whitetail deer Archives - Page 52 of 92

20 12, 2021

How Long Do Whitetail Deer Live In The Wild?

Clay Hanback2021-12-20T09:32:42-05:00December 20th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Science, whitetail deer|1 Comment

In the wild, a doe or buck that survives 4 or 5 years has lived a good, long life. Six or 7 years or more is ancient and rare for a wild deer. So I found it fascinating to read a report from Pennsylvania a few years ago that confirmed 2 wild does, which had been captured, ear-tagged and released, had lived to at least 13! One of those does was documented on a trail camera, and the other was shot by a hunter. That a deer could live 13 years in the wild with all the cars, coyotes and hunting pressure is yet another testament to how amazing whitetails are. As for the pictures here, I shot this fully [...]

13 12, 2021

Gene Wensel’s 222” Recurve Buck

Clay Hanback2021-12-13T14:36:15-05:00December 13th, 2021|Big Deer Stories, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

I ran across an article written by legendary bowhunter Gene Wensel, whom I have long admired for his knowledge of the whitetail, his fine writing and most of all his genuine and deep-felt love of the outdoors and hunting. This passage is from from the story of Woody, the giant buck that Gene shot on December 30, 2004 (that's Gene in the foreground of the photo and his brother Barry in the back). The 222” non-typical is likely the highest-scoring whitetail ever killed with a recurve bow, arrow and broadhead. Gene wrote: “Hunting is a basic human instinct no different from eating, breathing, sleeping or reproducing. Every human is born with an instinct to hunt. I heard someone say that [...]

8 12, 2021

98-Year-Old Mississippi Hunter Shoots Black Deer, Rarest Of All Whitetails

Clay Hanback2021-12-05T10:19:09-05:00December 8th, 2021|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

A Mississippi hunter shot this black, or melanistic, buck. It’s unclear when he killed it, but best I can determine he shot the rarest color phase of whitetail around last Christmas. Story goes the 98-years-young hunter drilled the buck through the heart at 125 yards. I have posted several melanistic bucks on the blog over the years, but this one is truly magnificent—solid black with white highlights! Nice rack with heavy bases, the unique buck eluded hunters and survived for 4 years. Black, or melanistic, deer are even less common, the rarest of the rare. The first one recognized by a scientist was in 1929. Of the tens of millions of whitetails that have been shot by hunters in the [...]

2 12, 2021

Late Deer Tactic: Hunt A Buck’s Bedding Area

Clay Hanback2021-11-24T11:06:23-05:00December 2nd, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Late Deer Tactic: Hunt A Buck’s Bedding Area

A few years ago my friend Don hunted “Old Double Drop” near a field of cut corn. It was bitter that December, the kind of cold that hurts, with afternoon highs in the teens and single digits. Don knew the whitetails had to feed a lot and early every day, so he kept sitting on the edge of the plot, figuring it was just a matter of time until the big deer showed up in last shooting light. He never did. Double Drop was smart. So is Don. He knew of several narrow, south-facing CRP ditches in the general direction the buck was coming from. Early one afternoon he sneaked back into one of those ravines 200 yards off the [...]

26 11, 2021

How To “Drive” Deer The Right Way

Clay Hanback2021-11-20T14:26:00-05:00November 26th, 2021|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, whitetail deer|Comments Off on How To “Drive” Deer The Right Way

Advice courtesy of Montana’s Eloit Strommen, who is the best I have ever seen at pushing/nudging whitetails: “First off, we never walk from one end of a cover to the next like most guys do, spooking deer and watching them run all over the place,” Eliot says. “We don’t drive the deer. Two or three of us just walk the timber and try to nudge deer from one small cover to the next cover or the next.” Put two or three shooters—bow or gun--in a strip or block of timber a half-mile or even farther from where the pushers will start. Make sure the shooters watch a trail or funnel in the cover. If the pushers nudge deer that way, [...]