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
Old-timers once declared, “Once a spike, always a spike!” Truth be told, they were mostly being facetious. Deer were scarce then, and doe tags, well, pretty much didn’t exist. To get venison, you mostly had to find a legal buck. Enter the spike. Most states had 3-inch rules on antlers. Spike bucks were commonplace, but hunters didn’t know why. We do today. There are primarily three reasons why white-tailed deer grow spikes: First, age, or lack thereof, is the key reason why a white-tailed buck will grow spikes as its first set of antlers. Key term there is, “first.” By and large, spikes are the result of late-born fawns from the previous season. By the time hunting season rolls around, they’ll be pushing 18 months old and will be sporting…
IN LINE WITH DANIEL SCHMIDT’S EDITOR’S STUMP COLUMN IN THIS ISSUE, WE ASKED THE DEER & DEER HUNTING FACEBOOK FANS THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: “GIVEN THE CHANCE, WOULD YOU USE YOUR BUCK TAG ON A SPIKE?” HERE ARE SOME OF YOUR ANSWERS: YOUR TAG, YOUR choice. I just like the racks and the free dinners that come with the record-book bucks. Spikes will grow heaver head gear they need the time to produce. —Aaron Davis THIS IS ACTUALLY pretty simple. If you have a legal tag, fill it. Not everyone has the time and money to pass on any deer. We meat-hunted for 30+ years. Because we loved to hunt and counted on the meat. We did not have land of our own. So, we hunted private farmland. Then for the…
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I used to jump when the phone rang, eagerly awaiting the news that my dad had harvested a deer. As I grew older, I could manage short texts on the flip phone my sister and I shared. It could receive pictures, but they were so tiny and hard to retrieve it wasn’t hardly worth sending or receiving any. Nowadays, communication is easy. Though many hunting areas have zero or very spotty service, most hunters are connected some, if not most of the time. Some say using electronics in the woods ruins deer hunting. The reality is, electronics have become an integrated and accepted part of hunting. Cellphones are no longer just a communication tool. Apps like onX Hunt have revolutionized the way hunters use their devices in the woods. Hunters…
A five-year study conducted by the University of Maryland and U.S. Department of Agriculture found that deer in suburban environments often bed down and spend the night within 50 meters of residential properties. The study, published in the journal Urban Ecosystems, is the first to detail hourly movements of white-tailed deer throughout different seasons. “A big takeaway from this study is that neighborhoods are the home range of suburban white-tailed deer,” said Jennifer Mullinax, assistant professor in the UMD Department of Environmental Science and Technology and senior author of the study. “Agencies monitoring and estimating suburban deer populations may be missing a huge part of the population if they focus their monitoring efforts only on deer in wooded parks and undeveloped areas, because a lot of the deer are actually…
Like most avid whitetail hunters, I start hunting on opening day. That means the start of archery season. I look forward to that day with enthusiasm, encouragement, high expectations and a “thank you” to God the day has finally arrived. Generally, archery season is my most successful hunting period. The woods are quiet and void of distant gun shots, there are fewer hunters, and deer have yet to be pressured and are still easy to pattern. Gun season comes next. If the archery season proves unproductive or if I still have bonus tags to fill, I still hunt every day — or just about every day, changing my tactics as weather and deer movements dictate. I enjoy the November gun season for various reasons but primarily due to the rut.…
