Clay Hanback, Author at Big Deer

17 03, 2025

Ghost Bucks and Broken Racks

Clay Hanback2025-03-17T10:59:27-04:00March 17th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

I headed to northeast Oklahoma the day after last Thanksgiving, full or fire. I’ve had some of my best hunts of the last decade in this region during the first week of the December post-rut. My friend Corey Corson, who runs the hunting on Liberty Ranch outside Pawhuska, showed me cam images of three old 8-point target bucks. Corey said that nobody had hunted those bucks all season. As I climbed into my stand near a corn feeder in the chilly predawn the first morning, my only concern was that I would kill out the first hour of this six-day hunt. As I climbed out of my blind at dark on day three, I was getting concerned. I’d seen several [...]

12 03, 2025

State Laws of “Deadhead” Deer Skulls

Clay Hanback2025-03-12T11:37:21-04:00March 12th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

A “deadhead” is the commonly used term for a buck deer carcass that you might stumble across in the woods, with antlers still attached to the skull. Generally, such a buck has been dead for several months or even a year or two, and the carcass has been ravaged by time, weather and predators. All that might remain are a grisly skull with antlers, a portion of the spine and maybe some rib bones wrapped tautly with pieces of hide black as used motor oil. If the skull has been lying on the ground for more than a few months, you might see teeth marks on the antlers where squirrels and mice have gnawed them. Rodents are attracted to the [...]

7 03, 2025

Now Is Time to Look for New Hunting Land

Clay Hanback2025-03-07T09:56:11-05:00March 7th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting|0 Comments

If you’re satisfied with the public or private ground you hunted last year, great. But did you lose permission to a farm, or lose a lease, or get tired of the pressure and lack of deer on a WMA near home? If so, start looking for new ground now. I could write a book on how to search for good hunting opportunities on the vast array of public lands across the U.S., but here I offer my best piece of advice. Think small. Most small to mid-size and out-of-the-way WMAs or state forests in rural areas have much less pressure than larger public spots near cities. When you’re investigating larger national forests or BLM lands, with tens or even hundreds [...]

28 02, 2025

Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation

Clay Hanback2025-02-28T09:21:41-05:00February 28th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Among new regulations enacted in 2024, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) says that hunters can now legally use drones to look for and track wounded deer. Also, the MDC has mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling stations for deer harvested during opening weekend of firearms deer season in certain counties. Hunters must take their deer, or the head of it, to a sampling station within the county of harvest on the day of the kill. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announces that for all regular deer seasons combined, the annual bag limit for bucks has been reduced from three to two. Louisiana hunters can now track wounded deer with dogs and lights, and if necessary, use [...]

21 02, 2025

Shed Hunters Find Less Than 40% of Antlers

Clay Hanback2025-02-21T10:41:14-05:00February 21st, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel|0 Comments

The Deer Lab at Auburn University has a 430-acre high-fenced research 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 that the average age of the bucks that cast them was 5½ years. For the antlers that they never found, the average age of the bucks was 3½. Bottom line: Obviously, the larger antlers of older bucks are easiest to see and pick up. [...]

About Clay Hanback

Ghost Bucks and Broken Racks

State Laws of “Deadhead” Deer Skulls

Now Is Time to Look for New Hunting Land

Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation

Shed Hunters Find Less Than 40% of Antlers