Big Deer Stories Archives - Page 42 of 113

2 02, 2018

Kansas Sheds: The Electric-Fence Buck

admin2020-06-10T09:16:08-04:00February 2nd, 2018|Big Deer Stories, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting|1 Comment

From our friend Mike Charowhas, The Antler Collector: Around noon the other day I was driving in central Kansas and passed a truck on a 2-lane with an older couple in it. About 5 min later, I looked in my rear view and saw that same truck getting closer and fast. Hmm. Their headlights start flickering so I pulled over. The truck pulled up alongside me and the Missus says, “Hey, we saw you go by. We have antlers. Do you live around here?” They couldn’t miss The Antler Collector logo on my truck. I said, “Yes I live not too far away.” She gave me their number said, “Please call us if you’re passing by.” I said, “Okay great.” [...]

31 01, 2018

Shed Hunting: Try a Grid Search

admin2020-06-10T09:16:08-04:00January 31st, 2018|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting|Comments Off on Shed Hunting: Try a Grid Search

To find sheds you need to look close, real close. Try a grid search. Look over the ground before you and mark off a 20-yard block. Walk slowly and cover every foot of it before moving on to the next grid. It’s our nature to look out front and up as we walk. Do that while you’re shedding and you’ll look right over antlers. Instead, take it slow and look straight down at the ground; scan every inch of each grid. You might spot an antler lying on the grass...or mostly buried with just a tine tip sticking up. You want big antlers, but the spikes and fork-horns are cool souvenirs too. You’ve got to look down and real close [...]

29 01, 2018

Deer Season is Over: Learn From Your Mistakes

admin2020-06-10T09:16:08-04:00January 29th, 2018|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting|2 Comments

I have started thinking back about what went right and what went wrong last season. The best memories are of the few days when I shot a buck, but I will learn the most by replaying and analyzing all those tough and lean days and weeks when I didn’t get a deer. How did I mess up? What could I have done differently? Map and Scout More A buddy called last September and said, “Hey man, I got permission to hunt a new farm, you in?” “Let’s go!” I roared and off we went for a week in the early season. We hunted like mad, had fun, saw some deer but came home empty-handed. We should have slowed down and [...]

25 01, 2018

Shed Hunting: What Killed That Deadhead Buck?

admin2020-06-10T09:16:08-04:00January 25th, 2018|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting|Comments Off on Shed Hunting: What Killed That Deadhead Buck?

Shed antler season 2018 has officially begun, and people across the country are roaming the woods—and, it seems, finding an inordinate number of “deadheads,” or the carcasses of mature bucks that have been dead for weeks and more likely months. They are popping up everywhere on social media. Run across a dead buck and what comes to mind: What killed this animal? Lost by a bowhunter…hit by a car (ran off into the woods and perished)…attacked by a predator…succumbed to EHD last summer? Here are some interesting tips from the QDMA on how to examine a deadhead and possibly determine its cause of death. Also, while doing a rudimentary field autopsy on a dead buck is fine, remember that in [...]

24 01, 2018

2 Reasons a Mature Buck Avoids Your Trail Camera

admin2020-06-10T09:16:08-04:00January 24th, 2018|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|1 Comment

My friend Graig Hale shot this great buck in Kansas one afternoon last December. It was the first time anyone had spotted this giant on the farm where Graig got him. Brian Helman of 180 Outdoors scouts incessantly and has incredible knowledge of the bucks that live on the leases and farms that he manages in southeastern Kansas. Brian went back through thousands trail camera pictures he’d captured last summer and fall—not one image of Graig’s buck. Then he and checked tens of thousands of pictures from 2016 and earlier—still no picture of the old buck. Generally whitetails in this type habitat—a perfect mix of corns, beans, food plots, oak strips and woodlots, and creek bottoms—have a home range of [...]