Deer Management Archives - Page 22 of 53

28 04, 2017

Whitetail Dispersal: How and Where Button Bucks Find Home Ranges

admin2020-06-10T09:16:29-04:00April 28th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|2 Comments

In the early 2000s researchers with Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences captured and radio-collared 543 bucks, 454 of which were less than 1 year old when captured in the winter. Of particular interest: How and where the young bucks would “disperse” in the summer and fall. In this Deer-Forest blog post, the researchers explained: Dispersal is a one-time movement from a natal (where born) home range to a different adult home range. For our research (and most studies) we say an animal disperses if there is no overlap between natal and adult home ranges. So what did they find? *About 75% of the bucks dispersed as 1-year-olds. Half the dispersal occurred in spring (May-June) and the rest in [...]

6 03, 2017

Southeast Deer Study Group 2017

admin2020-06-10T09:16:30-04:00March 6th, 2017|Big Deer TV, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science|1 Comment

The Southeast Deer Study Group meets annually for researchers and managers to share the latest information on whitetail deer. The 2017 study just concluded last week in St. Louis, and here are a few of their findings: As always there was interesting new info on the whitetail rut. Researchers from Mississippi State’s Forest Resources revealed a study that shows when bucks of similar age and body weight are present and available, does in estrus prefer to breed with the buck with the largest antlers. Another finding confirms why during peak rut you need to keep as many trail cameras rolling across your land as possible: Researchers at the Univ. of Georgia noted that you’ll get the most cam photos of [...]

2 03, 2017

Amazing Wild Turkey Trail-Camera: Kansas Birds Gone Wild!

admin2020-06-10T09:16:30-04:00March 2nd, 2017|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|1 Comment

My friend Brian Helman, who lives in southeastern Kansas and works for 180 Outdoors, sent me this image the other day with the message: If you get a chance come on out this spring, these turkeys are waiting on you… The more I study the image the more amazed I am. I can definitively identify at least 18 longbeards, and surely there are many more, though some of the black blogs must be hens. Moreover, looking back to the far wood line, I count at least 83 birds marching out into the field, and who knows how many more are still back in the woods? How many turkeys do you count? Isn’t this the most interesting turkey image you’ve [...]

28 02, 2017

10 Ways to Improve Your Deer Hunting Land

admin2020-06-10T09:16:30-04:00February 28th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|1 Comment

(Photo: Matt "Flatlander" Cheever) Scatter food plots of about one acre across your ground. Design and build them to take advantage of thick cover and the predominant winds in the area in fall deer season. The closer you plant to a thicket where a mature buck can pop out to feed with his nose in the wind, the better the chance you’ll see him in daylight hours. Give deer a salad bar. Plant 60 percent of your plots with a perennial like a clover/chicory mix that will provide a steady food source for three to five years. Plant the other 40 percent with a fast-growing, tasty annual like oats or wheat. Planting 1,000 yards of logging road is like putting [...]

6 01, 2017

5 Tips for Hunting Late-Season Bucks

admin2020-06-10T09:16:31-04:00January 6th, 2017|Big Deer Stories, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management|2 Comments

We have 2 more days to hunt here in Virginia, and my friends Jack and Cecil are hunting hard, with our eyes on two bucks that have eluded us all season. If you’re still hunting into January too, try these 5 tips. Get the wind perfect: Back in October and especially during the November rut you predicted but never really knew from which direction a buck would come. So sometimes you cheated and hunted a stand on a couple different winds, and that worked out okay. But now there is only one good wind and little margin for error. In the evenings, deer move straight from their beds to a harvested cornfield or soybean field--anywhere they can find last scraps [...]