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 appears Minnesota will join the modern deer hunting world by allowing crossbow usage in its general archery season. First blush is “good for them” for realizing we are all in this together and that crossbow hunting is just another way to keep people interested in enjoying outdoors recreation while at the same time helping managing our whitetail resource. A lot of folks who haven’t been paying attention to crossbow hunting in America are casting misplaced blame (and in some cases hurling insults) on crossbows and crossbow hunters. Here are the Top 3 arguments I’ve heard on the topic, and the resulting facts to disprove them: 1. ‘MORE HUNTERS IN THE WOODS’ It’s simply not true that crossobws lead to a massive increase in the number of people in the…
CONNECT & WATCH OUR 4 SHOWS WWW.DEERANDDEERHUNTING.COM DEER & DEER HUNTING • MODERN HUNTER • DDH PROPERTIES • DEERTOPIA SOCIAL MEDIA, WEBSITES/STREAMING APPS FACEBOOK: WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DEERHUNTINGMAG YOUTUBE: WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/DDHONLINE INSTAGRAM: WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/DEERANDDEERHUNTING PURSUITUP: WWW.PURSUITUPTV.COM/DEER-AND-DEER-HUNTING/ WAYPOINT TV: WWW.WAYPOINTTV.COM/DEER-AND-DEER-HUNTING WILDTV: WWW.WILDTV.CA/PROGRAM/DEERDEER RUMBLE: WWW.RUMBLE.COM/C/DEERANDDEEERHUNTING TWITTER: @DEERHUNTINGMAG PINTEREST: WWW.PINTEREST.COM/DEERHUNTINGMAG/ BROADCAST TELEVISION PURSUIT CHANNEL - SATURDAY NIGHT DEER CAMP WILD TV • WAYPOINT TV WHAT’S NEW ON FACEBOOK? Our roots go back to the Stump Sitters Whitetail Study Group, which was incorporated in 1973, but the whitetail media industry was not kickstarted until the first issue of DDH rolled off the presses in 1977. Many skeptics said a publication dedicated solely to white-tailed deer would not last. A young Pete Shepley (35 in this photo) was not one of them. Having left the corporate world six years earlier…
A Wisconsin man agreed to a plea deal in which he cannot hunt or fish for three years after admitting he shot a giant 218-inch buck out of season in November 2021. Douglas D. Meyers, 60, of Coon Valley, agreed to the deal following an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The investigation was sparked by a call into the agency’s Violation Hotline, which is operational 24 hours a day. The call, from an anonymous citizen, reported hearing gun shots from Meyers’ property on Nov. 4, 2021. Conservation officers charged Meyers with hunting deer during a closed season. They said he admitted to shooting a buck with a rifle during archery season, and then claiming he shot it with a crossbow. The misdemeanor charge had a maximum fine…
ONE GOOD INDICATION OF A SCRAPE’S VALUE — probably THE BEST indication — is the presence of an overhanging, slim, licking branch. How valuable? Bob notes, “I can tell you that when I create a mock scrape where I want it to be created, if there’s no natural licking branch in the right position, I’ll put one there. Deer lick these branches year ‘round. Some of the trees in my hunting area have sprouted new branches quicker than Mother Nature ever could have imagined, and a length of wire can bend a sapling into a wonderful curve to just the right degree so one of its whippy branches overhangs the trail beautifully. “They’re works of art. Mother Nature and I, working together, have made some wonderful scrape areas. It never…
I fully understand the threat anti-hunters and animal firsters pose, and I’ll do what I can to keep from giving them opportunities to point their sanctimonious or self righteous or outraged fingers at me and the hunting sports I enjoy so much. I also am fully aware that the simple fact that I hunt and like to hunt is reason enough for them to scream and point and rush to their legislatures with yet another attempt to outlaw hunting or meat eating, or both. Or, in the most extreme instances, attempts to equate animals equal to people, and with the same legal rights. I respect all animal life and love my pets, but I am, first of all, a meat eater, a carnivore … and it is perfectly alright to…
The old adage that mature bucks don’t stay alive by being stupid holds true, and smart deer hunters are constantly evaluating and adjusting their strategies and specific tactics to offset deer behavior in an effort to occasionally outsmart wily whitetails. Think of this: How many times have you sat in a spot that your cellular game camera told you was an ideal locale for ambushing several quality bucks, only to see nothing that comes close to your harvest criteria? Other times you’ve sat in that same spot and seen several quality whitetails. If you’re like me, you’ve wondered countless times if it was you who somehow ruined the spot on that particular hunt, or if it was some other hunter(s) nearby. For his graduate thesis, Mississippi State University student Colby…
