11 03, 2014

Minnesota Hunters To Feed Deer

2020-06-10T09:23:04-04:00March 11th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science, Hunting News|4 Comments

From Twincities.com: Sometime early next week, men and women will fan out across the woods of northern Minnesota, many on snowmobiles, and begin laying out feed for wild whitetail deer. A million pounds of feed, give or take. As much as $170,000 can buy…. "We're at 130 volunteers and climbing fast," Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, said Wednesday…. Whose idea to feed the deer? Hunters, who put pressure on the state to do something because this brutal winter is surely killing some deer in the northern zones. Feeding from now through the spring green up will help the animals survive. The money for the project will come from a fund established from proceeds of hunting [...]

7 03, 2014

How Rare is a Doe With Antlers?

2020-06-10T09:23:04-04:00March 7th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science|10 Comments

Mike: One day last fall I swear I saw a doe with a small set of fork-horn antlers, but I didn’t shoot. Have you ever seen a doe with antlers?—Steve from MO Steve, no I have never seen one in the wild, though I’ve posted a few on the blog. According to VA biologists, there are two types of antlered whitetail does. The first is a female deer with velvet-covered antlers like this one.  This animal usually has a normal female reproductive tract and is capable of bearing fawns. The second type is a female deer with polished antlers. This animal is actually a male “pseudo-hermaphrodite.” It has the external genitalia of a female, but has male sex organs internally. [...]

27 02, 2014

Biggest “Cactus Buck” Ever?

2020-06-10T09:23:04-04:00February 27th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science|6 Comments

I saw this photo on the Bowhunting.com Facebook and wondered: Is that sucker the biggest cactus buck ever? Although cactus bucks are rare, I’ve seen a good number of them over the years. But nothing approaching the gnarly mass that this one has. I have no idea where this freak was shot. Many people will think this buck had his balls injured or torn off (ouch!), but this explanation from Matt Knox (15th paragraph down), deer project coordinator for Virginia, fits to a tee: A unique male antler anomaly is a “cactus” buck. These bucks suffer from very low testosterone production due to hypogonadism or cryptochidism (i.e., their testicles are the size of a green pea or never descend from [...]

24 02, 2014

Big-Buck Tip: Tweak Your Deer Stands

2020-06-10T09:23:04-04:00February 24th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|2 Comments

Another finding reported at the Southeast Deer Study Group 2014: Researchers say adult bucks traveled 55 yards farther away from hunting stands on average at the end of the season vs. the beginning of the season. This further confirms something I have been blogging about and saying on TV for years: Mature bucks can learn your habits and pattern you. As the season progresses they see, smell and hear where you walk into the woods…where you climb into trees…where you walk out at midmorning or after dark… Then they skirt those stand locations to avoid you. I did a “Top 10 Tactics” episode of BIG DEER TV on Sportsman last year, and this strategy was #6: Change It Up. Say [...]

21 02, 2014

Is This the Craziest Deer Rack You Ever Saw?

2020-06-10T09:23:04-04:00February 21st, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science|2 Comments

Saw this on Whitetail Overload’s Facebook page. One of the craziest photos I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of crazy deer photos in my day. This was obviously caused by some sort of injury to the deer and the rack (hit by car I would suspect) but how that beam (black because the velvet dried hard on it) grew down and through the deer’s mouth defies explanation. There is always something new and unusual to see in the whitetail world.

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