Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Deer & Deer Hunting

Whitetail hunters seem to come in all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. Some grew up in the country, some are farmers, and others are city folks who discovered its benefits later in life. Whether or not there’s a family history with hunting, these folks share common core beliefs that hold dear to an outdoors lifestyle, reverence for wildlife and historical precedence. Yet it seems our lifestyle is always under intense scrutiny. From “how could you kill a deer?” to “why would you shoot a deer when you can buy meat at the store?” the uninformed will always be among us. It’s exhausting — and often pointless — to engage with these folks, but if you must, remember these key talking points. CULTIVATION We’re called to cultivate and tend the earth (Genesis,…

On opening morning, beams of light poked through the night ahead, pickups kicking up dust in their rush to line up at the gate to the Uwharrie National Forest in North Carolina. Until the rangers opened the barriers, there was time to shoot the bull with neighbors. When catching on to my accent, they reacted with a surprised look, because another German was rumored to have hunted here the season before. Even odder, he had celebrated his success by sounding a bugle. With a mischievous smile I assured them that I know this guy and showed them the very hunting horn which had echoed through the Uwharrie on November 23, 1970. On the morning of that day, I had also stood in line, eager for my first chance ever to…

Amish owned and run company, your blind is built to last. You can count on the highest-grade materials & craftsmanship to keep you in the woods for years to come. NEW DEALERS WANTED! THE PERFECT BLIND FOR YOUR PROPERTY 5’ x 5’ or 6’ x 6’ elevated blind (both sizes have 6’6” interior standing room). Includes legs and ladder, available in pressure treated lumber or powder-coated metal. Lumber stands available in 8’, 10’ & 12’ heights. Stand pockets receive 4x4 posts. Metal stands include individual telescope legs, adjustable from 8’ - 11’ for setting up on a hill. STAY INVISIBLE TO BIG BUCKS Disappear into the wilderness with an elevated hunting blind that conceals your sights, scents and sounds. HIDES MOVEMENTS The last thing you want is a buck catching…

There’s a lot of prep work, thinking, planning and decisions you can — and should or must — do before you begin working the soil for a food plot. Shape and size of your intended plot. Soil test. Lime and fertilizer. Approach/exit to and from your tree stand area(s) to hunt your food plot. A list of knowledgeable people and governmental agencies who can advise and help you. Search for soil-working equipment if you plan to do the work yourself. Your budget, time available and affordable costs. Nearby water source. First, what’s the location and size of your intended plot? Is it to be a staging area near a bedding area, part of a larger field, or some place between a bedding area and a major food source? There can…

Water is life, they say. Without it all things parish. This is also true of deer. But how much water deer require on a daily basis to sustain life depends on weather conditions and other factors. The most common consensus is the amount also varies seasonally. During the spring when forage is lush and plentiful deer require less water, taking it in from what they eat. During summer when air temperatures heat up and foliage lushness is dissipating the need for daily water intake often increase, especially during periods of drought. The same is often true during the fall and hunting season. Although I have no scientific data to substantiate it, my personal belief is that deer are naturally drawn to water and will have at least one reliable water…

Cedar trees and cedar swamps have been associated with big buck stories for decades and have been thought of as great deer habitat throughout the years. Cedar trees, specifically Eastern Red Cedars, are credited for providing excellent bedding and thermal cover for whitetails when they are present on a landscape. The Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is not a true cedar, they are actually a type of Juniper, under the cypress family. For simple terms however, I am referring to the Eastern Red Cedar as a ‘cedar’ as they are commonly identified as such. True cedar trees (Cedrus) are native to the western Himalayas and Mediterranean regions of Europe. Lately, a movement by whitetail experts to question the value of cedars has come to the surface. Many landowners and whitetail…

Fall food plots are game changers for many hunters. Creating the ideal staging plot or destination food source can literally transform the hunting on a property at best, and make the ground hunt poorer at worst. What follows is how to stack the odds for the good and minimize the odds of bad being the ultimate outcome. PLANNING One of the biggest and most common mistakes made in creating food plots starts with location. Mess up where the plot is going and it either becomes impossible to hunt safely or encourages deer to become more difficult. The truth is the easiest, most available spots have high odds of not being close to the best location. Mess the location and it’s all an up-hill slog from there. Nail it and the…

Decades ago, rifle manufacturers used triggers that required a stiff pull to release the trigger’s sear and fire the rifle, ostensibly done to protect manufacturers from liability in the event the rifle fired accidentally due to what was considered a “light” trigger pull. This, in turn, spurred the growth of the aftermarket trigger industry, where shooters could replace a factory trigger with one whose pull was crisp, light, and broke cleanly, with no “creep,” which facilitates accurate shooting. Those days are thankfully gone. Today, most major makers of bolt action hunting rifles incorporate triggers that are lightyears ahead of those of decades past, providing triggers that cleanly break with somewhere around 4-5 lbs. of pressure. Most are also adjustable with the simple turn of a single screw, so the shooter…

Distance has always been more of a friend than a foe to me when it comes to deer hunting, so it is not surprising I wound up finding this spot I want to tell you about that exists on a scrubby sidehill the better part of two miles away. For thirty-some years it was simply a long walk beneath moon and stars both ways—the cadence of my boots scuffing through autumn’s leaves or the rhythmic padding of a fresh winter snow compressed beneath each step, is a part of the hunt which I welcome and cherish. Shouldering my backpack, toting my rifle, and treading the worn trail out to where a subtle path known only to me drops two tiers down through thick laurel and spooky droops of hemlock has…

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 BETH EDWARDS Three years ago, D&DH fan Beth Edwards set a goal that she wanted her first deer taken with a bow to be her personal best buck. She told her husband in early January this year she wished she would have set her goal with a crossbow instead as another season was about to wrap up, still with no buck. The day before the season closed in Greene County, Missouri, it was a…

Eli Schaefer from Houghton still can’t believe he was lucky enough to capture video of a cougar killing a deer on one of his trail cameras near Toivola in Houghton County on the afternoon of December 30, 2023. The dramatic video shows a large male mountain lion after it pounced on and overpowers what appears to be a young antlerless deer and has the whitetail on the ground. The lion quickly grabs the deer by the throat to suffocate it. Based on the short snout on the deer’s head, it’s probably a fawn. Adult male mountain lions range in weight between 135 to 175 pounds, according to the Internet, so they are easily capable of bringing down average size deer, once they catch them. In the western United States where…

Early bow seasons are just around the corner. Are you getting ready? Sure, you’ve got a job, and kids, and a spouse, and the yardwork just won’t stop – but the clock is ticking, and unless you commit to a regular preparation routine, when opening day finally arrives and you have a shot opportunity, failure is a distinct possibility. And that’s not acceptable. This isn’t about scouting, and trail cameras, and food plots. Those are topics for another time. This is about getting you, and your equipment, in tip-top shape. You have all summer, and that’s plenty of time. But only if you start now. Here are 5 keys to a successful preparation program. GEAR CHECK Bowhunters are notorious “gadgeteers.” We have lots of stuff, and over the course of…

The effects of hunting on deer populations remain a hotly debated issue. Although the detrimental effects of excessive buck harvesting are frequently addressed by those concerned with quality deer management, seldom do managers or hunters question the advisability of heavy doe exploitation. An essential part of successful deer herd management is an adequate harvest of antlerless deer, particularly adult does. Unless natural mortality is excessive, the cropping of female deer helps maintain a healthy deer population, below range carrying capacity, in balance with available food and cover resources. On the flip side, some scientists contend that killing too many mature does tends to remove the prime-age social leaders and disrupts the whitetail’s adaptive social system. Will a heavy harvest of these so-called “social governors” disrupt the whitetail’s complex social organization,…

“I hope the deer passed peacefully. It was bittersweet finding him – I had hoped he was alive and on camera, but I’m happy to have closure and his rack for his memory. I was amazed at how far animals had dragged his bones.”—Serena Juchnowski It haunts you. The memory lives deep inside your soul, never truly forgotten. If it doesn’t, you need to evaluate who you are as a hunter. I watched for him all summer. Even from a distance, he was beautiful. He didn’t know it, but he was mine. Though a bit grainy and blurry, cell phone pictures of him sent shivers through me, drawing near tears of admiration. I showed his picture around at my shooting competitions that year, still a few months remaining before I…

Most anyone that grew up or worked on any form of dairy or cattle farm knows an old saying by heart. One makes hay when the sun shines. There’s a handful of ways one can take that. Any way you look at it, though, it comes back to getting things done when need meets opportunity. When the two meet, that is when it’s effective to act. Sure, one can do it outside of those windows, but odds are that it either won’t work at all or not as consistently well. Farmers learned to wait for the two to meet and then make that one of their top farming priories during that window of overlap. After all, one is slave to the weather and there is nothing farmers or anyone else…

The friction and high draw weights of modern hunting crossbows place a lot of stress on the bow’s string and cables. This requires you to pay close attention to wear and tear, as well as follow a simple, yet important, system of string maintenance to ensure both safety and consistent accuracy. First and foremost, before every shooting session or trip to the woods, take a moment to check that the strings and cables are free of debris, and remove anything that shouldn’t be there. Little chunks of debris, mud, and whatnot can cause unwelcome wear. You should also periodically clean the string. If you’ve used lower quality string wax in the past, residue build-up can occur, and should be removed before a new application of a premium wax. Use a…

1 RITON OPTICS 3 PRIMAL 3-9X40 EER RIFLESCOPE Riton Optics’ goal is to bring quality and affordability to the optics industry with the greatest focus being the customer. With a staff of avid shooters and hunters, the product line focuses on practical, real world applications providing customers with quality and functionality needed in a variety of applications. Among the company’s latest innovations is the 3 Primal 3-9x40 EER riflescope. Perfect for scope-ready deer rifles, the Primal sets itself apart with extended eye relief (EER) for hunters who value accuracy, comfort and heightened awareness while tracking game. Other features included resettable capped turrets, parallax adjustments (fixed at 100 yards), fast-focus eyepiece, waterproof, fogproof and shockproof, and an aircraft-grade aluminum design. MSRP: $249.99 | WWW.RITONOPTICS.COM 2 FROST INC. FOOD PLOT SPRAYERS & BOOMS Frost…

On Northern range, it’s important that white tailed fawns grow rapidly. They must attain large body size and store abundant fat reserves by late autumn, as few runts survive harsh winters. Since most doe fawns breed during December, their offspring are usually born in July. This could be a serious disadvantage, (especially if they were undersized at birth), should the next winter be a severe one; late-born fawns have less time to grow and fatten prior to winter. Also, one would intuitively expect small, immature does to produce smaller newborn fawns as compared to those dropped by mature does — a handicap which would also decrease survival prospects of fawns conceived by doe fawns. Surprisingly, however, scientific studies conducted at the Cusino Wildlife Research Station show just the opposite. That…

Stunning new findings from a nonpartisan citizen group indicate gray wolves are roaming nearly two-thirds of a state that was once considered marginal home range for North America’s apex predator. In data released earlier this year, Wisconsin Citizen Wolf Count documents wolf sightings in 45 of the state’s 72 counties. Of these sightings, sets of data have confirmed at least 37 wolf packs. Also, wolves have been confirmed in at least 205 townships, which equals more than 16% of all 1,253 townships in the state. The citizen group was formed more than a year ago as a way to get a way to get a more accurate way to count of wolves in Wisconsin by county and township locations. There are more than 4,600 citizen members. Members post photos to…

Whitetails may not possess the eyes of birds of prey, but you should never assume they cannot see as well as humans. Research done at the University of Georgia has shown that deer don’t have the same optic cellular structure as people, but they certainly have the rod/cone cell makeup to suggest they can see certain colors. Specifically, blue, and yellow colors can most likely be seen by deer. Because deer see very well into the blue wavelength of light, they can see extremely well in dim light. So, their nighttime vision is very good, equipping them with the ability to survive predation any time of the day or night. Hearing: Though a whitetail’s hearing ability doesn’t get as much attention as its ability to smell, it should. Time and…

Long canine teeth sink into a newborn fawn. A short fawn-indistress bleat, a few labored breaths, and then nothing. Another fawn becomes breakfast. Another young deer is dead. Now, that’s a visceral anecdote, but it’s one that plays out millions of times every spring. Coyotes kill millions of deer fawns each year, and it’s no secret that it’s taking a significant toll on overall deer populations. Coyotes aren’t native east of the Mississippi River. As a result, this newfound threat continues to catch does off-guard, and fawn recruitment rates continue to decline. For example, according to most data, South Carolina whitetail populations peaked in the 1990s. Furthermore, coyotes arrived in the 20th century and became a newfound problem for deer herds. This posed a new and significant problem for whitetails…

Despite a downward trend of losing deer hunters, the demand for purchasing hunting land in the U.S. remains high. Pennsylvania sold 647,242 licenses in 2010, that number dropped to 534,000 in 2022. Since the pandemic in 2020, land prices have increased dramatically, but the mature buck hunting craze hasn’t slowed down one tick. According to a land survey from the University of Missouri, hunting and recreational land had the largest statewide increase of all land types, increasing 14% from 2022 to 2023. Georgia land values rose from $3,960 per acre in 2022 to $4,350 in 2023, per the Ag Information Network Report. Twenty-nine states have a private-land hunter access program, but gaining access in prime whitetail states continues to be a concern for a lot of hunters since most of…

I sat in the stand, enjoying the sunrise. It was cold, still, quiet, frosty and beautiful. Although the temperature was very chilly, I was very comfortable, snug in a sleeping bag perched up in a lock-on overlooking one of my favorite hunting spots. Unfortunately, I had that second cup of coffee on the way to our hunt club. When I drink one cup of coffee, no problem. But in the truck, my hunting buddy Bobby had induced me to drink another. It was making me squirm. I didn’t want to make the movement necessary to urinate, but on the other hand, I had no other appealing option. Urine production is vital to health — for us and the whitetail. Our kidneys, like deer kidneys, have the critical responsibility of balancing…

Men Used Facebook to Find, Poach Big Bucks Two men pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to misdemeanor charges for poaching two large bucks near Buffalo, NY. It began when a witness, who is an avid hunter, observed one of the subjects crouching in the woods behind his residence before hearing what he believed to be the snap of a bow discharge and an arrow strike something. A 16-point buck ran into his yard after being shot. The witness then observed a second subject taking pictures of the wounded deer with his cell phone. The subjects fled the area as police arrived but not before trail cameras photographed them. The photos were posted online, and the subjects were identified as New York residents Jayson Zorda of Oneonta and Kevin Butler of…

During the 2023 deer season, Mark Luster arrowed a 7½-year-old buck nicknamed “Hooker” that produced quite the challenge. It was quite the journey, too. Luster hunted Kansas up until about seven years ago. Last year, he was bound to find a place in Kansas once again. He located a property through a friend of a friend. He met the guy for lunch and decided to pay him a lease fee. He ended up cutting a deal to help them manage land in return for some land access. Despite being his first year on the property, he had some history to go on. The landowner had some sheds of the deer at 4½ and trail camera photos at 5½. The deer disappeared at 6½. This year, he showed back up. With…

ORDER ONLINE: WWW.TRAPPERMAG.COM/MY-SUBSCRIPTIONS US . . . . . . . . …$ 18.95 CANADA (ADD $11) . . . . . .. $ 29.95 INTERNATIONAL (ADD $17). $ 35.95 1 YEAR, 8 ISSUES $18.95 MONEY BACK GUARANTEE: If for any reason at any time you wish to cancel your subscription, we will send a refund for all unmailed issues. If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. Please allow 4-6 weeks for your issue to arrive in the mail. The Trapper is published 8 times per year (January, February, April-May, Summer, September, October, November, December) by MEDIA 360 LLC. MAIL CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO: MEDIA 360, LLC. ATTN: THE TRAPPER SUBSCRIPTION  P.O. BOX 548, WAUPACA, WI 54981…

PURSUIT CHANNEL FACEBOOK EXPANDS PARTNERSHIP WITH DISH Pursuit Media, is pleased to announce a renewal and extension with DISH Network for HD carriage of the Pursuit Channel. Pursuit Channel has long been available to DISH subscribers via an industry-first basic tier delivery agreement. In the go-forward agreement, Pursuit Channel is making a strategic move to DISH’s IP delivery platform instead of satellite. First off, the move to IP trends with current subscriber behavior, and secondly, allows those subscribers to now catch great Pursuit content in full HD. Subscribers only need to connect via an ethernet cable, or through the wireless setup settings available in their cable box. Additionally, Pursuit Channel will remain in the Heartland Package of DISH’s Sling service, making Pursuit content available to all of DISH’s subscribers. Rock…