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
There’s a common catch phrase in business that every deer hunter can employ to improve their success and enjoyment: “Control the controllables.” It sounds simple enough, but all too often we find ourselves letting the controllables control us. When that happens, we often experience mistakes, frustration and failure. If that sounds familiar, take these three measures to turn the tables. 1. CLARIFY WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL. If you hunt private land, you can control how many does are shot on the property. You can also decide which bucks walk and get a chance at growing another year older. It will take some toil and sweat equity, but you can control how much food is on that property via food plots, supplemental plantings and forestry management. Finally, you can control 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 YOUR FAVORITE TIME TO BE IN THE WOODS? ROGER DECKER Right when it’s still too dark to see clearly but you can just start to see shadows and outlines. The smells, the sounds, the anticipation of seeing everything clearly soon…. It’s years of tradition and memories breaking forth right in front of you in a wonderful unfolding. It’s a great blessing to enjoy! HOLLY COCKERHAM There’s just something about watching the sun come…
Bans on baiting are often implemented to reduce the spread of diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD) and tuberculosis (TB), but these bans are not effective. In fact, they can contribute to the spread of diseases by reducing hunter success, which means fewer sick deer are being killed. The best way to limit the spread of disease among deer is to reduce deer numbers, especially adult bucks that have the highest infection rates, by harvesting more of them. PROOF FROM TB MANAGEMENT ZONE The first evidence of this can be seen in the TB Management Zone in Michigan’s northeastern Lower Peninsula. Baiting was banned in Deer Management Unit (DMU) 452 in 2002 to try to reduce the spread of TB. It didn’t work. The prevalence of TB in deer…
DAWSON FERGUSON IOWA Dawson Ferguson made good on his opportunity to bag a giant Iowa buck. The big outing was October 30, 2023, and he’ll never forget what happened that day. It was sunny and about 40 degrees, with wind out of the southwest. His spot was along a tree line on the edge of a pasture. Around 2:30 p.m., he walked in with a treestand and conducted a hang-and-hunt mission. A few hours into the afternoon hunt, he heard a buck chasing a doe in the timber. They were down in a draw below Ferguson. He’d seen those deer that morning, but didn’t get a shot. Incredibly, the buck and doe appeared 35 yards away. They worked closer. When the buck’s head went behind a tree, he drew back,…
How many hunt outings does it take to kill a deer? Think about that for a moment. Would you say you go hunting 10 times for one opportunity? Twenty times? More? Less? As it turns out, most state wildlife agencies collect and publish this data, among many other metrics, and analyzing the data can help hunters in numerous ways. For instance, for more than 20 years, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has worked with Responsive Management, a survey research firm specializing in natural resource and outdoor recreation issues, to collect hunter and harvest data. It obtains customer demographics, harvest records per species and county, hunter success rates, hunter satisfaction rates and so much more. The agency uses the data to guide critical science-based decisions from the number of tags…
Some deer hunting calibers have been shot by everyone and their mother, too. Today, there are dozens of calibers available on the market. Hunters have no shortage of options. Furthermore, for decades, the media has romanticized certain ones, and all but forgotten others. Of course, certain calibers are just newer and haven’t been around as long. Either way, it’s led to a world where hunters haven’t shot, and in some cases, even heard of certain calibers. Here are some that maybe you haven’t tried yet. .250 SAVAGE The .250 Savage is an overlooked gun. It’s old, and originated in the early 1900s. Incredibly, in 1915, it was the first caliber to achieve 3,000 fps. It has heavy-enough bullets yet delivers minimal recoil. Other than availability, you’d be hard-pressed to find…
