whitetail deer Archives - Page 2 of 90

14 11, 2024

Will Coyotes Get the Deer You Shot?

Clay Hanback2024-11-14T12:21:54-05:00November 14th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Predator Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

You just shot a buck with your bow, and are unsure of the shot. A bit high, or a little back? There are coyotes in your area. Should you push it and track the deer immediately, or wait a few hours or maybe overnight? A Dog Man’s Advice John Jeanneney, a New York breeder of top blood-trailing dachshunds, tracks more bowshot whitetails in a season than most of us will in a lifetime. In his book, Dead On!, John says it’s time to re-think our tracking strategies. With most arrow hits, even marginal ones in and around a buck’s vitals, John says to get on the blood trail and go. No more waiting 30 minutes to several hours. And no [...]

4 11, 2024

6 Great Stands for the Whitetail Rut

Clay Hanback2024-11-01T10:08:46-04:00November 4th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

I’ve keyed these 6 setups to the 3 different stages of the rut you’ll be hunting this fall. Whether the big bucks are feeding, rubbing, scraping or chasing the does, we’ll put you in the hot seat. All that’s left is making the shot, and that is up to you. PRE-RUT: The River Strip One September morning my buddy Dan Jones climbed into a tree stand he’d set 50 yards off a river in northern Montana. The south wind was perfect, blowing out of an alfalfa field 100 yards to the south, wafting through the narrow timber strip and pushing his scent across the deep river where no deer would approach. Around 7:30 Dan saw movement on a trail 150 [...]

1 11, 2024

BREAKING: Scott John’s Giant Kansas Bow Buck, 229 7/8”

Clay Hanback2024-11-01T10:01:03-04:00November 1st, 2024|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Big Deer blogger Dean Weimer reports on this Kansas giant shot last month: High school teacher and multi-sport coach Scott John is a dedicated family man and avid outdoorsman. He is a consummate hunter who absolutely loves bowhunting whitetails in his home area of eastern Kansas. Scott had been after a dandy non-typical buck for the last two seasons. But as they so often do, the giant had eluded Scott’s best efforts. In fact, he’d only ever laid eyes on the buck once while in a stand. That was in early November 2023. On Tuesday October 22, 2024, the temperature was a balmy 92 degrees–less than ideal hunting conditions to say the least. Scott, like practically every other sane bowhunter [...]

29 10, 2024

How to Hunt a Swamp Buck

Clay Hanback2024-10-29T08:34:45-04:00October 29th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

If you hunt in or around a river bottom, swampy area or coastal marsh, read this: Biologists worked a project in southern Delaware for four years, capturing bucks and then collaring them with GPS. They separated the deer into two age classes–4½ years old and younger, and 5½ and older—and monitored their movements around swamps and marshes. They found that the oldest bucks hardly ever left the swamps until cover of darkness. The younger bucks not only left the marsh on occasion, they also readily used nearby upland forests and crop fields. The 5-year-olds routinely avoided those areas. The scientists wrote, “Not using wetland areas increased a buck’s risk of mortality by 2.7, meaning he was nearly 3 times more [...]

21 10, 2024

Stand Sites for Farm-Country Bucks

Clay Hanback2024-10-21T09:19:22-04:00October 21st, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Stand Sites for Farm-Country Bucks

Hang a tree stand on the closest elevated hardwood ridge near a corn or bean field. Most of the deer that come and go to the feed will cut across that ridge somewhere, often in or on the edge of thick green cover. I've seen it happen dozens of times each season. Set up downwind of the heaviest doe trail you can find, with rubs and scrapes nearby. Good for either morning or afternoon. Rutting bucks love to troll across an old pasture or weed field that connects crops and a woodlot. It’s a natural pinch point. Set a tree stand just back in the woods where the buck will stage and look for does, and move back to bed [...]