Hunters and landowners  interested in deer management know that the bread and butter of white-tailed deer’s diet are browse plants. Although a deer would prefer to eat higher-in-protein forbs, those plants are primarily only available during the spring and fall. Though ideal deer foods consists of preferred browse plants and high protein forbs, many of these plants are not as abundant as they could be across the landscape.

Good deer  habitat always has some wooded component. This woody structure provides screening shelter, overhead protection, and food from both leaves and mast. This wooded component can range from brushland to  mid-story tree species to mixed forests of a variety of species. Deer habitat can vary a great deal from place to place, but too much wooded area can become a detriment to deer and the plants they eat. Proper habitat management practices, however, can make the most out of the land you hunt. (more…)

With the white-tailed deer hunting season now upon us, most hunters are already in the woods looking for that big, mature buck. However, as is often the case when in the field, hunters will see the strangest things — and sometimes those odd things include deer with different diseases and other issues. One fairly common problem in whitetail is lumpy jaw. The name “lumpy jaw” says it all because deer with this problem stick out; The animal looks like it has a lump between (or under) its jawbone and the hide.

The lumpy jaw many hunters witness is the result of adult arterial nematodes (Elaeophora schneideri). These worms live primarily in the whitetail’s carotid arteries. In fact, partial paralysis of the deer’s jaw muscles occurs when high arterial worm infestations reduce blood flow. As a result of jaw muscle paralysis, food becomes trapped inside the deer’s mouth and this food impaction leads to the lumpy jaw and/or swollen cheek appearance. The impaction often causes tooth loss, bone decay, and sometimes even death. (more…)

Back in mid-August, I wrote an article that touched on conducting deer surveys and how the abundant rainfall received during 2010 really set up most of Texas up for a great year of white-tailed deer hunting. I had a feeling that a lot of the bucks carried over from last year would be looking good, but I really was not expecting a new Texas non-typical white-tailed deer record to be harvested on the first day of the 2010 deer hunting season! By the way, I’m talking about over 300 inches of native buck antler!

You may recall that hunter Marko Barrett harvested a big South Texas buck on the Las Raices Ranch back in 2007. That non-typical deer was a brute in his own right with 34 points that measured out at an impressive 275 7/8 inches. Well, it looks like his father, Mark Barrett, has raised the bar even higher with his own giant, non-typical whitetail buck. And right from his Facebook page, Marko wrote: (more…)

When it comes to deer hunting you just have to love late September in Texas. It is at this time of year that hard-antlered bucks show hunters really what they have to offer, and hunters search the woods for sign left by these pre-rut bucks. As testosterone levels rise, bucks remove the velvet that covered their growing antlers for the past 6 months. The act of a buck rubbing his antlers against a trees not only removes the dead, rotting velvet, but also helps strengthen the deer’s neck, shoulders and body as he prepares to do battle with his summertime friends.

September is rarely a time for hunting deer in Texas, except during those years when the Saturday closest to October 1st happens to be in September. No, most of all this month signals that deer hunters had better get their acts together. It’s time for placing out those last minute stands and deer feeders. It’s time for talking about deer, buying seed, and planting winter food plots. It is during this time of year that the eager hunter anticipates each trip to the game camera, never knowing what he or she may have captured. (more…)

Hunters and landowners actively involved in white-tailed deer management know that age, genetics, and nutrition are the rule when it comes to maintaining a healthy deer herd and consistently producing quality whitetail bucks. Because it takes time for bucks to get older and because one can not change the genetics of a deer once it is conceived, a lot of attention gets placed on deer nutrition by hunters and managers on their lands.

When it comes to providing proper nutrition for deer, more than a fair share of this attention gets wrongly placed on supplemental feeding through food plots or protein pellets. I will be the first to tell you that both food plots and supplemental feeding have their place on almost every property, but all too often hunters consider the management practice of adding food to the equation as taking the place of proper deer habitat management. Wrong. (more…)

Most deer hunters start getting “the itch” by the time late summer rolls around. It’s during this time of year that those game camera photos really start to show hunters the potential of bucks on their ranch or hunting property. For the guys with ongoing white-tailed deer management programs it can be very, very exciting to see what those young bucks of years past have transformed themselves into. With the amount of rainfall we’ve received in Texas this year hunters should expect a really good year!

Abundant rainfall throughout in the early part of the year combined with scattered, timely rains throughout the summer have kept much of the deer habitat green and growing. And as most of us in the Lone Star state know, rarely does the ground look green in Texas going into August. All that valuable precipitation has maintained the deer herd in good condition throughout what is typically the summer stress period—but not this year. (more…)

Deer hunting is both challenging and fun, but common sense precautions while handling a processing white-tailed deer should be taken after each successful harvest. In fact, proper handling and cleaning techniques are as important as sound deer management practices. Many diseases affect deer in North America, including rabies, tularemia, plague, blue tongue and potentially even chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD is a disease that affects white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk and is fatal to infected animals.

Biologist believe a protein called a prion causes CWD in deer, and it’s this disease that most hunters are probably worried about. Prions concentrate in the brain, spinal cord, eyes, lymph nodes and spleen. Prions have not been found in meat or muscle tissue. According to the researchers, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can be transmitted to humans. (more…)

Every deer hunter has heard stories of white-tailed bucks locking antlers while fighting during the rut, but few have actually seen locked-up bucks. Fewer hunters have the photos to prove it — not that some hunters question the authenticity of some of the seemingly outlandish deer hunting stories heard around a campfire. But for landowners and hunters engaged in deer management practices it’s always hard to see deer die of natural causes, especially quality bucks. But it happens before, during, after the rut, and throughout the year.

All of the deer population and habitat management in the world will not stop two bucks from trying to kill each other for breeding rights to a receptive doe. After all, bucks fight for the right to pass on their genes to the next generation of deer, and hopefully the buck with the best genes wins. And they typically do, because that’s the way nature works as a whole. But sometimes neither buck walks away. (more…)