Big Deer Blog

Dr. Grant Woods, one of the top deer biologists in the world, told me one time: “Whitetail bucks react incredibly quickly to either a positive or a negative stimulus. A lot of hunters fail to take that into account quickly enough. For example, if a buck sees or hears you in a tree stand near a food plot, he will learn to avoid that spot very fast. He will still go to the plot (positive stimulus) but he will circle your stand (negative stimulus) so that you might never know he was there. You might sit there all afternoon, not see any deer and wonder what is wrong. Hunters need to take into consideration how fast mature bucks react and adjust [...]

Dean posted this photo on Facebook about 2 absolute giants that are traveling together right now on El Puerto Ranch in Neuvo Leon, Mexico: Two complete STUDS!!! One on the left pushing 200" and probably 30-34" wide. The one on the right well in the 180s and dwarfed by "Muy Ancho" on the left! I have always wanted to hunt whitetails in Mexico, but I have not yet gotten up the nerve to head south of the border near Laredo. I have law enforcement friends in this region, and they me this is one of the worst crime areas on the border. As such, there are less Americans traveling down to those ranches these days, and more and more bucks are living longer, to full maturity, and growing [...]

We’ve been posting lots of great trail-camera images of big bucks from across the nation, but none from Montana. That is because several years ago Montana banned the use of trail cams--a move that I think was ridiculous—but that is a topic for another time. But we still get pictures of Montana bucks that people take with their phones or still cameras out their back windows or off their decks. It is amazing how many big whitetails are walking around the neighborhoods and surrounding river bottoms and valleys of cities like Missoula and Bozeman. You can drive around and be astonished at some of the racks you see. Here are a couple of great bucks that are living in peoples’ backyards in western Montana right now. [...]