The new year is well underway and spring is just around the corner. That is a good thing because habitat conditions are as tough as I’ve seen them in some time and bitter cold weather really works on a white-tailed deer’s body condition. But a new year means resolutions to do new things—even when it comes to deer management. Though the supplementation of a deer’s diet is far from a new idea, I am confident that many landowners and managers will begin offering supplemental feed during late winter, spring and summer for the first time ever.

Most of that feed will be in the form of protein pellets. Regular readers of this site know that food supplementation is just a small part of an overall deer management program, but it can be an important component for maintaining and increasing the overall condition of the deer herd found on a property. This is especially true during the food stress periods that occur each year, summer and winter. Right now is as good of time as any to start, but I recommend following the simple suggestions below when beginning a supplemental feeding program for white-tailed deer. (more…)

The white-tailed deer rut came and went with the the deer hunting season, but let’s not forget the importance of successful breeding in deer management as we look forward to yet another (hopefully) wet spring and summer. Many hunters and deer managers looking to provide additional food sources for whitetail have already started planning their spring food plots while others are knee-deep in brush management, which will mean more high quality forbs. By the way, let’s not forget that winter is the time for managing and reducing brush — not July and August!

The rut is a great time for a deer hunter because mature bucks can become quite vulnerable as they search for or trail hot does, but the rut is also the time of the year when bucks and does handle the business of reproducing the next generation of deer for your property. The length of gestation is plus or minus 200 days for whitetail deer, so it’s pretty easy to calculate when fawns will start hitting the ground on your property or lease. Will the habitat on your property be ready? (more…)

This white-tailed deer hunting season has really been one for the record books, and not just in Texas. Not only have the true-to-life hunting stories been amazing this year, but now it seems whitetail hunters around the Lone Star State are processing the story of a two-headed deer being shot near Rock Springs, Texas. The website reporting the rare harvest has come up with some pretty amazing stories in the past, but this one is luring in the hunters like a a young buck to a doe in heat.

For those of you that have yet to hear about the alleged two headed deer hoax, the photo may blurry, but the story is at least an entertaining one. In fact, I’m kind of surprised this story did not take place in Louisiana because it definitely has the makings of a Thibodeaux and Boudreaux joke. Only in this one it’s Bill and Steve Jr. out at their West Texas deer lease. (more…)

The white-tailed deer hunting season may be in the recent past for most of us, but hopefully we all have the memories and some good eating to help us make it through until next season’s opener. Until then, it’s time to focus on habitat management and wishful thinking that this spring and summer will be a wet one. Almost as much as the deer hunting itself, the one thing that I will really miss about deer season is hanging out at camp discussing deer management and trading hunting stories from past trips.

It seems ironic to many non-hunters that hunters really do respect the animals that they pursue and kill. The same can be said of deer hunters across the whitetail’s range. Deer hunters relish the opportunity to tag just a single buck each year, but some lucky hunters manage to tag a couple of bucks each fall. This was the case for Illinois’ Phillip McGowan. While out deer hunting this past hunting season he never expected to stumble into two bucks, especially two bucks locked together. Here is his story: (more…)

Selective harvest is an important part of white-tailed deer management. This is equally true for both the buck and doe segments of a deer population, but many hunters become obsessed with trying to determine which bucks to shoot or not shoot. For regular visitors to this site, you know that I have covered shooting deer and harvest management in the past, but this time I really want to stress the importance of not stressing out over the harvest aspect of a deer management program.

The most controversial issue on any hunting property usually revolves around what is and is not a cull or management buck. There is no stock answer to this debate because the quality of a cull buck will vary from ranch to ranch. We have all seen bucks with obviously inferior antlers that have been shot as culls, but I bet you have also seen some really good looking bucks on the web, in magazines, and on television that were harvested by someone and referred to as cull deer. So what’s the deal? (more…)

The state of Nebraska is known for some big-bodied, big-antler bucks, but nobody, not even deer hunter Kevin Petrzilka, was expecting to bag a potential Nebraska state record whitetail just outside of the town of Loma in Butler County, Nebraska. But that’s what he did. And if the measurements hold up the buck looks to rank at least number 6 on the Boone and Crockett Club’s all-time list of whitetails with typical antlers taken by a firearm. To say this 17 point whitetail buck is big would be a serious understatement of an animal of remarkable proportions.

In fact, the Petrzilka buck is sizing up to be the largest buck taken by firearm in North America since 1993! An official Boone and Crockett Club scorer put the preliminary score at 203 4/8 inches over the weekend, but the antlers must go through the mandatory 60 day drying period before they can be officially scored for the record book. For those keeping score, the current Nebraska record for a typical whitetail buck is 199 1/4 inches on a buck taken in 1983 in Saunders County. (more…)

A big part of deer management is maintaining promising bucks in healthy condition until they are mature and ready for harvest, so there is nothing worse than finding a dead buck that you did not shoot, but how would you feel if you found not one, but three dead bucks on your property? Okay, it gets worse. What if those three bucks totaled 450 inches of antler? That is exactly what a hunter in the mid-West found on his Ohio farm while walking through the woods. Apparently, two bucks were fighting for the right to breed area deer when a third buck jumped in to kick both of their butts. That didn’t happen.

The three whitetail bucks were found dead, drowned in a creek on the Ohio property. This is not the first time three bucks have locked horns and died, but it’s the first I’ve heard about this phenomenon year. And the quality of the bucks involved is impressive, so you know the guys hunting this property had to have been more than a bit deflated. I know that I would have been sick to my stomach. Here is what a staff member of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wrote after being called out on the 3 dead bucks: (more…)

White-tailed deer management is about controlling the age, genetics, and nutrition of a deer herd. These components are the nuts and bolts of producing and growing big, healthy deer. Hunters understand that whitetail, like other game animals, are a renewable natural resource that can be used for both recreation and food. This is exactly why we enjoy getting out in the woods and doing a little deer hunting each fall. Although proper doe harvest is essential for maintaining a deer population within the carrying capacity of the habitat, let’s face it, hunters really look forward to hunting for big ole mature bucks.

There are several strategies that can be used to bag a buck, but for the most part hunters are limited to hunting food, water, travel areas, or deer sign. Whitetail bucks often leave visual evidence of where they have been in the form of rubs and scrapes. Of the two, scrapes can predict the location that a buck is likely to return. Despite the fact that many mature bucks check scrapes under the cover of darkness, hunting scrapes after a rain could increase your chances of crossing paths with a big whitetail buck. (more…)