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About Clay Hanback

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So far Clay Hanback has created 146 blog entries.
25 02, 2021

Shed Hunting: Most Antlers You Find Are From Mature Bucks

2021-02-25T09:16:44-05:00February 25th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

The Deer Lab at Auburn University has a 430-acre high-fenced facility. All the deer inside the fence are well known and documented. During the 7-year-period from 2012 to 2018, biologists and grad students were inside the facility daily, working, doing research, taking samples and looking around. They found only 284 of 747 (39%) of antlers they knew were shed by the bucks during that period. They analyzed the antlers they found, and determined from their records and data that the average age of the bucks that cast them was 5½ years. For the antlers that were never found, the average age of the bucks was 3½. Bottom line: The larger antlers of older bucks are easiest to see and pick [...]

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23 02, 2021

3 Shooting Tips To Kill More Deer With One Bullet

2021-02-23T14:30:35-05:00February 23rd, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CZ-USA, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting|0 Comments

1. Most of us go to the range a month before deer season, fire a few shots off the bench to confirm our rifle’s zero and call it good. But you need more training than that for consistent one-shot kills. Best way to practice is with a scoped rimfire rifle that approximates the heft and feel of your deer rifle. Grab a brick of .22 LR ammo if you can find it, and set targets 50 yards away in a safe area. Once or twice a month, fire dozens of rounds from the sitting, standing, kneeling and prone positions. With the .22 there’s no recoil, so practice as much as you want. It's fun, and you’ll be amazed how much [...]

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21 02, 2021

Hunt Sheds In Deer Bedding Areas

2021-02-23T10:48:30-05:00February 21st, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

When you’re out shed-hunting, pick up a deer trail and follow it for a few hundred yards to a half-mile or more, until you come to a thick and obvious deer bedding area. In winter a good one is a brushy southern exposure that gets midday sunlight, or the east side of a grassy ridge where deer hunker out of a northwest wind. You're apt to find fresh deer beds, tracks and dropping in the melting snow here. Back in hunting season you would have stopped before entering the bedding cover, tested the wind and worked the outer fringes of the sanctuary so as not to spook any deer. But now, plow right in. Of all the sheds you find [...]

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19 02, 2021

Ruger-Built Marlin Lever-Actions Available By End 2021

2021-02-19T10:51:51-05:00February 19th, 2021|Big Deer TV, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

A Michigan hunter named Goose saw me shoot several bucks recently on TV with a Marlin Model 336 in .35 Rem. and he had to have one. He ordered his .35 lever more than a year ago, and has been waiting patiently for it since. My buddy John Havlick, owner of Frank’s Gun Shop in Amsterdam, New York, texted, “Last year was absolutely crazy for us, and 2021 is starting the same way.” John says lever guns are still hot sellers with deer hunters up in the Adirondacks, but he hasn’t been able to get his hands on any Marlins for a long time. That will change, but it’s going to take the better part of another year. After Ruger [...]

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18 02, 2021

How Deer Survive In Brutal Winter Weather

2021-02-18T13:17:21-05:00February 18th, 2021|BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

With temperatures at or below zero across much of the country, and snow and single digits as far south as San Antonio, I thought it a good time to reprint this post, which first appeared in January 2019: How do whitetails survive intense cold and snow? Chris Whittier, a researcher and professor at Tufts University, explains it well in this article: …deer physically prepare for the winter by better insulating their bodies. In the fall, deer gradually trade their summer hair coat for a winter one, which consists of thicker, longer, and darker hairs called guard hairs, while also growing in a much thicker undercoat. This winter coat absorbs more sunlight and traps more body heat than the summer coat, and [...]

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