30 09, 2014

Minimal EHD for Deer Herds in 2014

2020-06-10T09:22:46-04:00September 30th, 2014|BigDeer, Deer Science, Hunting News|3 Comments

The QDMA reports that hemorrhagic disease, including EHD and bluetongue virus, will have minimal impacts on whitetail herds this year. Small, scattered cases of EHD have been reported in Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Jersey, but with frosts and colder weather coming on, no major outbreaks will occur in 2014. This is what the deer herds across America needed, especially after the record 2012 EHD outbreak. That, followed by a couple of brutal winters, killed thousands of deer in many states. Ironically, while the hard winter of 2013 was tough on deer in the North, it likely helped herds nationwide by reducing the populations of midges that bite deer and transmit the EHD virus. Minimal EHD is fantastic, but I hear predictions that the [...]

3 09, 2014

Pre-Season To Do: Read Your Hunting Regulations

2020-06-10T09:22:47-04:00September 3rd, 2014|BigDeer, Hunting News|9 Comments

I have not read many hunting regulation booklets in the last 10 years. In fact I can’t remember the last time I read a state’s regs cover to cover. I doubt you can either. That’s stupid on our part, because every state has quirky little rules and regulations that might never cross your mind. But ignorance is no defense. You and I could get our butts in a sling over some technicality if we don’t know the rules and follow them to a tee when we hunt deer. This year before we go to any state to hunt and film, I have made a commitment to go online and read the regulations cover to cover. It’s boring, but necessary. First up Kentucky, where I [...]

28 08, 2014

Oregon: Mule Deer Head Found in Truck, 5 Poachers Arrested

2020-06-10T09:22:47-04:00August 28th, 2014|BigDeer, Hunting News|5 Comments

From Northeast Oregon Now: Just after 6 p.m. (last) Sunday, an Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife trooper came across a Jeep Cherokee with the driver’s door ajar (at an intersection near Pendleton and the Umatilla River). The trooper noted an empty gun case and ammunition inside the vehicle. About two and a half hours later, another Jeep Cherokee arrived at the intersection with five occupants inside. The trooper observed the occupants were in possession of the head of a freshly killed mature buck mule deer. (Oregon State Police Photo) Most disturbing is that the poachers ranged in age from 19 to 23. The 23-year-old was deemed to be the shooter and charged with killing the deer out of season and wasting [...]

24 07, 2014

Wisconsin: First Crossbow Deer Season 2014

2020-06-10T09:22:48-04:00July 24th, 2014|BigDeer, Bowhunting, Hunting News|10 Comments

Wisconsin is the latest major whitetail state to allow crossbows during the regular archery season, which opens September 13. A crossbow license costs $24 for a resident and $160 for an out-of-stater. Up until 10 years ago, this would have been big news, and it would have caused a firestorm amongst bowhunters, many pro-crossbow and a fierce minority anti-crossbow. But when Governor Scott Walker signed the crossbow bill late last year and the Wisconsin Assembly passed it on a 91-0 vote, there was hardly a whimper. Crossbows are here to stay in most archery seasons across the U.S. and people, some begrudgingly, have come to accept that. We have a lot of hard-core bowhunters from Wisconsin on the blog, and we have [...]

23 07, 2014

Is It Safe to Hunt in Mexico?

2020-06-10T09:22:48-04:00July 23rd, 2014|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Hunting News|9 Comments

Thirty years ago American hunters freely crossed the border to hunt for big deer in Mexico. Just across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, American hunters had huge leases, and on those ranches they grew and shot trophy whitetails, notably huge, wide-racked 10- and 12-point typicals. Farther west, Americans crossed at Nogales, Arizona or flew into Hermosillo to hunt the state of Sonora for giant desert mule deer, and Coues whitetails in the mountains. From the 1970s through the 1990s, Mexico was a deer hunter’s paradise: Cheap to travel there, lease land, stay in a hacienda on a ranch for a few weeks each January (when the weather is perfect and the bucks rut) and shoot big deer. Then came the drug wars [...]

Go to Top