2 10, 2013

All-New BIG DEER TV Tonight!

2020-06-10T09:23:21-04:00October 2nd, 2013|Big Deer TV, BigDeer|5 Comments

I hope you can catch this new episode tonight at 8 and 11 PM ET on Sportsman Channel (or set your DVR). It is actually very rare to hunt somewhere for 4 days and hit the rut right, I mean just right. But that we did in South Dakota last November, and the hunting was nothing short of spectacular. Rutting deer all over the place, as you will see. I shot this great old thick-bodied buck and was thrilled about that, but wait until you see the one that got away one evening as I hunted out of a ground blind. Danny Dodge had a big camera with a big lens along, and he was able to reach out to 500 yards [...]

24 09, 2013

Coyote Calf Kill

2020-06-10T09:23:21-04:00September 24th, 2013|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer|4 Comments

Later this fall on Big Deer TV we’re airing a show on the extent and effects of coyote predation on whitetail deer across America. We filmed parts of the show out in Montana last winter with our good friend Luke Strommen, who showed us this picture and told us about this coyote encounter on his family’s ranch some years ago: We’ve had a lot of experience with coyotes out here, both with our deer and our livestock. This was the picture I was telling you about. The cow that had this calf started calving late in the day below Dad's house. She was away from the rest of the herd. Dad had been having problems with coyotes during calving season, [...]

9 09, 2013

Maryland: Bowhunter Shoots “Spike” on Opening Day!

2020-06-10T09:23:22-04:00September 9th, 2013|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|9 Comments

Danny shot the beautiful buck his wife had named “Spike” last Friday. His story: I had my trail cameras set at three different locations since the middle of June. I studied all the pictures (around 200 of them) I got of Spike. I printed out the moon phases and the wind directions for the past couple months, compared them and tried to come up with a game plan. Maryland bow opener was Sept 6--the morning after the new moon. The wind direction was supposed to be out of the NNE.  I looked back through all the cam pictures, and it just so happened the last time we had a NNE wind was the morning after the new moon in August. Spike was [...]

29 08, 2013

South Carolina: Huge Velvet Buck!

2020-06-10T09:23:22-04:00August 29th, 2013|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer|5 Comments

On August 20, 12-year-old Tanner Herndon killed this 240-pound, 140-class giant in Dorchester County. Read the full story here. Taxidermist Dan Pernell of Summerville is doing the mounting, and he believes this buck will easily be one of the best killed in South Carolina this year, in terms of body weight and antler. Having just hunted a few miles from where Tanner shot his giant with a .243, I have some thoughts: Tanner shot his buck in a field of low, green peanuts. You hunt some unusual food sources in the Lowcountry. One evening Krista and I hunted in a cotton field adjacent to a peanut field. “I didn’t know deer would eat cotton,” I said into the camera. “Weird.” [...]

27 08, 2013

South Carolina: Krista’s 200-Pound Buck!

2020-06-10T09:23:22-04:00August 27th, 2013|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer|6 Comments

  Still August and we have our first big deer on the ground! My hunting buddy Krista, who stared leukemia in the face and beat it, shot this bruiser the other night. When I saw him stroll out into the food plot in the fading light, I knew he was at least 5 years old. The guy who manages the plantation where we hunted has seen this buck for a few years, and figures he’s 6 or 7. Last year the deer’s rack had the same strong left side, and a lesser 4-point right side. This year his right side was just a huge spike, with a weird 3-inch kicker at the antler base. Injured or was that right side going [...]

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