Big Deer Stories Archives - Page 81 of 113

20 06, 2016

June 20, 2016: Strawberry Moon & Summer Solstice

admin2020-06-10T09:16:47-04:00June 20th, 2016|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|Comments Off on June 20, 2016: Strawberry Moon & Summer Solstice

We talk a lot about moon phases on BIG DEER Blog because I believe the moons in the fall especially the full one in November sparks big bucks to move and hence is a great week to hunt. My ongoing interest in the moon turned up this: Today’s full moon, which coincides with the summer solstice, is a rare and once-in-a-lifetime event. The last time the full moon lined up with the longest day of the year was back in June 1967. Today there will be approximately 17 hours of light. This Full Strawberry Moon gets its name from the Algonquin tribes, who took it as a signal to gather strawberries and ripening fruit. As far as fish and game [...]

14 06, 2016

7 Facts About Summer Velvet Deer Antlers

admin2020-06-10T09:16:47-04:00June 14th, 2016|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Science|1 Comment

This buck’s rack is coming along nicely. Did you know and those antlers will grow another 1/8- to ¼-inch per day for the next 2 months? Here are more interesting facts about the whitetail’s summer antlers: --Antlers are made of bone, consisting mostly of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other minerals. Although some of the minerals needed for antler growth are taken from food, scientists note that lot of them are sucked from the buck’s skeleton, which may cause him to develop osteoporosis during the summer. Setting mineral licks for the deer can help. --Throughout June and July, velvet antlers grow via a complex system of blood vessels, which causes them to be hot to the touch. Top whitetail scientist Dr. [...]

6 06, 2016

Dragging Deer Is Good, Hard Work

admin2020-06-10T09:16:47-04:00June 6th, 2016|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|10 Comments

I wrote this in a magazine article many years ago: …anybody who kills a deer and then has the gall to complain about the work when the animal is down will never hunt with me again. If you are doing it right, gutting a buck and then wrestling it around and over logs, up and down hills, through creeks and mud, all the while sweating a river and stumbling and bumbling and cussing back to your truck is strangely fun and invigorating, whether it takes you 20 minutes or 2 hours or all day. The work was a lot harder back in the day. I didn’t have an ATV, and so I had to drag my deer, sometimes a mile [...]

3 06, 2016

Public Land Deer: Summer Scout Now

admin2020-06-10T09:16:48-04:00June 3rd, 2016|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|2 Comments

Don’t let the ticks and snakes keep you from finding new spots to hunt this fall. It’s time to get out there and start scouting. Lather on the DEET, put on snake boots and get a leg up on those other guys who are playing golf or kicked back on a beach or in the A/C somewhere. Let’s say you hunt a 250-acre woodland. You’ve probably hunted only 50 to 75 of those acres over the years, if that. You figure other guys roam the ridges and hollows beyond your stand. Or maybe you’ve just gotten in a rut and hunted the same spots. You bust some does every year and a buck every once in a while, so why [...]

2 06, 2016

BREAKING: Is the Walking World-Record Buck of Wisconsin Dead?

admin2020-06-10T09:16:48-04:00June 2nd, 2016|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer|2 Comments

BIG DEER BLOG has the exclusive on this giant. When I first posted the photo last October, people went wild over this giant. When I followed up with this after-season report from the landowner, who had been hunting the deer for a couple of years and who had named him “Ghost,” we learned: There seems to be a rumor every couple weeks that Ghost has been shot or hit by a vehicle, but he is alive and well…. I’m sure I’ll see him again before too long once I begin work on my spring habitat projects. Previously I had wanted to keep everything about this buck somewhat quiet, but my area is not conducive to poachers seeing him due to the way the [...]