sportsman channel Archives - Page 3 of 25

21 02, 2025

Shed Hunters Find Less Than 40% of Antlers

Clay Hanback2025-02-21T10:41:14-05:00February 21st, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel|Comments Off on Shed Hunters Find Less Than 40% of Antlers

The Deer Lab at Auburn University has a 430-acre high-fenced research facility. All the deer inside the fence are well known and documented. During the 7-year-period from 2012 to 2018, biologists and grad students were inside the facility daily, working, doing research, taking samples and looking around. They found only 284 of 747 (39%) of antlers they knew were shed by the bucks during that period. They analyzed the antlers they found, and determined from their records that the average age of the bucks that cast them was 5½ years. For the antlers that they never found, the average age of the bucks was 3½. Bottom line: Obviously, the larger antlers of older bucks are easiest to see and pick up. [...]

17 02, 2025

How Many Bucks Do Hunters Shoot Each Year?

Clay Hanback2025-02-17T11:57:52-05:00February 17th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Hunting News, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on How Many Bucks Do Hunters Shoot Each Year?

According to the National Deer Association’s 2025 Deer Report, hunters across the U.S. are tagging a historically high number of bucks. The total buck kill of 3,086,182 in the 2023-24 season (the last season for which complete harvest records were available) is only the second time the harvest has topped 3 million in the last 25 years. Big news: We’re shooting more mature bucks than ever! In 2023, 43 percent of the bucks shot across North America were 3½ years or older. That’s the highest percentage of mature buck harvest that the NDA has ever reported. Oklahoma hunters get the gold star for holding out for a mature deer; an impressive 85% of bucks shot in the Sooner State in 2023 [...]

29 01, 2025

Deer Season is Over: Learn from Last Year’s Mistakes

Clay Hanback2025-01-26T12:32:20-05:00January 29th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Deer Season is Over: Learn from Last Year’s Mistakes

Trail Camera[MP:04][TP:071F][IMEI:868032061698167] Sitting here thinking back about what went right and what went wrong last deer season, which was a challenging one for me and the Big Deer TV team. The best memories are of the few days when I shot a buck on TV, but actually I will learn the most by replaying and analyzing all those tough and lean days and weeks when I didn’t get a deer. How did I mess up? What could I have done differently? Lots to chew on. Lesson 1: Scout More and Better A buddy in October and said, “Hey man, I got permission to hunt a new farm, you in?” “Let’s go!” I roared and off we went for a [...]

26 01, 2025

Update: Should You Eat a Deer with CWD?

Clay Hanback2025-01-26T12:13:45-05:00January 26th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Update: Should You Eat a Deer with CWD?

Deer hunters have been wondering, and some have been worrying about it, for many years. Here's the latest on Chronic Wasting Disease: In a recent experiment at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, scientists tried to contaminate “human cerebral organiods,” or tissues that closely resemble human brain tissue, with injections of Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been documented to infect deer in 35 states and 5 Canadian provinces. For a week the researchers exposed the imitation brain tissues to high concentrations of CWD from 3 different sources. Good news, in ongoing testing, no infection! Yet another scientific finding that CWD does not jump from an infected animal to a human. BUT does this mean it is okay to eat a deer [...]

17 12, 2024

The Perfect Ground Blind for Deer Hunting

Clay Hanback2024-12-11T10:13:59-05:00December 17th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on The Perfect Ground Blind for Deer Hunting

I’ve frozen my fanny off way too many days in a tree stand in December. Nowadays when I’m desperately trying to fill my last tag I sit on the ground. It’s warmer down there, and if you set up right, you also have better hiding cover. The keys are to keep your blind small and tight, and to build it in just the right spot downwind of where you expect to see deer. Location: You can plop down anywhere and shoot a buck at 150 yards or farther with a .270. But when you’re using a slug-gun or a muzzleloader and hoping for an ideal shot of 100 yards and in, where you sit becomes more important. If you’re bowhunting, [...]