hint of danger. He had the wind at his advantage but still was not anxious to waltz out into the open food plot in daylight. Having survived several hunting seasons he knew that his life was always in danger and when he moved in daylight the danger level escalated noticeably. After several minutes of standing still as a statue, he eased out of the brush and fed on the fruit which had fallen from a pear tree on the plots edge. For the next 10 minutes he remained there feeding on the ripe fruit until darkness gave him the cover he needed to walk out into the more open plot. I watched…

As whitetail hunters, we all see it as summer turns its corner and begins to go on the wane. The sun seems to start angling in just a little bit lower as each week passes. Grasses start going brown. A few sumac leaves turn red. The air goes drier. A deer hunter’s guts just start feeling it and knowing it: Hunting season really is marching toward us. It’s easy to think Ah, there’s plenty of time yet to get ready. But it’s just as easy – and smarter – to take stock of what’s on your Deer Hunting To-Do List and start checking items off. We all could use a little kickstart … and taking care of important preparations now is, after all, part of the hunt. So take a…

Every deer hunter worth his or her salt in the kitchen understands amazing backstrap requires little more than—you guessed it—salt. I personally am not one for marinades or rubs and I firmly believe anything past the S&P is borderline sacrilege for most cuts of venison. However, on the behalf of others gathering around the table, I will advocate for supplementary sauces—whether pouring overtop or providing as a side for dipping. This beer cheese will pair incredibly well with basically everything you serve. I myself cannot thing of any game—or even vegetable, for that matter—that could not benefit for a little beer cheese. The choice of beer and cheese is up to you, but I suggest paying a little extra for quality. If you’re going to enjoy to drinking that beer,…

The more all of us shoot and fine-tune our rifles, scopes and loads in the off-season, the better our chances of one-shot buck kills this fall. Hit the range as much as you can and keep these 3 things in mind. SAVE-MONEY SIGHT-IN Rather than sighting-in the old-school way-–firing a bunch of bullets at a target and cranking your scope’s windage and elevation knobs until you finally walk the holes to the bull’s-eye—try this method. You can do it alone, but it works best with a buddy. First, get rock-solid on a shooting bench. Rest both your rifle’s fore-end and the toe of the stock on sandbags. Crank your scope to 9X or higher. Aim, lock the scope’s crosshair on the target’s bull’s-eye, load a round, take a deep breath…

Like a lot of guys living in rural Kentucky, hunting is life for Pascal Benson of Robards. From turkeys and deer to squirrels and rabbits, Benson, 83, has probably hunted it. He had a real passion for waterfowl hunting, owning a goose pit for many years. living in ru ar lKentucky, huntingis life for Pascal Benson of Robards. From turkeys and deer to squirrels and rabbits, Benson, 83, has probably hunted it. He had a real passion for waterfowl hunting, ing a goose pit for many years. Now imagine if changes in your body slowly took away something that you loved. That’s what happened to Pascal. “It started sneaking up on him,” said Pascal’s son, Tracy. Pascal developed a condition known as optic neuropathy. At first it affected his peripheral…

Before the first steps were taken, the inspiration behind Antler King was straight forward. Sure, it was important to me that it made enough to help support my eventual family, but the equally or even more important missions were to create products that truly both drew deer in like metal to magnets, while significantly improving their health. Those are the two primary goals that drive every product we create. Many believe that all it takes to become a successful deer seed and nutrition business is designing a bag with a big buck on it, grabbing some cheap seeds and throwing them in a bag for sale. I can’t speak for others but being the one that created Antler King from the ground up, I can tell you that’s not the…

The foundation for accurate bow shooting is to create a bow-and-arrow set-up that balances all the required elements for precise arrow placement downrange. If any one is out of kilter, accuracy will suffer. First and foremost, the draw length of your compound bow must be set exactly to your own body morph. If your draw length is 28 inches, your bow must be set at 28 inches – not 27 ½, or 28 ½, but 28 inches. Also, the bow’s draw weight should be one that you can pull with a modicum of strain, but not one that forces you to “cheat” when pulling the string back under hunting conditions. Choosing the right arrow shaft comes next. You must use a shaft with the correct arrow spine for your draw…

Killing a mature, 6 ½-yearold buck is no easy task, but Jason Lucas stared down the challenge and made it happen in central Illinois during the 2020 deer season. The journey didn’t start that year, though. “My son, Michael, and I passed this deer five times in 2019 when he was 162 inches,” Lucas said. “We called him ‘Colorado’ because of his mule-deer-like split G2s.” After the season ended, they recovered the buck’s sheds, and that fired them up even more for the following fall. But it all came to a screeching halt. “I had to have rotator cuff surgery in June of 2020,” Lucas said. “I was unable to pull my bow all summer. In late September, as soon as the doctor released me, I started shooting my bow…