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
Deer & Deer Hunting has meticulously documented each state’s deer population and annual deer harvest every year since 1992. Who has the most today? This one is clearcut and not even close. Texas has the most deer of any state in America. With an estimated whitetail population that exceeds 3 million wild deer, Texas is bigger than anyone else. However, this number comes with a little bit of prefacing. If you include the captive deer industry, the state has more than 5 million deer. After Texas, it becomes a bit more cloudy when stating a claim as to which state has the most deer in America. This wasn’t always the case. Up until perhaps a decade ago, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were clearly the powerhouses when it came to producing…
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Most deer hunters never see, let alone shoot, a 170-plus-inch deer. During the 2022-23 deer season, the Gandee family did just that. A father, mother, and two brothers had the seasons of their lives, ultimately harvesting 172-, 178-, 180-, and 196-inch whitetails. The best part? These hunts mostly played out on family lands. That’s the stuff that deer dreams are made of. DYLAN GANDEE’S DANDY Dylan Gandee, who films for Whitetail Edge, kicked off the year of big buck graces. In August, a big 6 ½-plus-year-old deer hit his radar, and he knew that was his target. “I heard about this deer,” Dylan said. “I knocked on a lot of doors and was able to find him. I named him ‘Tat.’” It was short for “Talk Around Town.” The deer…
When managing white-tailed deer, biologists must think and plan in terms of systems and populations, not individuals. However, when we hunt deer, we respond to individuals. And when I studied whitetail social behavior while working as a research biologist, it was essential that I got to know deer on an individual basis. Such was the case during my last 22 years working with the Cusino research facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. For 22 years, my studies sought to determine how behavioral factors influenced deer health and reproductive success — a relationship referred to as sociobiology. I tried to handle and examine all study animals annually, mark all of them with numbered ear pennants for easy field identification, and equip some of them with radio transmitters. Needless to say, my wife,…
You and I both know the story well. Here comes a whitetail — down the trail, across the field, into the food plot, through the cover, you name it. All is looking good when … Whoomp! Up comes the deer’s head, ears perking and nostrils working. Perhaps the whitetail stomps or high-tails off. Just as likely, it skulks away like a ghost. Either way, you think … What just happened? The wind was good. You were still as a statue. It is convenient to blame such situations on some magical sixth whitetail sense. There is no sixth sense. But there are two factors that almost make it so for the whitetail: *A deer’s magnificent nose, the effectiveness of which we humans cannot begin to understand *The intricacies of thermal air…
Even with my naked eye, I could tell the buck just wasn’t right. At 200 yards away, he took short, measured steps, head bobbing as he limped along a marsh edge. Using my binoculars, I could see a dark, angry wound on his right shoulder. I felt sympathy for the brute, who carried thick, hickory-colored antler bases, extending high in the air with 10 easily discernible points. Empathy was quickly replaced by sheer amazement as I watched the deer slog to a large, black-stained scrape. He nuzzled, chewed and lost himself in the overhead licking branch, suddenly oblivious to his injury. Then the buck used the hoof attached to that damaged appendage to dig into the scrape, squatted over it and urinated down his hind legs. He can’t be THAT…
