sportsman channel Archives - Page 20 of 25

21 05, 2021

How Important Are Acorns For Deer?

Clay Hanback2021-05-21T13:55:13-04:00May 21st, 2021|Big Deer TV, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on How Important Are Acorns For Deer?

Pennsylvania biologist Jeannine Fleegle notes that while the list of foods for whitetails is long and varied and includes crops, browse, forbs, grasses, fungi and mast, “It is no secret that acorns are a favorite on the list. If they are available, acorns dominate their diet in fall and winter.” Fleegle points to experiments that show when acorns are available, whitetails eat about 1.5 pounds of nuts daily per hundred pounds of body weight. “Deer can sustain a maximum of 30% weight loss during (the rut and into) winter,” she says. “More than that and they die of malnutrition.” It’s easy to see why acorns are so important not only to the deer, but to your hunt strategy. This summer, walk [...]

13 05, 2021

Alabama Turkey Hunter Kills 400th (and 401st) Gobbler

Clay Hanback2021-05-12T14:27:47-04:00May 13th, 2021|Big Deer TV, sportsman channel|Comments Off on Alabama Turkey Hunter Kills 400th (and 401st) Gobbler

Reprinted with permission of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; story by David Rainer For someone who got a late start chasing turkeys, Ray Jones of Huntsville has spent the last 60 years catching up. Jones, 86, reached and surpassed a milestone this season by bagging the 400th and 401st turkeys of his career. The reason he got off to such a slow start was because he lived in far north Alabama where turkeys were scarce for most of his life. “We really didn’t have any turkeys north of Birmingham when I was a young boy,” Jones said. “They had all been killed during the Depression. We hunted squirrels. We didn’t even have any deer.” During the middle of the [...]

1 04, 2021

Wild Hog Hunting At Georgia’s Gopher Plantation

Clay Hanback2021-04-01T10:02:01-04:00April 1st, 2021|Big Deer TV, CZ-USA, sportsman channel|Comments Off on Wild Hog Hunting At Georgia’s Gopher Plantation

There are some 9 to 10 million wild hogs in America, tens of thousands of them rooting across all 159 counties in Georgia, including down in Ware County where the Gopher Plantation is located. An invasive species, feral swine cause significant damage to crops and natural resources. The economic impact of hog destruction in Georgia alone is estimated at more than $150 million. Feral swine are incredibly prolific. Sows have 1 to 2 litters of 4 to 6 piglets per year. Once little hogs reach 10 to 15 pounds, natural predation is not a factor. Hunting and trapping afford a modicum of control, but once a population of wild hogs is firmly rooted in an area, like it is at the [...]

22 03, 2021

How To Use A Turkey Box Call

Clay Hanback2021-03-10T12:24:47-05:00March 22nd, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, sportsman channel|Comments Off on How To Use A Turkey Box Call

As you read this, I’ll be down in south Georgia at the Gopher Plantation, hunting the spring opener, running my old Lynch box and trying to strike a gobbler or soft talk one into shotgun range. These days I’ve gone back to using a box call almost exclusively, because it makes the most realistic raspy hen yelps. To run a box call generally: Hold it lightly in your left palm and work the lid gently with the fingers of your right hand (vice versa for lefties). Keep your fingers off the sides of a box so you won’t deaden its sound. Some people run a box better with a vertical hold, which I really like too. Lay a call in [...]

21 02, 2021

Hunt Sheds In Deer Bedding Areas

Clay Hanback2021-02-23T10:48:30-05:00February 21st, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Hunt Sheds In Deer Bedding Areas

When you’re out shed-hunting, pick up a deer trail and follow it for a few hundred yards to a half-mile or more, until you come to a thick and obvious deer bedding area. In winter a good one is a brushy southern exposure that gets midday sunlight, or the east side of a grassy ridge where deer hunker out of a northwest wind. You're apt to find fresh deer beds, tracks and dropping in the melting snow here. Back in hunting season you would have stopped before entering the bedding cover, tested the wind and worked the outer fringes of the sanctuary so as not to spook any deer. But now, plow right in. Of all the sheds you find [...]