24 08, 2017

Hunt Planner: Where to Get Over-the-Counter Elk Tags

2020-06-10T09:16:10-04:00August 24th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Hunting News|Comments Off on Hunt Planner: Where to Get Over-the-Counter Elk Tags

No. 1 on the bucket list for many readers of the BIG DEER blog, especially those who live east of the Mississippi, is to hunt elk. People ask me all the time, “Hanback, where should I go for elk?” Most people who email me don’t want to spend a lot of time and money applying for an elk tag. While they would certainly love to shoot a big bull, most people I correspond with are not trophy hunters. They want to spend a reasonable amount of money for a license, go west for a week, experience all that the mountains and elk hunting have to offer, and stand a decent chance to get one. If this sounds like you, the [...]

22 08, 2017

2017 EHD Tracker: Outbreak Spreads in Kentucky

2020-06-10T09:16:10-04:00August 22nd, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|2 Comments

Jeff sent me this picture via Twitter of 3 more bucks dead from EHD in eastern Kentucky. This update out of Pikeville reports a “significant outbreak,” and that authorities are responding to incidents at the rate of “1 dead deer a day and sometimes up to 3 dead deer a day.” What is especially troubling about this occurrence of EHD is that it started so early, in late July, and it might not end till October, or whenever the first hard frost kills the midges that bite the deer and transmit the disease. I have not heard any other reports of EHD across the country. Let’s hope it stays that way, but let me know if you hear of an [...]

18 08, 2017

How Will the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse Affect Deer?

2020-06-10T09:16:11-04:00August 18th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|Comments Off on How Will the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse Affect Deer?

On Monday August 21 a total solar eclipse will arc across the United States for the first time in 99 years, providing a rare sight for tens of millions of people from Oregon to South Carolina. We humans are prepared for this event and looking forward to it. But what will the deer and other animals do when the moon blocks the sun and darkness descends and the temperature drops in the middle of just another day in their lives? Truth is, nobody, even the scientists who live for a 100-year event like this, really knows. While there is scant scientific info from eclipses in past years and decades, there are a lot of anecdotal stories—monkeys flipping out in the [...]

16 08, 2017

Can Twin Deer Fawns Be Sired By Two Bucks?

2020-06-10T09:16:11-04:00August 16th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|4 Comments

Mike: I’ve heard that twin whitetail fawns can have more than one daddy. Is that right? Dave, Alabama Dave: Yes, and that occurs more than you might imagine! A Texas A&M-Kingsville study found that 16 of 23 sets of twins had 2 different sires, typically one mature buck and another buck 2½ years or younger. Researchers suggest the younger bucks are opportunistic little devils, sneaking in to breed the doe just before or after the mature buck does. And get this: Scientists at Auburn University reported 3 different buck sires for a set of triplets one time! This is yet another reason the whitetail is such a fascinating creature…and why trying to manage a herd’s genetics is so unpredictable. BTW, [...]

14 08, 2017

Why Deer Love Mineral Licks After a Rain

2020-06-10T09:16:11-04:00August 14th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|4 Comments

The smart deer hunter is always observing: Why do most of the bucks travel E-W in a patch of woods…why do does and fawns like a particular corner of a plot…why do deer flock to mineral licks after a heavy rain? We’ve had a lot of heavy rain this summer, and an hour or so after each rain ends (no matter the time of day) my Spartan Camera app blows up with images of deer with their heads stuck in water-filled mineral holes. Must be something to it, so I reached out to biologists and mineral experts, most of whom had observed the same thing. While we’re not sure why this occurs, we theorize that heavy rain roils a mineral [...]

Go to Top