whitetail deer Archives - Page 76 of 92

2 11, 2020

Whitetail 2020: Best Hunt Tips For The Rut

Clay Hanback2020-11-02T08:38:12-05:00November 2nd, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Whitetail 2020: Best Hunt Tips For The Rut

One year on November 3, a west wind howled to 40 mph, and Nick Pruitt and Ryan Russ had a decision to make: Do we stay home, or do we go? With the rut picking up steam and the temperature 42 degrees, the friends strapped climbing stands to their backs, grabbed their bows and headed to hot spot they’d discovered on archery-only public ground. It was a creek bottom habitat, with three wood lines that acted as separate funnels to a soybean field. The edges were blazed with fresh rubs and scrapes. The hunters chose trees about 150 yards apart, climbed up and saw deer immediately. Their stands wobbled some, but the stiff winds didn’t seem to faze the animals. [...]

27 10, 2020

Ruger Acquires Marlin Firearms

Clay Hanback2020-10-27T09:46:09-04:00October 27th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, Remington, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Ruger Acquires Marlin Firearms

Sturm, Ruger and Company’s $30 million offer to purchase Marlin Firearms was accepted by Remington Outdoor Company and approved by a bankruptcy court in Alabama. As of October 2020, Ruger now owns Marlin. "The value of Marlin and its 150-year legacy was too great of an opportunity for us to pass up," said Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy. "The brand aligns perfectly with ours..." The transaction is exclusively for Marlin Firearms assets. Remington guns and ammunition, and any facilities and real estate, are excluded from the Ruger purchase. Ruger will soon begin the process of relocating Marlin assets (designs, machinery, stock materials, etc.) to existing Ruger manufacturing facilities. I have spoken with several sources in the firearms industry, and [...]

25 10, 2020

Rut Tactic: Shoot A Doe, Attract A Buck

Clay Hanback2020-10-25T10:49:33-04:00October 25th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Rut Tactic: Shoot A Doe, Attract A Buck

For whitetail hunters, what’s a hot scent attractant to use in early November? Try a dead doe! Missouri biologist Dr. Grant Woods has on occasion shot a mature doe and let the dead deer lie in front of his stand. “The smell of an adult doe, especially one in a pre-receptive or receptive stage, is a great attractant to mature bucks,” he says. “I’ve shot several bucks while they were actually sniffing the doe I had harvested earlier in the hunt.” Grant says that even the disturbance of a single rifle shot doesn’t matter when bucks are moving and rutting. “I realize this is contrary to popular belief, but it can work,” he says. If you try this unorthodox tactic, I [...]

23 10, 2020

The 2020 Ammo Shortage: If You Can Find It, Buy It Before Deer Season

Clay Hanback2020-10-23T10:50:49-04:00October 23rd, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Guns & Loads, Deer Hunting, Remington, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|1 Comment

Photo is from a Walmart in Virginia, two weeks before the gun deer season. Other than a few boxes of .300 Win. Mag. (we don’t shoot a lot of whitetails with the .300 Mag. around here, lol) the shelves were pretty much bare. There were 2 lonely boxes of Winchester 165-grainers for .30-06, a fine round that many Virginia hunters do use. I’d have scooped them up, but I have a good stash of .30-06 at home. Sure they are long gone by now. The ammo shortage of 2020 is real and widespread across America, worse in some places than others, right before the start of gun deer seasons. I asked followers on Twitter if ammo was scarce where they [...]

19 10, 2020

What Symmetry: Southern New York Bow Buck

Clay Hanback2020-10-16T14:02:40-04:00October 19th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on What Symmetry: Southern New York Bow Buck

Instagram post/message from Brendan Whelan, who shot this beauty earlier this month in southern New York: I shot at my biggest buck last year, hitting him in the shoulder and not recovering him, only to see him a week later chasing does. Having a 4-year history with that deer and only 2 encounters total made it that much harder to swallow that I messed up my one opportunity I had worked so hard for. Well, this year he never did show back up, but this guy did! I watched him grow all summer as he transitioned over into my food plot in early September, all the while keeping tabs on his movements with trail cameras. Opening week we had a [...]