Big Deer Blog

13 04, 2015

Limb Lights: Find Your Tree Stand In The Dark

2020-06-10T09:19:38-04:00April 13th, 2015|BigDeer|4 Comments

During the recent par 3 contest last week at Augusta during the Masters, I watched golfing legend Jack Nicklaus shoot an amazing hole in one. That reminded me of a true story that a legend in our bowhunting world, Gene Wensel, told me one time. Many years ago, when Gene was hunting and guiding for whitetails out on the Milk River in Montana, he would occasionally host Jack Nicklaus for a week of bowhunting. One morning as they headed out Gene said proudly, “Jack, I’m taking you to a tree stand I hung stand myself. You're gonna shoot a monster buck there this morning." They arrived early in the pre-dawn gloom. Gene snuck around but couldn't find the stand. He told [...]

10 04, 2015

Big-Buck Friday: Indiana Keihn Buck Scored 234”

2020-06-10T09:19:38-04:00April 10th, 2015|Big Deer Stories|2 Comments

NEW FEATURE: To keep us dreaming big at what this fall might hold, I’ll post a huge buck from the BIG DEER archives every Friday for the next few months: Just before 8:00 a.m. on November 22, 2005, Jack Keihn looked up and saw a monster coming. The buck dropped off a food plot on top of a ridge, traveled down a logging road and dipped into a ravine, his nose to the ground in search of a hot doe. The rut was winding down, and the old boy was looking for one last fling. The buck ambled close to Jack’s big, wooden “hut stand,” and he fired his 20-gauge shotgun. The slug hit high and the deer bounded off. Jack got [...]

9 04, 2015

Travel John: Disposable Urinal For Hunters

2020-06-10T09:19:38-04:00April 9th, 2015|BigDeer|6 Comments

If you carry a pee bottle into your deer stand, there’s a less messy and more sanitary, albeit more expensive, way. The Travel John features a unisex “spill guard” attached to a plastic bag that contains a fabric LIQSORB pouch. Pee into the bag and the polymer pouch immediately turns the urine into an odorless, biodegradable gel that won’t spill on your hands or clothes or in your daypack as you hike out. When you get home, simply throw the bag into the trash. I tested several Travel Johns and they work as advertised. After peeing, I immediately turned each bag upside down, and not a drop spilled or leaked. Each bag is reusable. Depending on how much coffee you [...]

8 04, 2015

Mule Deer: Populations Up Big In Eastern Montana

2020-06-10T09:19:38-04:00April 8th, 2015|Big Deer TV|1 Comment

Mule deer populations in Eastern Montana are showing signs of a strong recovery based on post-hunting season surveys this winter. This is great news, since most of what you read and hear is how muley numbers are down and falling across much of the West. From 2010 to 2012, a string of cold, snowy, brutal winters that lingered into spring cut mule deer numbers by as much as 55 percent in the region. But after surveys this winter, biologists estimate a near-record number of 91 fawns per 100 does in many areas. Bucks are also doing well, with an average of 37 bucks per 100 does compared to a long-term average of 32 per 100 in Eastern Montana. Biologists note that observations [...]

6 04, 2015

Iowa: Rare Melanic (Black) Deer!

2020-06-10T09:19:38-04:00April 6th, 2015|BigDeer|3 Comments

Thanks to Midwest Whitetails @thwackem for posting this beautiful picture: Donny Kay with his rare melanistic buck. Killed near Boone, IA. This is just the second black-phase buck shot by a hunter that I have posted in all my years of blogging (here’s the other one). I did some research and found that a deer w/melanism-- their bodies produce too much of the hair, skin and retina pigment known as melanin – are definitely the rarest of the rare whitetails. A black deer is certainly more uncommon than a brown-and-white piebald, and even rarer than the odd albino. Biologists say that a melanic buck is usually not solid black. There are gray and brown/black color phases with white bellies and [...]

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