16 12, 2021

Should You Leave Tree Stands In The Woods All Year?

2021-12-13T15:26:37-05:00December 16th, 2021|Big Deer TV, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting|Comments Off on Should You Leave Tree Stands In The Woods All Year?

Many bowhunters hunt several properties miles apart and sometimes in multiple states. At any given point in the season, they might have 10, 20 or more lock-ons and ladders pre-set in the woods. It’s always best to pull every metal stand down after hunting season, but sometimes this is more work than you are willing to do. If you decide to risk it and leave stands out all year, keep these things in mind. The straps, chains or cables that connect platforms and steps to trees are your foremost consideration if you decide to leave stands out. These connectors will weather and wear, and thorough inspection and service are a must. Tree stand guru Matt Cheever doesn’t skimp. On all [...]

8 12, 2021

98-Year-Old Mississippi Hunter Shoots Black Deer, Rarest Of All Whitetails

2021-12-05T10:19:09-05:00December 8th, 2021|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

A Mississippi hunter shot this black, or melanistic, buck. It’s unclear when he killed it, but best I can determine he shot the rarest color phase of whitetail around last Christmas. Story goes the 98-years-young hunter drilled the buck through the heart at 125 yards. I have posted several melanistic bucks on the blog over the years, but this one is truly magnificent—solid black with white highlights! Nice rack with heavy bases, the unique buck eluded hunters and survived for 4 years. Black, or melanistic, deer are even less common, the rarest of the rare.  The first one recognized by a scientist was in 1929. Of the tens of millions of whitetails that have been shot by hunters in the [...]

5 12, 2021

How To Shoot A Deer In The Wind

2021-11-24T12:16:25-05:00December 5th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting|Comments Off on How To Shoot A Deer In The Wind

Around a big field or out on the plains, it might be calm or just a slight breeze where you’re sitting and glassing, but the wind might be blowing a near gale out where a buck is walking or feeding 200 to 350 yards away. “Glass the leaves or weeds around a deer, whatever you can, to determine if you need to factor in the wind on your shot,” says Texas rifle maker and crack game shot Lex Webernick. But don’t worry about remembering some fancy wind-doping equation. “If the wind is blowing 5 or 10 mph and the grass or weeds are moving slightly, hold dead-on a deer,” says Lex. “But if you’re having trouble keeping the cap on [...]

2 12, 2021

Late Deer Tactic: Hunt A Buck’s Bedding Area

2021-11-24T11:06:23-05:00December 2nd, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Late Deer Tactic: Hunt A Buck’s Bedding Area

A few years ago my friend Don hunted “Old Double Drop” near a field of cut corn. It was bitter that December, the kind of cold that hurts, with afternoon highs in the teens and single digits. Don knew the whitetails had to feed a lot and early every day, so he kept sitting on the edge of the plot, figuring it was just a matter of time until the big deer showed up in last shooting light. He never did. Double Drop was smart. So is Don. He knew of several narrow, south-facing CRP ditches in the general direction the buck was coming from. Early one afternoon he sneaked back into one of those ravines 200 yards off the [...]

28 11, 2021

Deer Hunting With The .30-30 Lever

2021-11-24T10:48:36-05:00November 28th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting|1 Comment

Introduced by Winchester Repeating Arms in 1895 as the main chambering for their Model 1894 rifle, the .30-30 was the first sporting cartridge loaded with smokeless powder. The original .30-30 Winchester load featured a 160-grain bullet driven at almost 2,000 feet per second, a huge step up in performance as compared to the black powder cartridges of the day. It didn’t take long for hunters across America to fall in love with this revolutionary rifle/cartridge combo, which shot flat and hit and dropped game hard. The .30-30 quickly became the go-to for deer and bear at short to moderate range. In the 20th Century, Marlin Firearms began chambering lever-action rifles in .30-30, and in 1948 the gunmaker introduced the venerable [...]

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