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14 04, 2014

22LR: Why Still a Shortage?

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 14th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Hunting News|8 Comments

The ammo shortage of the last few years has gotten better, but why it is it still hard to find .22 LR in some places? Three reasons, according to this Sierra Bullets blog. Some gun owners are hoarding bricks of .22 in basements, garages and “prepper” bunkers, fearing they might not be able to get the ammo again in the near future--or ever. The blog’s writer, Matt Reams, says this is a “minor factor.” But I think it is a big factor. People know about President Obama’s and Holder’s views on guns (should I say hatred of) and then they envision 4 to 8 years of Hillary out there. No wonder people are hoarding ammo. Then there are the gougers who prey on the anxiety of [...]

11 04, 2014

Jack O’Connor on Whitetail

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 11th, 2014|BigDeer|7 Comments

O’Connor, one of the greatest hunters and writers of the 20th century and one of my heroes, wrote this in his 1967 book, The Art of Hunting Big Game in America: “That crafty old whitetail buck above the fireplace is a lot smarter and harder to come by than any Stone sheep or any tiger that ever lived." The simple and insightful writing by men who knew how to hunt and lived it is marvelous, isn’t it? Sadly, there are few hunting writers like that anymore. Worse, there are virtually no good-paying opportunities in the outdoor genre for men to hunt and write like that anymore.

10 04, 2014

Perfect VA Management Plan: Food Plots and Let Bucks Walk

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 10th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Management|2 Comments

Got this from a fellow Virginia hunter who I will keep anonymous. In just a few short years he and his buddies have grown some big deer on their land. Hello Mike: Love the show and website. Wanted to show you a few bucks from our land. We started our club 7 years ago by leasing two farms that adjoin each other. Six of us hunt together and we are all sportsmen and stand hunt. We don't allow dog hunting for deer (welcome it for rabbits). Three years ago we decided to manage the 700-plus acres and let the small bucks walk. Each member can shoot all the does he chooses for the freezer. We had always gotten 1 or [...]

9 04, 2014

Creep Photo: Snakes Standing Up!

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 9th, 2014|BigDeer|6 Comments

Just in time for turkey season I ran across this blog with a series of creepy, horrible rattlesnake pictures. I guess they are rattlers, but I am not for sure…I have never gotten that close to one, dead or alive, thank God. Plus, I think they are Mississippi snakes, and they have giant rattlers down there. The snakes standing up freaked me out. I envision those evil things seeing me down through the woods and charging forward, slithering and dancing, and if that happened I’d have the big one and for sure be done. I don’t know squat about snakes, and don’t want to, but I texted my buddy Sarge, who has done a lot of spring habitat work in the South and [...]

8 04, 2014

Comeback of Commercial Deer Hunting?

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 8th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science, Hunting News|10 Comments

At the turn of the 20th century, there were about 350,000 deer left in America. Unregulated market hunting for hides and venison had decimated the herds, and while it seems unthinkable today, the whitetail was on the way to extirpation. In the early 1900s, the first forward-thinking wildlife managers saw it coming, and so they established state game laws and banned the sale of venison. Their vision saved the whitetail, and is our #1 conservation achievement. We have an estimated 35 to 40 million whitetails in the U.S. today. NOTE HERE: In recent blogs I have spoken to reduced deer numbers and harvests in some regions, especially across the upper Midwest, as a result of EHD, predators, hard winters and doe bag limits that [...]

Big Deer Blog

22LR: Why Still a Shortage?

Jack O’Connor on Whitetail

Perfect VA Management Plan: Food Plots and Let Bucks Walk

Creep Photo: Snakes Standing Up!

Comeback of Commercial Deer Hunting?