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 was a sticky Sunday evening in July, and I was bored. So, like most 1980s teenagers did, I relied on my imagination for entertainment. Not sure what drew me to that long-abandoned PSE Citation compound bow in the corner of Pa’s garage, but I’m sure it had something to do with the rabbits that would show up on the mowed hillside behind our house just before dark. I had been practicing pulling back my brother’s old bow for weeks. At first I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t even get it to break past the let-off point. On this evening, however, I could pull it back. Next, I scrounged up an orange XX75 arrow shaft and screwed a judo point to the front of it. The stalk was on. Despite having…
Deer & Deer Hunting-TV takes you across North America to showcase great hunts, interesting people and super gear. Whether it’s in a Midwest cornfield or Southeastern river bottom, DDH-TV hosts Dan Schmidt, Gordy Krahn, Steve Bartylla and Mark Kayser will bring you the action with their decades of experience. DDH-TV wouldn’t be possible without our fantastic partners. Please visit their websites and check out their great products. SHOPDEERHUNTING.COM With “Big Buck Secrets” by Steve Bartylla, get the buck hunting advice you need from an experienced author who draws from his years of successful do-it-yourself hunting for trophy whitetails. Solidly grounded in Bartylla’s wealth of experience, this buck-hunting guide seeks to help real-world hunters move to the next level. Chapters include comprehensive instruction on everything from scouting new hunting areas…
From February 15th through the 17th, 280 deer management enthusiasts, deer biologists and researchers from across the United States gravitated to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina, to hear the latest about the No. 1 big-game species on the North American continent. The theme for this year’s gathering was, “The Challenges of Meeting Hunter Expectations,” and over the three-day period participants listened to 45 presentations, 16 of which were professionally delivered by graduate students. Prior to the annual mixer, the deer committee met to discuss various items, along with state-wide updates on chronic wasting disease (CWD) throughout the southeastern United States. Since first detected in 2005, West Virginia has had a total of 192 deer test positive for the disease. Virginia has recorded 13 occurrences since 2009. Seventeen…
October 2015 started out like most archery seasons. I had deer patterned while they were still in their summer routines, but that changed when October arrived. Knowing this, I knew I also had to change with the deer. And from my summer scouting and trail camera images I knew where some white oaks were located on the farm where I was hunting in central Illinois. October 12th found me in a stand I’d hung earlier in the summer on the edge of one of these white oak groves. Shortly after 8 a.m., four does came in for a bite to eat, but I held steady, holding out for a buck. Shortly after the does arrived, a buck I had not seen before showed up for breakfast. When he presented a…
It is not hard to tell the difference between a red and white oak. The bark on a red oak is rougher and darker than the smoother and light-gray bark of a white oak. However, the leaves are probably the easiest way to distinguish between the two. White oaks have smooth and rounded lobes on their leaves, whereas the lobes of a red oak are bristly and pointed. It’s important to know the difference between the two. If both red and white oaks are dropping nuts, deer will always visit the white oaks first. Once they have devoured the acorns under the white oak, they will move to the reds.…
Deer hunters love scouting cameras — the more the better. But they also want to keep their budgets in check. With the new Moultrie A-20 and A-20i cameras, land managers and hunters can get the best of both worlds. Both cameras combine the top features of the popular Moultrie A-5 camera in a more compact design, and feature 12-mega-pixel image resolution and 32 LEDs for sharp, crisp images, along with trigger speeds of less than one second. Each camera also has video capabilities. You’ll get detection and flash ranges out to 50 feet and capability of capturing up to 16,000 images with just eight AA batteries and an appropriate SD card. The A-20i includes an iNVISIBLE 941nm infrared LED flash and smokescreen camo case, and the A-20 has long-range nighttime…
