trijicon Archives

25 03, 2025

New Moon Phase Means Hot Deer Rut

Clay Hanback2025-03-17T11:39:07-04:00March 25th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, sportsman channel, trijicon, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Here on the blog last August, I wrote: In all my years of chasing whitetails across North America, I’ve noticed the tendency for the animals to move most in twilight is magnified during a new (dark) moon that overlaps the seeking phase of the rut, as it does this year. I went on to predict that the new moon week of November 2 through 6 would be five of the best days to hunt in 2024. Not coincidentally, we planned our annual Virginia deer camp to start on November 2, in the middle of archery season and during the first week of muzzleloader. This is typically when what I call the “hard pre-rut” occurs in the Virginia Piedmont. Weeks earlier, [...]

3 01, 2025

Here’s How to Store Your Gear After Hunting Season

Clay Hanback2025-01-03T08:45:06-05:00January 3rd, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hornady, Hunting News, Shed Hunting, trijicon|Comments Off on Here’s How to Store Your Gear After Hunting Season

I've taken a little time off to recuperate from a tough deer season and to enjoy the holidays with family. Now back at f0r 2025.--MH After the last deer hunt of the season in December or January, many of you toss your clothes, pack and other stuff in a heap in a backroom and don’t think twice about it for another seven or eight months, until it’s time to scout and bow hunt again. I used to do that too, but I’m more organized now. This week I’m spreading out my gear on the basement floor, and giving it a good once over while last season’s hunts are still fresh in my mind. Out with the Old Did you like [...]

20 08, 2024

Deer Hunt How-To: Look Deep in Shadows for a Big Buck

Clay Hanback2024-08-16T14:26:23-04:00August 20th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, trijicon, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Deer Hunt How-To: Look Deep in Shadows for a Big Buck

I hiked, sweating, a mile and climbed into a ground blind at 2:00 p.m on a warm, windy December Afternoon. Around 4:00 the wind laid and my tent blind stopped flapping. Two does came out and started to feed. Over the next hour, 6 more does and a 4-pointer joined them. With 20 minutes of legal shooting light left, I glassed deep into the tree shadows behind the does and spotted tall tines. When you spot a shooter, no need to look longer, you just know. The giant ambled in like he owned the joint and checked a doe on his left, then pushed a couple does to his right. The second he stopped broadside, I killed him with one [...]

22 04, 2024

Here’s Why You Need to Go Over and Hunt Africa

Clay Hanback2024-04-22T09:23:04-04:00April 22nd, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CZ-USA, sportsman channel, trijicon|1 Comment

First read this blog that I wrote and published 20 years ago: I was talking with a colleague the other day and he asked, “So Hanback, when’s your next trip over my man?” “Over where?” “To Africa man!” he roared. I explained that I had never been to Africa, and had never really wanted to go all that much. He looked at me like I was the village idiot. “Ah, there is nothing like it,” he opined, a touch of British high-brow creeping into his Yankee voice. “I was bitten by the bug several years ago and I hardly want to hunt anywhere else.” I was talking with another man who went over and shot his first elephant. With his [...]

19 03, 2024

Have You Ever Had Buck Fever?

Clay Hanback2024-03-19T07:44:03-04:00March 19th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Hunting News, sportsman channel, trijicon|Comments Off on Have You Ever Had Buck Fever?

“It’s telltale adrenaline surge is so instant and convulsive that a blood-pressure check at that moment would bust the machine that takes it,” wrote Robert Ruark in his 1953 classic, The Old Man and the Boy. The legendary author was referring to buck fever, a malady which can affect us all in different ways. A mild case of it is good and required--if our heart doesn’t jump and our nerves don’t rattle a bit when we see a heavy 8-pointer sneaking through the woods on a frosty November morning, then why are we out there? But a bad case of the fever, with uncontrollable shaking, heavy sweat and gasping for breath, can not only ruin a hunt, but in the [...]