Blog - Page 307 of 363

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 [...]

7 04, 2014

All-Terrain Motorbike for Hunting

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 7th, 2014|BigDeer|5 Comments

I thought this video was bad ass from the start, but from a deer hunting perspective it’s most impressive from :50 to 1:57 seconds. The guy lugging the bike up the rocky hillside—amazing how lightweight and portable. And with those tube tires, the darn thing floats. We’ve all crossed streams and plodded across muddy fields like that. I could see cross-slinging a rifle or bow across your back with a small pack and riding the bike deep into inaccessible deer country. (Can’t tell how loud the motor is though…pretty loud I would think.) Watch till the end and you’ll see the guy break the bike down, store it in 2 sacks and stuff it in the back of his tiny foreign [...]

4 04, 2014

The Best of Deer Hunting

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 4th, 2014|Big Deer TV, BigDeer|5 Comments

Mike: Each deer season in Nebraska is our big event for our family. I'm 36 now and as I get older it becomes less about the buck and more about getting together with family and telling stories and reminiscing about hunts from long ago. I appreciate your TV shows and insights and couldn't agree more with you that the hunt itself wouldn't be anywhere near as exciting or fulfilling if we didn't have someone to share it with. My oldest daughter, Kayla, is 8 and we will be getting her a bow for her 9th birthday to get her ready to start hunting the following year. I'm excited that she is willing and wanting to join me in the woods. My son, Luke, [...]

3 04, 2014

Canada Lynx: One Cool Cat

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 3rd, 2014|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Predator Hunting|6 Comments

I was reviewing the first edit of my latest Saskatchewan adventure when this cool cat strode across the screen. Man, it brought back memories. How still and cold it was that morning last November (20 below)...the incredible quiet of the spruce woods (no breeze, no birds, just pounding silence)... How the little animal glided across the fresh snow on tiny paws that never seemed to touch the ground. I remember whispering to cameraman Jake, "Bobcat." I forgot where I was for a minute. It turned out to be a lynx, the first I had ever seen in the wild. The cat was a dusky gray, mottled with brown, good camouflage for the deep spruce habitat where it lives. The black-tipped tail and especially the black tufts on the ears were wickedly cool, and [...]

2 04, 2014

Illinois: Goetten Buck “Monster of Mass”

admin2020-06-10T09:23:03-04:00April 2nd, 2014|Big Deer Stories, BigDeer|3 Comments

One time at an outdoor show I bumped into Illinois hunter Chad Goetten, who pulled out this picture of the giant he had shot the previous fall. My jaw dropped. I was amazed then, and still am 10 years later. One of the most impressive wild bucks I have ever seen, and I've seen a bunch of big deer in 30 years of writing and blogging about them. The mass on the 234 7/8-inch, 25-point rack is just freaky: 7-inch bases, and thick as a beer can all way out through the main beams. The 8 mass measurements total nearly 55 inches. Boone and Crockett says the Goetten Buck will go down as one of the top whitetail racks ever recorded in terms of [...]

Big Deer Blog

Comeback of Commercial Deer Hunting?

All-Terrain Motorbike for Hunting

The Best of Deer Hunting

Canada Lynx: One Cool Cat

Illinois: Goetten Buck “Monster of Mass”