Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Deer & Deer Hunting

It might sound all-too-simple, but a batch of new arrows is something that gets my heart racing. It’s almost like I’m 9 years old again, and it’s Christmas … or maybe just the middle of summer and there’s literally nothing else to do but fling sticks at a paper target tacked to a couple of stacked haybales. James Easton made the first aluminum arrows in the U.S. in 1939. Fifty-three years later, I used the same XX75/2317 shown in the photo on this page to bag my first archery buck. However, my fascination with arrows started long before that. It was probably sometime in 1978 when I became infatuated with the mystical flight of the arrow. My older brothers — who had shot recurves and cedar arrows for years leading…

Have you ever looked at a deer skull closely and been curious about the purposes of some of the more subtle structures? To be totally honest, I had never really given much thought to anything other than antlers and jawbones until a friend recently asked me what, at the time, seemed to be a pretty simple question. “I always wondered what those two holes are on the forehead of a deer skull just above the eyes. What are those?” he questioned. I scrambled to come up with a coherent answer on the spot, thinking maybe they were an opening for a gland on the forehead or something of the like. After mentioning that idea to him, I backtracked and said that I really did not know. Not knowing something about…

OK, let me say this first and up front: I hunt does. Not specifically. I mean, killing a doe is not my primary objective or intent each time I head for one of my favorite hotspots. If a buck comes my way and provides a shot, I take it. But if a doe comes my way first, I’ll give her a careful looksee and more times than not will take advantage of the opportunity. I guess you could say I’m an equalopportunity hunter. And I feel no remorse or regret killing a doe, other than the fact that my hunting season is finished. In fact, I feel the opposite — just as pleased as if it were a wall-hanger. Like many hunters, I hunted small critters first and started hunting…

They aren’t making any more land. That old statement rings true, but finding a place to hunt might be easier than you think. The first time I knocked on a landowner’s door for hunting permission, I was excited and nervous — excited about the possibilities that permission would provide but nervous for a negative outcome. Would the landowner approach the door and listen or hand out a quick “no” without giving me consideration? I’ve learned that most landowners are at least willing to chat and hear your pitch. And I’ve gained more access to hunting land than I ever thought possible without leasing or owning land. Not everyone has access to top-notch deer hunting grounds in the best regions of the country. But with some hard work, creative thinking and…

All deer prioritize their own body’s needs before kicking out extra inches of antler growth, successfully bringing fawns to term, and even producing ample milk for their offspring. Simply put, to empower a deer herd to reach maximum health and genetic potential, don’t allow them to become run-down during their low nutritional phases of the year (post-rut and winter). There’s only so much you can do, but providing them with high-fat and protein-rich diets helps achieve those goals. Fat and protein are both critically important in allowing deer to reduce weight loss, maintain weight and even build body weights during the physically and/or nutritionally challenging periods of their lives. At the same time, serious digestion issues can occur when sudden shifts in diets occur from comparatively lower-quality foods to those…

I’ve lost track of the number of times people have asked me to name the “best food plot seed” for deer. To be brutally honest, no planting of any one seed type can produce the very best deer food available through the entire year. Plants go through dramatic changes during their lifespan. Some, such as soybeans, can be highly desired in two or more stages. In the case of soybeans, deer are highly attracted when the plant is in the lush, green, actively growing state and then again when fully dried, — but not at all when it’s yellowing. At the same time, a big reason that the dried beans are as good of a draw as they are is that the beans are typically drying during the initial stages…

This isn’t your traditional Mongolian beef, which you might order from Chinese takeout. For starters, we are using venison, not coating in flour or cornstarch, and the flavor profile of spices and sauce varies slightly from standard Mongolian dishes. Additionally, you can garnish with freshly minced cilantro or scallions (either works, but scallions and sesame seeds are more traditional). A note on marinating game: I’ve been sealing meat and marinades using MEAT!’s Chamber Vacuum Sealer and have found, due to pressure of sealing, marinade will penetrate four times faster versus a chunk of meat sitting in a bowl of marinade. It’s something worth trying if you own a chamber vac, but won’t work with regular vacuum sealers (due to how a chamber vac applies pressure to seal). Be careful not to…

I HAVE READ and studied Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine for almost 45 years. Putting it very mildly, I have learned a lot! A couple years ago a friend asked me if I would teach him how to hunt deer. I told him that I would be glad to do that. But upon reflection, I realized that I am a bit limited since I’ve had both knees replaced and basically my strategy for the past 20 years has been to look for a good place to sit! Then I thought … Hey, why don’t I give him a stack of old D&DH magazines and tell him to do some serious reading, especially the articles by Charles Alsheimer! I share the same faith in Jesus Christ that Charles had, and I…

It was a wild Wednesday on the morning of May 26 when Neal Herrman discovered a fowl scene while scouting turkeys in Dunn County, Wisconsin. That morning, Herrman had already killed a turkey in another area and went to Dunn County to scout and hunt turkeys with another tag. He came out to a picked cornfield when he spotted something strange. “I noticed something white out in the field, just a white spot. … I put my binoculars on, and I thought, ‘I’m pretty sure that’s a bald eagle over there,’” Herrman told Nexstar Media Wire. “I walked down to it. I saw it had a newborn fawn in its talons. I would guess the deer had been dead for three days or so. And the eagle only about 12…

Winning strategies don’t just happen. To enjoy consistent success in any job, hobby or other pursuit requires ability and a game plan. And the key to a great game plan is how the plan is structured. Structuring to win requires an understanding of the endeavor, a mastery of the fundamentals, finetuning through repetition and execution. The same structure applies to successful whitetail hunting. Becoming a great deer hunter doesn’t require the intellect of a rocket scientist. It does, however, require that a hunter understands the animal and the environment it lives in, and how to execute a hunting plan. When these three aspects are mastered, success follows. 1. STUDY THE ANIMAL A keen understanding of whitetail behavior is the ticket to the dance. The success of so many strategies is…

I have to laugh at many social media posts regarding deer minerals. They typically involve someone claiming they noticed an increase in antler size after they started using a product that doesn’t have the minerals needed for antler growth, or someone promoting a home brew they swear works better than anything on the market. Usually, these posts and the many responses they incite only show how little many deer hunters know about mineral supplementation for whitetails. Let’s get to the heart of the matter: Do these products attract deer, or do they help bucks grow bigger antlers? There’s a huge difference. Most mineral products marketed to deer hunters attract deer, as will most home brews. These are usually high-salt products, and deer naturally crave salt. However, most will not work…

Fur prices are currently at all-time lows for various reasons. But trappers still get up at the crack of dawn to run their lines. Sure, many trappers have faded away with the low prices, but most still do what they love. Trapping helps keep furbearer populations at healthy levels and helps all wildlife in general. Deer benefit from trappers targeting coyotes, bobcats and wolves. Countless turkey nests are saved with each trapped raccoon and opossum. Fish live longer with each otter caught. The list goes on. But you’re probably asking what a trapping article is doing in Deer & Deer Hunting. Deer hunting and trapping seem so far apart, but they have much more in common than you might think. Sure, differences exist, like being able to shoot a deer…

In the old days, bowstrings were made from sinew, plant fibers, and even animal hides. Today they’re made from state-of-the-art synthetic materials, which make them more reliable, consistent and faster than ever. A bowstring is comprised of several strands, the number primarily dependent on the bow’s draw weight. It’s important to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for strands. A bowstring with too few strands won’t absorb enough energy, and cause significant vibration throughout the bow that can damage equipment and potentially injure you. Most bow manufacturers recommend a specific material for the bowstring for each make/model of bow, information that can be found in your bow’s manual or on the manufacturer’s website. Also, compound bowstrings include both the main bowstring and one or more cables that connect the cams. Your bowstring…

Yeah, I know that probably sounds like the typical spin you’d expect from a wildlife manager. Hear me out, because I’m about to explain something I don’t take lightly. In fact, I’ve been studying this topic and how it relates to whitetailed deer populations for well over a half-century. If you’re reading this magazine, you obviously love deer. And you probably like seeing them when you’re hunting — a lot of them. In that regard, how could maximum sustained yield be bad? I completely understand that question, because I said the same thing many times when I first started out in this career (I’m now retired). As a graduate student in wildlife ecology in the late 1960s I was taught that maximum sustained yield (we will abbreviate this to MSY…

1 EASTON CARBON LEGACY TRADITIONAL ARROW Easton’s Carbon Legacy comes fletched with three 4-inch left wing helical feathers, including a traditional barred index feather with combinations of solid red, white and bright yellow hen feathers. The Carbon Legacy is accurate, durable, and has exceptional flight visibility. When Doug Easton first began his archery company in 1922, he started by making handcrafted wood arrows and longbows one at a time in his small workshop. Each arrow featured Doug’s own signature cresting applied to the finest hand-selected cedar shafting. Today’s traditional Legacy is a nod to Doug’s meticulous commitment to crafting the finest traditional equipment available in that era. The Legacy combines the traditional look of wood-grained carbon with high-visibility, white-dipped and hand-feather-fletched craftsmanship to offer the finest vintage aesthetic. Legacy is…

We typically talk about mysteries as if they are problems to be solved. You want to find out why your truck gives off a strange odor when you run the air conditioning, or why your favorite stand makes a clanking noise when you shift in the seat. We want to arrive at our hunting property scent-free and then hunt quietly from our favorite stand, so the goal with these types of mysteries is to solve and remove them. When our family purchased a piece of ground along the Platte River in Nebraska a couple years ago, I realized I had stumbled into a completely different type of mystery. One that doesn’t signal I have a problem, and one that, quite frankly, I don’t want to remove. It’s the mystery of…