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
The spark that ignited my passion for whitetails struck me sometime 40 odd years ago when I experienced my first gathering around a bloody tailgate. It might have seemed odd the first time I saw it, but an open, bloodstained tailgate on a pickup truck was a sign of success. Back in those days, deer hunting was pretty much limited to nine days in November for my family. The best day of the year was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, because that's when my dad and brothers returned from deer camp. It was ritualistic. Dad would pull the pickup into the driveway loaded with hunting clothes, a freshly cut Christmas tree and one, sometimes two, frozen deer carcasses. It was rare for him to have the vehicle stopped and parked before…
Congrats to Patrick Meitin for his fantastic article on ground-hunting tactics. It is rare these tactics get mentioned, let alone gone into detail about. I love still-hunting and have long felt other articles on the topic barely scratched the surface regarding its difficulty. The statement, “Still-hunting properly is all consuming, as close to a state of Zen as you’re likely to experience,” nailed it. I truly fell in love with this style of hunting three years ago when my daughter’s life was in a very touch-and-go status (due to a heart defect and complications) for the better part of a year. I cannot describe the level of distress I was in, and still-hunting is what got me through it. The woods were literally the only place where I was able…
Be sure to watch Deer & Deer Hunting TV on NBC Sports as we wrap up the 2015 schedule while at the same time begin filming for 2016. DDH TV hosts Dan Schmidt, Gordy Krahn, Mark Kayser and Steve Bartylla are hunting throughout the United States from Texas to Wisconsin. Pick up some great tips from these veteran hunters, who have made the same mistakes you have and experienced the same highs, too. Deer & Deer Hunting TV airs on NBC Sports; check listings for times in your area. SHOPDEERHUNTING.COM 2016 Whitetails Daily Calendar Get the best photos of whitetails along with a cool tip each day with the “DDH 2016 Whitetails Daily Calendar.” This desktop calendar features awesome color photos and facts about white-tailed deer. You’ll learn about what…
Like most whitetail hunters, I have “go to” places that have been good to me over the years. I chose them carefully by examining sign in the area in order to zero in on where deer prefer to live and move. I’ve spent a great deal of time determining where big bucks live and travel in my area. However, some of my hotspots have gone cold over the years, and I found out why the hard way. Deer know their home turf as well as we know our houses and neighborhoods — where everything is, or should be. If someone came into your home and added a new piece of furniture or moved things around I’m confident you’d notice right away. Deer are no different, and when hunters set up…
Ranchers and farmers understand that the land cannot support an unlimited number of animals without running out of food and damaging the pasture. They also know having too many animals in a pasture for the available food results in those animals being in poor physical condition. Managing wild ungulates is no different, and even those people with only a basic understanding of ecology have a pretty good general concept of what carrying capacity is. However, like many things in life, easily understood basic concepts get very complicated with the addition of college degrees to your resume. By the time you acquire a Ph.D. you can no longer answer simple questions. A hunter once told me we needed to hire only one-armed biologists because he was tired of hearing, “On one…
Forage-based Carrying Capacity (KCC): The maximum number of deer a block of land can sustain indefinitely. Based on weather and forage. Inflection Carrying Capacity (ICC): The number of deer a block of land can support without feeling the effects of deer density suppressing reproduction and survival. About half of KCC. Social Carrying Capacity (SCC): The number of deer that society would like to see on the landscape regardless of how many the habitat will support. This could be above or below KCC.…
