Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Deer & Deer Hunting

It's almost time to burn those extra vacation days and spend serious hours in the treestand or ground blind. The rut is upon us! This magical time of autumn is the deer hunter's Super Bowl, and this issue of D&DH is the game-day program. In it you will find our annual peak-rut forecast by Senior Field Editor Charles J. Alsheimer. We've been publishing these rut predictions for more than 20 years, and you've come to rely on them as the horoscope for your annual prospects. This year we teased what's ahead in a short video on our Face-book page, engaging more than 425,000 of our faithful fans. Here's a snapshot of your comments on that post: Maryland's David Womack said he has been managing land for better deer hunting for…

Although data collection is an integral part of deer management programs, questions often arise pertaining to the accuracy of these numbers and how the data is used for conservation purposes. Monitoring any changes or trends in harvest and population is ultimately the most important variable to understand. This data is used in preparing and setting appropriate game regulations and management plans, as well as monitoring the economic impact. Not all states require mandatory reporting of harvested deer (or other game), and of the states that do have reporting, it is sometimes in the form of a survey. With varying ways that agencies are collecting this data, discrepancies are bound to occur. However, accurate estimates can be obtained through the science of random sampling and a total harvest estimate in conjunction…

Above the 35th Parallel Below the 35th Parallel The top chart predicts the 2017 rutting intensity for the above the 35th parallel . It’s important to note that the seeking, chasing and tending lines do not work independently of each other. Rather, they work together and should be viewed as one blending into the next as the rut progresses. The chart below predicts the 2017 rutting activity below the 35th parallel . This chart illustrates when the rut’s seeking, chasing and breeding phases blend into each other in relation to the rutting moon, which is by definition the second full moon after the autumnal equinox. DEER ACTIVITY (TIMER HITS) VS. MOON PHASE Rut History & Future: 2005 to 2020 TIME LINE FOR THE RUTTING MOON PERIOD Ten years of research…

It’s not too hard to kill a deer on public land, but hauling it out can be exceedingly difficult. That’s why it’s just as important to plan for the aftermath of a successful hunt as it is to plan for the main event. The Missouri buck I mentioned at the end of the main story illustrated this point. It was a big-bodied buck, and since the Missouri Conservation Department prohibits vehicles, including ATVs, on its conservation areas, I had to drag the beast all the way back to the truck. I honestly thought I would have a heart attack. The next week I bought a game cart, and that simple device unfurled the full potential of hunting on public land. When you kill a deer, you have only to strap…

While taking my son Camden’s 6 month pictures at a local park here in Texas, this deer wandered up and wanted to be a part of the photo shoot! We are a family of whitetail hunters and wanted to share our future hunter's first experience with a deer. — Victoria Holliday, Texas F irst of all, let me say that I watch a lot of hunting shows and D&DH-TV is by far my favorite. A good balance of hunting/shooting and education. I especially like the education. — Tim Kabrick, via email I just got my annual Deer Hunter’s Equipment issue, and as usual saw a lot of neat stuff featured. But I would like to make one modest suggestion, and that would be a section of gear for us older…

I wanted this buck badly. He didn’t break the 130-inch mark, but he was flirting with it — pretty darn impressive for the area. Top that off with him finding a way to survive at least five years on heavily pummeled public land and he was a buck of a lifetime to me. The catch was that he didn’t get old living in that setting by accident. It shouldn’t be surprising that he wasn’t moving freely much during daylight. Heck, everyone and their distant cousin had been chasing him for at least the past two years. Still, I had something working for me that I believed no one else had. I knew where he was bedding, as well as the area he burned daylight in. I just needed to slap…

As deer hunters, our hunger for bigger and bigger antlers seems insatiable. Barrels of ink have been emptied as writers write about and researchers research ways to grow bigger antlers. There is much we stand to learn, but we have already amassed an impressive amount of knowledge about the things that contribute to large antler size. At the most basic level, we know there are three building blocks in the trophy antler equation: age, nutrition and genetics. Age is the most obvious and easy to understand portion of the equation. We learned long ago that antler size increases with age through the years of peak antler growth (generally 5 to 7 years). If we don’t let bucks grown old, we are not going to see big antlers. Almost as important…

No-till food plot seed is effective in hard-to-reach staging-area plots, as they’re formulated to thrive in poor soils and with minimum maintenance. Most require only raking to maximize soil-to-seed contact. Here are a few to try. Evolved Harvest: Evolved Harvest (www.Evolved.com) offers three excellent products. Throw & Gro requires no tilling and thrives nearly anywhere, including harsh conditions. It includes potent plant ingredients deer love. No-Till Easy Plot is hardy and fast growing and produces high-volume forage deer find desirable. No equipment is required to plant it and a single bag plants ¼-acre. EZ Plot Crush is formulated to plant without tilling in hard-to-reach places. Rake soil, spread it and leave it. Ten pounds of seed covers ½-acre and produces sweet, fast-growing forage. Antler King: Antler King’s (www.AntlerKing.com) No Sweat…

Playing the wind on public land is as important as it is on private land, but it’s easy for experienced hunters. First, consider how deer themselves play the wind. They don’t walk into it. They travel perpendicular to it, which gives them full exposure to scents upwind. An unfavorable wind doesn’t necessarily take a promising spot out of a day’s picture. You can often cheat it by playing different angles. If scouting and experience show that deer pass a certain spot traditionally from the west in the evening, for example, simply wait in a position from which a breeze carries your scent in a direction away from their usual approach point. It works as long as you can remain uphill from the approach point. If the wind forces you into…

White-tailed deer are not native to Europe, but were introduced in Czech Republic, as well as in Finland, from North America over a century ago. The population is extremely small — especially in comparison to the U.S. — (estimated figures are approximately 1,000 or less), but nevertheless represent a potential international whitetail hunting opportunity. The earliest record of white-tailed deer being released into the Czech Republic was around 1840, but exact details are unavailable. However, it is believed that it wasn’t until 1892 and 1893, in then Czechoslovakia, when an additional 15 more deer from Canada were introduced, (on top of a previous seven released in 1853), that the population of white-tailed deer began to be truly established. Czech Republic, with its 10.5 million human occupants, provides good habitat for…

This past fall, on a Thursday afternoon in early November, I stared at the clock in the upper corner of my computer. It displayed “4:01.” I had to work until 4:30 p.m., before I could shut off my laptop and head to the stand. It had been a slow day. My hips were achy from sitting at my desk, my eyes hurt from staring at my computer, and the window to my left displayed a bright, calm, 50-degree day. After what felt like an hour, I checked the clock again: “4:06.” Then, several painstaking moments later, it read “4:11.” After what felt like an eternity, my MacBook Pro finally presented the time I had been waiting for, and I shut things down. I locked up the office, grabbed my gear…

SHOPDEERHUNTING.COM Need a hand cleaning and skinning your deer? Of course! With the Viking Solutions Super Hide Puller, one of the most aggravating chores is made easier. Often, the most difficult part of removing an animal hide is maintaining a solid grip while pulling. The Super Hide Puller makes both aspects of the task much easier. The integrated “trigger” mechanism allows you to open the jaws with one hand. The result is the serrated gripping teeth, in combination with the leverage let you pull on the skin while keeping your hands free of the slippery stuff! Visit www.ShopDeer-Hunting.com and search for SKU R6404. DEER OF THE MONTH Luke Fabian of Ohio hunted this buck for two seasons after seeing it on game cameras, finally connecting during…

Settings aren’t the only thing that determine how aggressively I hunt a buck. His personality plays a big role, too. Some bucks are homebodies. If they have all they could want and need within a relatively small area, the homebody types stay home more than others. Will that buck follow a hot doe’s trail outside his safety zone? Sure, but he’ll gravitate to the areas within his range that already offer does. When such a buck has his daylight core area on my ground, and I control the hunting pressure, I tend to handle him with great care, nipping at the edges of his core area from low-impact stands. After all, if I don’t kill him myself, odds are he’ll be there next season, and possibly be even bigger. In…

Editor’s note: The author first reported on this topic in the October 2005 issue of Deer & Deer Hunting. Deer disperse when they move away from their birth range and establish a new adult home range. Although there are exceptions, most white-tailed does move relatively short distances from where they were born to where they live as adults. As a result, they tend to retain overlapping home ranges with related females. Most bucks, on the other hand, establish adult home ranges separate from their birth range — sometimes traveling long distances to do so. Penn State University researcher Eric Long and his colleagues point out that understanding animal dispersal is important for the study of gene flow, disease spread, population dynamics, spread of invasive species, and establishment of rare or…

Another excellent way to create lasting food attraction at remote staging areas is mast trees. Young trees must be tubed (to protect from gnawing rodents) and caged (to keep deer from consuming leaves), but normally begin producing mast within three to four years. Many must be planted in pairs for proper pollination. Chestnut Hill Outdoors: Chestnut Hill (www.ChestnutHillOutdoors.com) is famous for fast-growing, high-output Dustan chestnut trees. Deer love chestnuts and these trees produce them by the bushels in three to four years. CHO also offers apple, pear and oak trees. Nativ Nurseries: Mossy Oak’s Nativ Nurseries (www.NativNurseries.com) offers dozens of varieties of highly palatable oak trees, selected for faster growth and high yield within three to four years. They also offer many common fruit, native fruit and chestnut trees.…

Finding a handgun platform that suits you well is critical. Comfort goes a long way toward building confidence. Should you choose a single- or double-action? .357 Mag. or .44 Mag? .454 Casull? Long barrel? Short barrel? Scope? Open sights? What configuration will fulfill your needs? There are a number of questions you need to answer honestly to zero in on what will best serve your big game hunting aspirations. If at all possible, you should try a number of different revolvers. Recoil characteristics vary greatly between the different types and makes, and let’s face the facts, large-caliber revolvers deliver sizable recoil. Double-action revolvers tend to concentrate recoil force straight back into the web of your hand, while single actions tend to twist upward, sparing the shooter some of the unpleasantness.…

Venison can be a fickle subject, among both hunters and non-hunters. Some folks love venison. They make it their red meat of choice year-round, or for as long as there are packages in the freezer. When that freezer empties out, well, all the more reason to get excited about the upcoming fall! This has been the case with my family. My boys — hunters all — were raised on venison. And, bless my wife’s soul (and thank goodness), even as a non-hunter she buys into venison’s wholesomeness. Yet a fair number of non-hunting folks just can’t or won’t eat venison off the grill, from the frying pan or coming out of a Crock-Pot or roaster. Bring processed venison products into the mix, though — summer sausage, snack sticks, brats, Polish…