Hundreds of thousands of white-tailed deer are killed in Texas each fall and winter, but typically by deer hunters in search of big bucks and those looking to fill their freezers. Automobiles even get a few, but it seems the deer and hunters in Eastland County have something else to look out for now—poison. The Texas Agriculture Extension is advising all area health care providers of a poisoning in Eastland County that occurred approximately two weeks ago.

It seems a ranch south of Carbon, Texas, tried to kill feral hogs by mixing deer corn with a pesticide called Temik, which is a neurotoxin. Apparently, the rancher spread a very large amount of mixed, poisoned corn over their 2,000 acre peanut crop to kill feral hogs, but it turns out that white-tailed deer where also feeding on the same ranch. (more…)

When it comes to deer hunting, you just never know what you will see when you enter the woods. Over my hunting career I’ve seen some amazing things in nature. Some of these events I would have considered unbelievable had I not seen them with my own two eyes. But one of the benefits hunters get from sitting motionless, scentless, and undetected is that animals do what they normally do, except that we get to witness some of these normal–yet amazing—things that few people ever will.

Bowhunters often get to observe white-tailed deer up close and personal. Or at least that is the goal. However, I’ve been busted by a deer’s eyes and nose so many times that you would think it’s entirely impossible to sneak up on one. Of course, that’s what makes bowhunting so darn challenging. Yet, numerous times I’ve literally walked up to within 10 yards of deer and went undetected. As you know, it depends on the situation—and a little bit of luck. Hunting, like anything else, is all about timing. No hunter understands that more than Ben Bartlett. That’s because his right place at the right time allowed him to arrow one of two big fighting white-tailed bucks. (more…)

Serious diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD) can be detrimental to whitetail deer management programs with mortalities impacting local deer numbers as well as regional and potentially even statewide deer populations. State agencies around the country have been monitoring CWD in deer herds for many years now, and they know that it is caused by prions, but much about the spread of the disease was unknown until now. Researchers have discovered that deer asymptomatic for the fatal brain condition known as CWD excrete the infectious prions that cause the disease in their feces.

The finding suggests a reasonable explanation for transmission of the disease among white-tailed deer, mule deer, and possibly elk and moose in the environment. While the study reveals that prions are shed in feces of symptomatic deer as well, the discovery that the infected deer shed prions in their feces many months before they show clinical symptoms is the most unsettling. White-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose inadvertently consume feces and soil in the course of their daily browsing and grazing. (more…)

Fall is here and the food plots are in the ground, so except for conducting some controlled burns in the near future, the only thing left to do deer management wise is to harvest and record the deer we need (or would like) to remove. Though most deer hunters hunt whitetail by setting up over a food source, whether it be a feeder or a food plot, there are more active ways to bag a buck. There really are only two ways to go: Either you can go to the deer, or you can bring the deer to you.

Though many hunters have read about rattling bucks in, or have seen it on TV, many have yet to give this method a shot. Well, at least on a regular basis. I suspect many hunters have picked up a set of antlers and have at least attempted to rattle up a buck, but their lack of success caused them to quickly dismiss the effectiveness of antler rattling. Those antlers then went back to collecting dust at camp. So as effective as rattling can be, most of time it just will not work. But when it’s hot, it’s hot! (more…)

Each fall, deer hunters think of cool, brisk mornings and dream of big whitetail bucks running through the woods. Although every hunter wants to bag a monster buck, I don’t have to tell you that they are not exactly behind every tree. Especially when it comes to huge non-typical East Texas bucks. But like I always say, hunting is hunting and you just never know what will step out. Well, what stepped out for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Kaufman County Game Warden Eric Minter was a big 27 point non-typical white-tailed buck. Not bad. Particulary since this is his first buck with a bow!   

That’s because this past Monday (10/19/09) the Kaufman County warden found himself as the lucky hunter staring down the buck of a lifetime from his treestand hung 20 feet high in a creek bottom filled with acorn dropping white oaks. When all was said and done, it was Minter putting his own tag on a whopper 27 point non-typical buck. While there is no firm green score number on the multi-tined monster whitetail yet, photos from the buck would lead one to believe that this deer will score well above the 200-inch mark as non-typical. Well over. (more…)

Hunters that have been out in the woods early this fall have undoubtedly bumped into some fresh rubs created by white-tailed bucks. Often times, discovering a new buck rub is enough to get my mind thinking about the deer that left the sign. How big is this whitetail? When was the animal here? Does he prefer the habitat found on this part of the property more? Where is the buck now? And, of course, will he return?

The general thinking on deer rubs is that big bucks rub actual trees and small bucks rub on saplings. This line of thinking suggests that the bigger the tree rubbed the bigger the whitetail buck doing the rubbing. Is this true? I would have to say yes, at least most of the time. The majority of bucks rubbing on larger trees are in fact larger antlered bucks. Bucks with large antlers tend to be larger bodied, mature, stronger, and as a result of all these attributes, dominant animals.  (more…)

If Texas’ archery season had opened a few weeks ago when habitat conditions were fair to poor at best, opening weekend might have been likened to shooting fish in a barrel. Well, it probably would not have been that easy, but just a couple of weeks ago range conditions were horrible over much of the state due to severe to extreme drought conditions. A lack of rainfall had resident white-tailed deer hustling to make a living. That is no longer the case. What bowhunters found this past weekend was that they themselves were the fish in the barrel.

Bowhunters that took the field on Saturday and Sunday in search of whitetail found themselves pretty soggy. Sure, the weather opening morning was decent, but rain and clouds literally sat over most of Texas for the rest of the weekend. As a matter of fact, those rain-makers are still out there and weather forecasters are calling for more precipitation for the remainder of the week. So from a bowhunter’s perspective, the archery opener was less than ideal and I suspect deer harvests numbers were way down. Texas’ white-tailed deer, on the other hand, are knee-deep in acorns and succulent fall forbs. (more…)

White-tailed deer have specific nutritional requirements that can be met through habitat management and by maintaining deer numbers at the carrying capacity for the area. Under these described conditions, deer can get all of the required components of their diet, including energy, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals, that allow them to function properly. Many deer managers will even provide supplemental forage in the form of protein pellets or food plots that allow for optimal deer performance and health.

But what happens when a deer’s diet does not meet their dietary requirements? The answer is simple: Deer suffer. This suffering comes in the form of lower body weights, poor body function, lowered immune systems, and sub-optimal antler growth. As far as deer are concerned, the latter is the least of their worries. Malnurished bucks will “steal” necessary vitamins and minerals from antler growth to supply critical processes. Does will do the same sort of thing, but malnourished does will abort their fetuses during pregnancy or abandon their fawns during nursing. In short, deer that have poor diets will do things you may not expect. Such is the case in these photos of a white-tailed doe eating a road-killed fawn. (more…)