Deer Management Archives - Page 4 of 53

1 05, 2023

Plant Cover Crops for All-Year Food Plots

Clay Hanback2023-04-30T09:36:39-04:00May 1st, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Plant Cover Crops for All-Year Food Plots

Kip Adams, who works for the National Deer Association and who is a whitetail habitat expert, is a big believer in keeping food plots “covered” throughout the year. The best way to keep a plot covered is to have some plants growing in it for as many months as possible. As different varieties of plants grow in a plot, they hold the soil and help to continuously build organic matter. That is why cover cropping has become so big in commercial agriculture. Farmers used to harvest corn or soybeans, and then leave the soil open until the next planting season. Now they seed winter wheat, winter rye or brassicas onto those harvested row crop fields.” A good example in food plots for deer would [...]

31 03, 2023

13 Facts from the 2023 Deer Report

Clay Hanback2023-04-02T08:34:30-04:00March 31st, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, whitetail deer|Comments Off on 13 Facts from the 2023 Deer Report

The National Deer Association’s 2023 Deer Report is hot off the press, and it’s jam-packed with interesting information for us whitetail nuts, like these 13 gems. Hunters in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest regions combined killed 2,969,596 whitetail bucks during the 2021-22 season, the fourth highest buck kill in the past 10 seasons. The data shows that an impressive 40% of those were 3½ years of age or older. Hunters in the Southeast get the gold star for passing yearlings and shooting more mature deer; 84% of the bucks tagged in Dixie in 2021-22 were 2½ years or older. Top 5 states for buck harvest: Texas (447,972 bucks); Michigan (223,476); Wisconsin (153,112); Pennsylvania (145,320); Missouri (143,815). Top 3 states for [...]

29 03, 2023

How to Plant Tiny Food Plots for Bowhunting

Clay Hanback2023-03-26T13:46:31-04:00March 29th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on How to Plant Tiny Food Plots for Bowhunting

My friend Grant Woods, one of the top whitetail biologists in America and a hard-core bowhunter to boot, has designed, built and planted every size and shape of food plot that you could imagine. One of his favorite things to do right now is to scout a property and find 3 or 4 out-of-the-way spots where he can plant and hunt micro food plots later this summer. Think Tiny Scout a property and look for a 20- to 40-yard strip of old road bed, or maybe a 30 x 30-foot opening in a staging thicket near an ag field. Any hidden, remote spot where other people would never dream of planting, but where your gut says you might entice a [...]

28 02, 2023

What Causes Bucks to Have Weak Brow Tines or No Brows?

Clay Hanback2023-02-28T15:35:19-05:00February 28th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science, whitetail deer|1 Comment

Last month I hunted a friend's ranch in West Texas, 5 hours west of San Antonio and 80 miles north of Del Rio. This is a raw, rocky desert environment that had experienced a long drought, though there is a good water system on this 1,000-acre property. My buddy Cecil recently purchased the ranch, and he has been running 8 to 10 corn feeders year-round. There has been minimal protein feeding here the last 2 years, but he plans to fill the protein feeders and increase supplemental feeding this year. I hunted a week and one thing jumped out at me: 7 out of every 10 bucks of all age classes we saw had small and weak brow tines (that’s [...]

28 01, 2023

Beginner’s Guide To Coyote Hunting

Clay Hanback2023-01-25T07:40:54-05:00January 28th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Management, Predator Hunting|2 Comments

When deer season closes here in Virginia, my friend Rick is not ready to hang up his camouflage just yet. “Hunting coyotes in the winter extends my time in woods,” he says. “I’m not the greatest caller, but coyotes are mating now, and some days they run to my calls. If I call in 3 or 4 dogs this month and shoot a couple, I’ll be happy.” Here’s a quick primer if you've never done it and want to try it. Do You Need a License? Many states consider Canis latrans a nuisance species, and no hunting license is required. In other places, you’ll need a general state hunting license for varmints. Read your regs and be legal. Where to [...]