Non-typical Stuff | Deer Hunting & Management

Interesting Facts About White-tailed Deer

For those that work close-hand to better manage deer and deer habitat, we are always learning how we can improve the conditions of both. To better understand how we can enhance available deer habitat, deer nutrition, and the health of a deer herd, any information we can gather about deer help the cause. Here are some additonal facts you may not know:

1. White-tailed deer establish a home-range territory and will not leave it! It has been documented that deer will starve rather than leave their territory. Moral of the story — maintain adequate nutrition!

2. Wild white-tailed have been known to live at least to 11-years in the wild, but I suspect a very small percentage live even longer. Now those are mature deer!

3. With optimal habitat conditions, deer populations can double in size annually! Without regulated hunting and proper harvest management, deer will destroy wildlife habitat and suffer tremendous population die-offs.

4. If you took 2 white-tailed deer in the absence of predators, in just 7-years those two animals alone can produce a herd of up to 35 animals! I wish my savings increased at that rate.

5. In areas of overpopulation, deer cause an over-browsing affect we call a “browse line.” You do not want a browse line on your ranch! After a browse line is created, it takes years under a low deer density for browse plants to re-establish and recover.

White-tailed Deer Facts 2

White-tailed deer are one of the most widely studied wildlife species in the US. As a result, there are more known facts about whitetail than any other species, game or non-game. For example, researchers have already identified at least 25+ subspecies of white-tailed deer spanning from coast to coast! Although most are very similar, each is somewhat different in terms of physical characteristics and in behavior.

Below are 5 facts about the amazing white-tailed deer:

1. Well-nourished white-tailed bucks begin growing new antlers each April. The timing regarding new antler growth can vary with an individual buck’s body condition, but is influenced by environmental conditions. Antlers can grow more than 1/2″ per day.

2. When temperatures drop to single digits (farenheit), whitetail deer are often more nocturnal and also tend to move during the mid-day hours.

3. The large ears of white-tailed deer can rotate 180 degrees and pick up high-frequency sounds very well.

4. The entire molting process for whitetails is slow and gradual, usually taking several months to complete. From early spring to late summer, a deer’s coat transforms from a dense grey pelage (fur) to a thin but deeply-colored auburn.

5. However, when hunting in early fall, hunters will notice that the deer’s coat has changed from reddish to grey. This fall color change occurs much more rapidly, often within only one to two weeks!

Want more information? Check out these addtional white-tailed deer facts.

Buck Shot By Bowhunter While Locked Up

We’ve all heard instances were two white-tailed bucks were found locked-up during a fight and found dead, but most of us are not lucky (or unlucky) enough to stumble across such an occurence. However, in the hunting video above, a bowhunter (and recruited camera man) finds two nice whitetail bucks tangled together.

In the video, keep an eye on the buck on the left. After the camera zooms in, you can see the arrow hit the buck directly in the lungs and that gets the deer going again. The video ends as the struggling stops, so not sure how what happens after that.

Find a Hunting Lease in Texas

If you hunt deer then you are always looking for a new place to hang a stand, a new place to setup a trail camera and see what happens.

If you are looking to find a place to hunt white-tailed deer in Texas, then this may be just what you are looking for! The following places are provided as sources of hunting leases and offer hunting for white-tailed bucks, management buck hunts, doe hunts, turkey, and some even hogs and migratory bird hunting.

Check ’em out!

Hunting Lease
Lease Hunter
Texas Hunting Lease
Deer Texas
High Tech Redneck
Texas Lease Connection
Hunter’s Domain
Wild Goose
Magnum Guide Service
Warner Hunting Leases
Texas Outdoorsman

White-tailed Deer Hunting – Know Their Senses

White-tailed deer populations span from from the Atlantic to the pacific, north into Canada, and as far south as Peru. In every area white-tailed deer live, something is out to get them. Hunters will hunt and predators must eat, but deer have adapted to the endless pursuit of predators, including humans, and here is how.

Whitetail deer are mostly active at dusk and dawn (crepuscular) and will often feed at night, becoming totally nocturanal. This may be an adaptation to the habits of man because humans, of all animals, rely most heavily on sight to find deer. Deer, especially mature bucks, go nocturnal counter our limitations.

Sight, however, is not the whitetail’s keenest sense. Deer often can not distinguish between a motionless object and its background, but deer are quick to respond at the slightest movement. Just a twitch is enough to warn a deer that something is not quite right and set the animal on high alert. Deer hunters know this well.

If a deer is suspicious, but there is no movement, the deer will approach and stomp with its front leg in an attempt to make the out-of-place “thing” move. Without a reaction, a curious and smart white-tailed deer may also call into duty their sharpest sense – smell. A deer may circle downwind and analyze the wind with its nose in an attempt to detect danger. If things don’t smell right… goodbye!

As good as their senses are to sight and sound, there is no denying that a deer’s keen sense of hearing is their most effective weapon to ward off would-be predators and hopeful hunters. This is why hunting buck scrapes and using doe urine can be highly effective when used properly. Their ears are designed to collect sound waves, the eyes to collect colors, and their nose to smell danger. They all add up to one heck of a crafty white-tailed deer!