14 03, 2023

Here’s What Deer Hunting Will Look Like in 2030

2023-03-14T08:41:17-04:00March 14th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Science, whitetail deer|3 Comments

When I moved on from squirrels to birds to hunting deer with my dad in the 1970s, there were about 200,000 whitetails in Virginia. Today, we’ve got almost 5 times that many. In the 1980s and 90s, we went from “if it’s brown it’s down” to the “horn porn” era. Whitetail management was in its infancy, and many people mistakenly took working to improve the health of a deer herd for engineering the growth of gigantic antlers. All you saw in hunting magazines and on videos, which were exploding in popularity then, were images of pen-raised bucks with enormous, protein-loaded 190- to 250-inch-plus racks. If the average hunter dared drag a forkie or 6-point back to camp, he was ridiculed [...]

11 01, 2023

5 Guns Every Hunter Needs

2023-01-11T14:18:56-05:00January 11th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Guns & Loads|Comments Off on 5 Guns Every Hunter Needs

To have a blast shooting targets and hunting every species of game bird and animal across America, you only need 5 firearms. .22 Long Rifle (LG) Every man, woman and child on Earth needs a good old .22, whether for plinking paper or potting a mess of squirrels in October. It’s the rifle that most of us grew up with. The one you need to get into your kid’s hands as soon as he or she is ready to join our shooting fraternity. Quiet to shoot and with no recoil, a rimfire rifle is the perfect tool for young or new shooters. For those of you who have been hunting awhile, think of a .22 as the perfect understudy for [...]

31 03, 2022

Alabama Chronic Wasting Disease Update: “We Didn’t Kill All The Deer”

2022-03-31T13:36:04-04:00March 31st, 2022|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Hunting News, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Alabama Chronic Wasting Disease Update: “We Didn’t Kill All The Deer”

  As we reported earlier this year, on January 7, 2022, the first-ever case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Alabama was confirmed in a deer shot in Lauderdale County in the far northwestern part of the state. Wildlife officials immediately designated all of Lauderdale and neighboring Colbert County as the state’s first CWD Management Zone (CMZ). With only 30 days left in the 2021-22 hunting season, and with the need to acquire as many blood and tissue samples from deer as possible to determine the prevalence of the disease, officials removed all daily and seasonal bag limits in the CMZ. Most hunters in the area were happy to follow the science and shoot some deer, but a vocal minority [...]

1 10, 2021

CWD Spreads South in Virginia

2021-09-27T10:41:54-04:00October 1st, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on CWD Spreads South in Virginia

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) says a deer killed last season in southwestern Montgomery County tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. The discovery was made by a taxidermist that participates in the state’s CWD surveillance program, and was confirmed by the department after additional testing and collection of DNA samples from the deer. The deer marked the first case of CWD in southwest Virginia and triggered the creation of a new disease management area that includes Montgomery, Pulaski and Floyd counties. For the 2021 season, a mandatory sampling day has been scheduled for November 13. All hunters who bag a deer in the new disease management area that day will be required to take the animal to a [...]

29 09, 2021

New Jersey Bans Deer Urine, Hunters Must Use Synthetic Scent

2021-09-27T09:44:15-04:00September 29th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Gear Reviews, whitetail deer|Comments Off on New Jersey Bans Deer Urine, Hunters Must Use Synthetic Scent

Beginning with the 2021 hunting season, it is no longer legal to possess, sell or use scents derived from the urine or glandular secretions of live deer in New Jersey. According to the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife the ban is intended to help safeguard the health of the state’s deer herd from the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease. The thinking is that using natural deer products in the woods could increase interaction between animals and possibly increase the spread of the disease. It should be noted that reputable scientists and lead authors of commonly referenced studies on urine and CWD agree that “the risk of urine-based scents spreading CWD is virtually zero”. See more about this at www.cwdfacts.org [...]

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