whitetail deer Archives - Page 2 of 93

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, [...]

20 03, 2025

Turnip Food Plots for Deer

Clay Hanback2025-03-17T11:25:52-04:00March 20th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Last December 14 in central Indiana, I climbed into a box blind on a two-acre turnip plot, ready to smoke a buck with my muzzleloader. I was in the midst of a brutal 17-Day, three-state stretch during which time I had not seen a mature shooter buck, much less shoot one. I was ready to change my luck. At 4 p.m. does started filtering into the turnips, followed by several small bucks. For an hour I watched deer pull up and eat the brassicas, gnawing the roots as the wilted green leaf tops dangled comically from their mouths. A little after 5 p.m., two more does entered the plot from the west, followed by a 7-point, and then a stout [...]

17 03, 2025

Ghost Bucks and Broken Racks

Clay Hanback2025-03-17T10:59:27-04:00March 17th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

I headed to northeast Oklahoma the day after last Thanksgiving, full or fire. I’ve had some of my best hunts of the last decade in this region during the first week of the December post-rut. My friend Corey Corson, who runs the hunting on Liberty Ranch outside Pawhuska, showed me cam images of three old 8-point target bucks. Corey said that nobody had hunted those bucks all season. As I climbed into my stand near a corn feeder in the chilly predawn the first morning, my only concern was that I would kill out the first hour of this six-day hunt. As I climbed out of my blind at dark on day three, I was getting concerned. I’d seen several [...]

12 03, 2025

State Laws of “Deadhead” Deer Skulls

Clay Hanback2025-03-12T11:37:21-04:00March 12th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

A “deadhead” is the commonly used term for a buck deer carcass that you might stumble across in the woods, with antlers still attached to the skull. Generally, such a buck has been dead for several months or even a year or two, and the carcass has been ravaged by time, weather and predators. All that might remain are a grisly skull with antlers, a portion of the spine and maybe some rib bones wrapped tautly with pieces of hide black as used motor oil. If the skull has been lying on the ground for more than a few months, you might see teeth marks on the antlers where squirrels and mice have gnawed them. Rodents are attracted to the [...]

28 02, 2025

Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation

Clay Hanback2025-02-28T09:21:41-05:00February 28th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Among new regulations enacted in 2024, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) says that hunters can now legally use drones to look for and track wounded deer. Also, the MDC has mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling stations for deer harvested during opening weekend of firearms deer season in certain counties. Hunters must take their deer, or the head of it, to a sampling station within the county of harvest on the day of the kill. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announces that for all regular deer seasons combined, the annual bag limit for bucks has been reduced from three to two. Louisiana hunters can now track wounded deer with dogs and lights, and if necessary, use [...]