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17 12, 2019

Virginia’s Widest Deer Rack Ever—32 Inches!

Clay Hanback2020-06-10T09:14:51-04:00December 17th, 2019|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Virginia’s Widest Deer Rack Ever—32 Inches!

Prologue: Last Saturday my camera crew and I traveled down to Mecklenburg County, Va., and met Jim Wilson, who back in 2012 shot this incredible buck that gross-scored 186 and change. Most distinctive, as you can see, is the width of the rack—32 inches! This is the widest rack ever recorded in Virginia, and the 7th widest whitetail rack ever documented in the U.S. You’ll see and hear Jim’s interview on a new episode of Big Deer TV on Sportsman Channel in 2020. For now, here is the story of Mr. Wide in Jim’s words: August 2012. I had been discarding apples from the tree in my yard in the field behind my house. I noticed the apples were disappearing [...]

12 12, 2019

Early Post-Rut: My New Best Time To Hunt Deer

Clay Hanback2020-06-10T09:14:51-04:00December 12th, 2019|Big Deer TV, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, whitetail deer|2 Comments

Last weekend I wrote an article for Outdoorlife.com entitled, Why Post-Rut is the New Best Time to Hunt Whitetails. In it I wrote: Each year I hunt in several states in early to mid-December, from Kansas to Oklahoma to Virginia. I am witnessing good to great deer movement, and more late rutting activity than ever before. Such good activity, in fact, that the early post-rut is becoming my most productive time to hunt. In early December bucks are tired and battered, but still running on a last jolt of testosterone. Sometimes a buck makes fresh rubs, so look for them. While bucks generally don’t paw scrapes this late, they often cruise back through creek bottoms and draws where they scraped [...]

9 12, 2019

Kentucky 2019 Deer Season Has Record Harvest

Clay Hanback2020-06-10T09:14:51-04:00December 9th, 2019|BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Kentucky 2019 Deer Season Has Record Harvest

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that (gun) hunters harvested 107,039 deer during the 16-day season, breaking the previous record of 106,804 that was set last season. Hunters shot 35,143 deer on opening weekend, 19,234 during the second weekend and 11,576 during the third weekend, with the second- and third-weekend hauls also representing weekend records. Officials said a poor mast crop this fall led to deer moving more and being more visible. Also, the weather during the November gun season was ideal, not too warm and not too cold. The modern gun season was recently extended from 10 days to 16 days in much of the southeastern portion of the state, and that lead to more opportunities for [...]

4 12, 2019

Deer Hunting: How To Use The Wind To Your Advantage

Clay Hanback2020-06-10T09:14:51-04:00December 4th, 2019|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Deer Hunting: How To Use The Wind To Your Advantage

To a buck you’re a big, walking stink-ball, like Pigpen in Peanuts if you’re old enough to remember. You need to clean up your act, and we’ll get to that later. But for starters, here’s how to read and play the wind and use it to your advantage. The truth is, no matter how badly you stink you can still punch your tag if you hunt in a spot where a buck can’t smell you. App Check On your phone’s weather app, check the hourly for the day and times you’ll hunt. For example, say you find that the wind will be out of the W at 10 mph at 6:00 a.m, but at 8:00 it will turn NW or [...]

2 12, 2019

6 Things To Remember When Hunting Public-Land Bucks

Clay Hanback2020-06-10T09:14:51-04:00December 2nd, 2019|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Science, whitetail deer|Comments Off on 6 Things To Remember When Hunting Public-Land Bucks

I’m a big fan of Penn State’s Deer-Forest Blog. It’s science-based and consistently provides practical and relate able information for wildlife observers and hunters alike. In this recent post the researchers talk about deer behavior in big woods on public lands. Many of you hunt that type of habitat and those tough bucks. Here are a few highlights you need to remember: Having tracked GPS-collared deer for years in big, rough, hunted woods in Pennsylvania, the researchers say that one critical learned behavior of deer is to find safe zones where they avoid hunters. When deer are disturbed, they do what deer do--run away. If they run to a spot where they don’t get disturbed again, then they will [...]

Big Deer Blog

Virginia’s Widest Deer Rack Ever—32 Inches!

Early Post-Rut: My New Best Time To Hunt Deer

Kentucky 2019 Deer Season Has Record Harvest

Deer Hunting: How To Use The Wind To Your Advantage

6 Things To Remember When Hunting Public-Land Bucks