Hunting News Archives - Page 25 of 31

24 07, 2014

Wisconsin: First Crossbow Deer Season 2014

admin2020-06-10T09:22:48-04:00July 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?

admin2020-06-10T09:22:48-04:00July 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 [...]

9 07, 2014

How Old Should Kids Be To Hunt Deer?

admin2020-06-10T09:22:48-04:00July 9th, 2014|BigDeer, Hunting News|10 Comments

Dave sent me an email saying that his son, Josh, was turning 8, and that he was finally old enough to hunt deer according to his state’s law. Dave said Josh would continue to tag along with him in the woods this fall, but the boy wouldn’t carry a rifle just yet. What did I think? I think Dave has got it right. Eight is great for tagging along with Dad, but isn’t it a bit too young and immature to carry a gun and kill an animal, especially a deer? Think about those rowdy 8-year-olds on your kid’s baseball or football team. Would you thrust a .243 into their hands and say, “Boy, go shoot us a buck.” My [...]

23 06, 2014

Drones for Hunting?

admin2020-06-10T09:22:49-04:00June 23rd, 2014|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Hunting News|5 Comments

I just heard an amazing and almost unbelievable stat: in 20 years every person in the world will have a “pet drone” or at least access to a drone, just like everybody now has a cell phone. What will the billions of drones in the sky mean for our hunting? Is there any place for a drone in the deer woods? As the technology advances and drones become cheaper and easier to use and fly, it is inevitable that people will find a way to use them for all activities, including hunting. People already have. State troopers and wildlife cops in Alaska are aware of at least one drone-assisted moose kill, back in 2012. Other than shooting cool footage for [...]

3 06, 2014

Pope & Young to Allow Lighted Arrow Nocks

admin2020-06-10T09:22:49-04:00June 3rd, 2014|BigDeer, Bowhunting, Hunting News|12 Comments

For some reason that I always found odd, the Pope and Young Club never allowed animals killed with an arrow with a lighted nock to be entered into their archery record book. The thinking was that a lighted nock somehow gave the hunter an "unfair electronic advantage" over the deer. How, by maybe helping a hunter to make a better and more lethal shot in low legal shooting light? To my mind, a lighted nock can help a hunter to know more precisely where he or she hit a deer, and in many cases that helps in the recovery of that animal. All good. Well, P&Y has finally come into the 21st century of archery hunting. Beginning August 1, 2014, the club [...]