A couple of months ago, I re-posted this photo and asked if anyone knew more about it. The Antler Collector Mike C. saw it and sent this “after” picture. Caleb Gillespie tagged the giant during the 2013 Kansas season…scored 208” non-typical. Another big deer mystery solved. Thanks Mike and great buck Caleb.
Part 2 of our exclusive 3-part series “Manage the Land, Manage the Deer” from our good friend Flatlander, who lives, hunts and manages ground in his home state of Illinois: As we move through the early spring trees are leafing out but not in full foliage, so this is still a good time do to some chain saw or hand saw work, as we discussed in Part 1 of this series. Find staging areas, small clearings and food plot areas near your tree stands, and cut away all overhanging limbs up to about 12 feet high, EXCEPT one. Leave one limb with a low-hanging branch, and prune that branch so the limb is eye level. This will become a licking [...]
This is part 1 of a 3 part series from our friend and Illinois land-management expert Matt “Flatlander” Cheever: Notice in the title of this post, I said manage the land, not “manage your land.” If you own hunting property, great. But you don’t have to be a landowner to participate in habitat and deer herd improvement. In fact, you bring added value to a landowner if you are capable of improving his property with your knowledge and elbow grease. This can give you a leg up on the hunter who simply wants to show up on opening day in the fall and hunt. Impress your landowner by showing up in the spring with a chainsaw and asking if there are [...]
Right now is the time to establish a few mineral licks on your hunting land. Licks are easy and relatively inexpensive to make and maintain, and they serve two purposes: 1) provide vitamins for all the deer, from bucks growing new antlers to pregnant does getting ready to have fawns; and 2) they are top spots for you to set trail cameras and monitor bucks all summer. Science of Minerals “As land managers and hunters, we supply minerals for similar results in deer that we see in livestock that share the same environment,” says Dr. Brian Dorcey, a lifelong deer hunter who received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State. “Some of the well documented benefits of supplying supplemental [...]
Do you plant food plots for deer? If so, do you go by these dates? Click on picture to enlarge it.