Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

By now most pumpkins have long passed the pumpkin pie stage.  Most are sitting on porches or in back yards where they will eventually rot and their nourishment dissolve into the soil.  Pumpkins make great deer food in late season and you can use it in a number of ways.  First, your local deer may not know what they are and typically you should break them open as in the picture above.  This allows the scent of the fruit to travel farther and be of greater allure.

Pumpkins are Bait so Don’t Break the Law

Feeding deer with pumpkins is a great idea but be mindful of local laws.  Baiting with apples, corn, and pumpkins is legal in Maryland but not so just 10 miles away in Pennsylvania.  I’ve been experimenting with pumpkins as “camera bait” and using their nutrients to access how many big bucks survived in the area of my cameras.  Once deer learn that these orange object keep popping up like mushrooms, they will return.  Expect big bucks at this time of the year to only feed in darkness due to recent hunting pressure.  It’s likely that your neighbors have a batch sitting around so don’t wait too long before asking for them.

Ideal for Late Season Trail Cameras

I get a glimpse of local deer activity each day through my digital trail cameras.  Prior to the opening of gun season, bucks were moving in daylight but after the guns began to crack, they are only active well into the night.  I expect as hunting pressure passes that they will become active in daylight and I’m using a pumpkin patch to keep tabs on which deer survived and their activities.  This isn’t a new idea as this video suggests.

Founded in 1982, Whitetails Unlimited is a national nonprofit conservation organization that has remained true to its mission and has made great strides in the field of conservation. WU has gained the reputation of being the nation’s premier organization dedicating our resources to the betterment of the white-tailed deer and its environment.

Hunters and Deer Benefit

If you love deer hunting, you must embrace deer conservation and no other organization does more for our favorite big game animal than Whitetails Unlimited.  Through an extensive network of hunter banquets, WU raises millions of dollars for wildlife conservation and the support of our national heritage of hunting.  Diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), also called blue tongue, threaten to dramatically reduce deer numbers across the USA. If you’ve found the rack and bones of bucks you’ve been growing for years, you know the pain of these dramatic deer loses.  By working together through organizations like WU we can contain, control, and hopefully eventually eliminate these deadly curses to the whitetail population.

Membership: The Perfect Holiday Gift

Would you like to help instill a love for deer hunting in a child or grandchild?  Maybe he or she lives far away and opening day would be glorious with a youngster by your side.  A Youth Membership is the perfect gift. This category of membership is for anyone 15-years and younger. They will receive a member card, decal, as well as a one-year subscription to the quarterly Whitetails Unlimited Magazine.
The annual dues are $10. Join/Renew Now

The same goes for an adult son or daughter.  Why not gift them a meaningful membership they will embrace year round. As a member you will receive a member card, decal, choice of a WTU Cap or WTU Knife, as well as a one-year subscription to the quarterly Whitetails Unlimited Magazine.

The annual dues are $28. Join/Renew Now

Hunting deer in Wisconsin during the cold Winter days takes stamina as well as warm clothing. In this video Ben Schlueter and his father, Jeff, hunt bucks together.

Bowhunters need three types of targets to maximize their chances for success.  Unfortunately, (Or fortunately) the speed of today’s faster compounds and crossbows make traditional targets obsolete.  Archers need a bag-style target designed for target points, a foam target to test broadheads, and a “life-like” 3-D target to maximize arrow placement.  Especially, if you are new to archery, your brain will be fried when that big deer steps into an opening and you need to depend on muscle memory to deliver a lethal shot.

2D and 3D

The Morrell Side-by-Side is one of my favorite targets because I can shoot field points and broadheads into it and it has life-size images of a wild turkey and the kill zone of a whitetail deer.  The crossbows I test launch at speeds usually between 400 and 500 fps.  When arrows fly that fast, the friction created inside the target is often enough to melt foam which makes arrows very difficult to removed.  With very fast bows, it’s best to lubricate the shaft with Pam or other lubricant before shooting.  Foam targets are designed for broadheads and the cutting edges of the head help prevent the melting effect.  The animal imprints on the face of the target provide extra confidence at the moment of truth.  After practicing, you will readily aim at the kill zone of the target which will transfer into a lethal hit at the moment of truth.

Bags are Best

For frequent or daily practice, a bag target is difficult to beat.  Not only do today’s premium broadhead targets stop arrows up to 500 fps, but arrows are easily removed often with just a two-finger grip.  Originally, bag targets were hung on an aluminum frame, and I still have one that has lasted for 15 years.  Newer versions are flat on the bottom and designed to absorb the impact of today’s fast arrows.  These targets are effective, yet are very heavy, the only way to absorb kinetic energies that are off the chart.  The fastest crossbows create a kinetic energy of nearly 250 ft. lbs., that’s three times the minimum required for hunting Cape buffalo with a bow in Africa.  The momentum of such fast arrows is so great that I have had arrows stop in the target, yet the 150-grain field point pulls out of the shaft and completely through the target.

Make at Least One Mobile-

A few years ago, I hunted elk in Idaho with a Barnett Hyper Ghost crossbow that shot a slender arrow that I thought would penetrate better than standard crossbows shafts.  Idaho required a non-magnifying sight, so I opted for a Burris Fast Fire red dot enabling the bow to shoot nearly point-of-aim at 40 yards.  Each evening after returning from a punishing day in the mountains, I fired a practice shot to make sure my sight was dead on and took the above photo of a 20 yards off-hand shot.  The beauty of the Morrell High Roller target is its ability to stop a very fast arrow and its portability.  It fits easily in the back of a vehicle or UTV and was light enough to move into real-life practice situations like between trees or through a brush-shrouded window.  The portability is ideal for practicing steep up-hill or down-hills shots, a frequent circumstance when hunting in the West.

Why Multiple Targets?

Buying multiple targets can get pricy, yet the more you practice, the better you will shoot and the more likely you are to score.  The elk shown above was taken at a range greater than 50 yards, yet I knew the ballistics of the arrow and had every confidence in the shot.  I had one opportunity and made the most of it.  Multiple targets allow you to practice frequently with a bag target.  You can practice angles, shooting offhand, and with a rest.  More importantly, having a good foam target allows you to make sure that your broadheads fly true.  You can experiment with differing grain weights to see how mass affects arrow drop.  A quality foam target will have little impact on broadhead sharpness with a single test and knowing that you arrow will hit exactly where you aim is a huge confidence builder.  Targets like these from Morrell are sold in nearly all hunting supply stores and can be found online at www.MorrellTargets.comhttps://MorrellTargets.com

Young hunters need to be motivated, enticed, and most of all INCLUDED.  Thanksgiving is the most family-oriented holiday of the year and there is no better time to introduce a youngster to outdoor hunting adventure than now.  My daughter and three grandsons annually visit over the Thanksgiving holidays and the “middle boy” was bucking to take his first deer, so he flew in three days ahead of his family.

Gearing For Success

Maryland opens its general firearms season the Saturday after Thanksgiving day and the week prior to the holiday usually finds the deer woods strangely vacant as hunters switch from archery to centerfire gear.  This has always been one of my favorite times to hunt since the rut is winding down and there are plenty of antlered deer to hunt.  K.I.S.S. is the formula for youth hunting- Keep It Simple Silly.  All three of my grandsons have practiced with an Excalibur AXE 340 crossbow topped with a Burris FastFire IV red-dot scope.  Lately, I’ve added a Final Rest tripod that allows a young hunter to concentrate on aiming and takes some of the wiggles out of the quest.

Accommodate their Attention Span

Hunting conditions can be brutal, but that’s not the best way to introduce young hunters.  Kids are constantly hungry and crave motion instead of stoic stillness.  I asked a friend if we could hunt his small farm which had a partially constructed ground blind.  This allowed us to pack plenty of warm clothes and all of our gear to make the waiting game more tolerable.

The first two hours were typical November weather- cold, blustery, and spitting rain.  I noticed that his comfort level was waning and suggested we make a quick exit for some hot chocolate and a hot sandwich.  Luckily, a Burger King was just around the corner and we were gone about 20 minutes.

Grim Reaper Broadheads are 100% made in the USA and built by Jay Liechty on his machines and under his watchful eye.  Who built your broadhead? Were they made with slave labor or from technology stolen from American companies? Many Americans want to distance themselves from Chinese products and choosing Grim Reapers is an easy and effective choice.  Each make and model of broadhead is designed and extensively tested by Leichty, assuring they are reliable and incredibly lethal.

A Savvy and Innovative Hunter

Years ago, I met Jay Liechty on an early season antelope hunt in Montana.  After a long day of flying and driving, I turned in early and on the way to my bunkhouse passed an open garage where Liechty was building an angus cow decoy out of scrap material he found there.  “It’s going to be big enough for two people,” he said as I asked what he was building.  The next morning, I headed to breakfast and found the acetylene torch still sparking as Liechty had worked the entire night.  “I’ll have it finished by the afternoon hunt,” he said as I passed by.  The next day a large black angus “cow” with four camouflaged legs and hunting boots for hooves got Leichty close enough to outsmart a wily Big Sky pronghorn. He is also an avid elk hunter as the picture below indicates, although not with an angus decoy.

Building a Better Broadhead

Many broadhead brands are made in China where the production process meets many challenges.  Language is the primary obstacle and it’s not uncommon for products to be built sloppily or not work because the American buyer and the Chinese production company couldn’t communicate effectively.

I met a seller of inflatable turkey decoys at the SHOT Show who told me, “I had to fire six artists, before they (The Chinese) could get it right,” he lamented.  Honestly, it still wasn’t right.  What type of steel and aluminum go into the product.  How sharp are they? Leichty controls all of these details, personally.

A Thriving Company in Utah

Grim Reaper is a family-owned company, not some conglomerate that is bought and sold on Wall Street.  Amy, Jay’s wife handles most of the business affairs like marketing, ordering raw materials, and paying bills.  There is a face and a family behind every pack of Grim Reaper Broadheads, and they make their money the old-fashioned way- earning it through hard work and producing a quality product.

Wilderness Athlete is now offering The 28-Day Reboot. This system is formulated with the hunter who needs to shed a few pounds in mind. The system comes with some of Wilderness Athletes most popular nutritional products including Energy and Focus, Hydrate and Recover and Meal Replacement. It comes with a variety of supplements including a Multi-Vitamin, Omega-3 Fish Oil and Lean Life.

The program comes with a guide for daily workouts, a meal plan and a guide & tracker to help those trying to lose weight, get in shape, and stay on track.

The daily workout program comes with a uniquely designed program to help hunters quickly burn fat and build muscle. The program comes with a gym and home routine.

Bowhunters in the Midwest and out East often struggle getting in shape for an elk or sheep hunt. The 28-day Reboot will give them the guidance and nutrition they need to reach their goals in time for their hunt.
The 28-day Reboot comes with the following Wilderness Athlete Products:

Meal Replacement
Energy & Focus
Hydrate & Recover
Green Infusion
Probiotic
Lean Life
Omega-3 Fish Oil
Multi-vitamin
To learn more about Wilderness Athlete nutritional products, visit www.wildernessathlete.com

Late season big buck hotspots are easy to locate if you know what to look for. Lots of sign, big deer numbers and shrinking amounts of quality late season deer habitat create predictable private and public land deer hunting. Here is how to find whitetails to hunt when the conditions turn cold.

  Whitetail Habitat Solutions

“Scent Elimination” products have been around for decades.  Over the years, I have hunted with Scentlok, ScentBlocker, and other products that are designed to eliminate human scent. Sprays and washes reduce scent on clothes and gear, but the scent game must be seen as a total program.  You can have the best scent reduction program in the world, yet if you stop to buy gas on the way to your stand, all your efforts are in vain.

The Ozone Factor

The advent of the ozone generator has greatly changed the scent elimination process.  Ozone doesn’t cover or contain scent, it destroys it.  Many hunters use Ozonics generators that are designed to purify the human scent stream of odor.  These are ideal for ground blinds and enclosed structures and can be effective from a tree stand, especially if you have a consistent and moderate wind flow which keeps the human scent stream aligned with the Ozonics unit.

Scent Crusher- How It Works

Rather than creating a continuous stream of ozone, the Scent Crusher program works by using a small ozone generator to pump ozone into a containing bag the size of a medium duffle.  The beauty of this program is the ability to place most of your gear, possibly all of your gear if you shoot a short bow or crossbow inside the bag.  Since we handle our bows and arrows frequently, they are contaminated with human scent, an often overlooked part of scent elimination.  After securing all of your gear inside the bag, turn on the generator in units of five-minutes up to half an hour.  I usually run the unit once the night before hunting and once again before I leave in the morning.

The Scent that Doesn’t Smell

When you open the bag, you will a very noticeable smell of ozone.  Even when you dress, you will smell the odor which I’m sure animals can as well.  To deer this must seem like “white noise” and does not alarm them.  Showering with hunter’s soap prior to the hunt is always a good idea and will prolong the duration of the ozone treatment.

Was I Invisible?

On a recent hunt in South Dakota, I maxed out in airline weight and only had room for the Scent Crusher generator.  The night before hunting I put all of my gear in a large suitcase and ran the generator for an hour.  After a quick shower, I put the suitcase in the back of my SUV and dressed in the field, a short walk from my hunting spot.  This is my favorite “stand” in the country, even though I sit on the ground against a tree.  About an hour after daylight, I spotted a doe that walked toward me and bedded down at five yards.  At first, I wondered if I had died.  This just doesn’t happen!  The doe never looked at me but lay on the ground for several minutes until a small buck came following its trail.  The doe left and the buck passed within five yards with narry a glance.  Next, I saw movement as a female bobcat and kitten passed by at 15 yards.  The cat crawled up a log, searched the area and then went on her way without noticing me.  Twenty minutes later a mature buck followed a nearby trail, and I shot it at eight steps.

Robert Hoague, Webmaster of Bowhunting.net

Over the years I’ve met lots of deerhunters who had plenty of advice and information. And as time passed I saw things happening in the deer woods that were different than I’d heard about. And, noticing that, I started playing off what I saw and learned, more often than what I’d been told or read.

In the mid 80’s I felt I’d put things together pretty good and was a knowledgeable deer hunter (that hunted exclusively with my bow and arrow). Then, in 1987 I made a casual decision that turned out to be pivotal for what I knew about deer and deerhunting with a bow. I decided to bowhunt for the next 3 years for all of October, November and December. Every day.

I learned a lot about deer and their behavior, but the thing that struck me most was that much of the information hunters had shared with me, to help me out, was kind of like “old wives tales” sort of things. Their info was mostly incomplete snap-shots of somrthing they saw deer doing. And, also, so was much of what I had believed before hunting the first entire season.

So, to sum it up, after hunting deer every day for 3 months, for 3 years, I was reading out of a very different book of deer  knowledge. And what I’m gonna talk about today is my discovery of the 2nd rut.

Do you use Deer Dcoys?

Using Der Decoys began after the first companies printed full sized deer pictures on paper targets. And they made a big jump when full-sized 3D targets came along. Today’s video will bring you up to dats on deer decoys.

Five years ago the Whitetail World received the news of a new Official World Record. On November 2, 2018 , Luke Brewster sent a Grim Reaper broadhead through the biggest buck ever killed by any weapon in America. The buck is known ‘The Mufasa Buck’, and was aged at 7 1/2 years old and netted 327 7/8 inches by official scorers of P&Y and B&C record keeping.

Jay Liechty, the President of Grim Reaper Broadheads met Luke Brewster at the annual Archery Trade Show and sat down with them to bring us a little of this amazing story.

New Worlds Record Brewster Buck Interview

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Join Grim Reaper Pro Staffer Ryan Boyd as he takes on a Giant crop eating Wild Boar Hog on video and later enjoys a back strap feast!

Join Grim Reaper Broadheads Pro Staffer Ryan Boyd as he Bowhunts A Huge Wild Hog.

Daytime whitetail buck scrape activity is on the increase right now. Justin Hoffman Outdoors shares his outstanding Buck Activity fro 7 Game Camerasw. Take a look at Wide Guy and Hank The Tank will get your attention. CLICK BELOW TO VIEW BUCKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0etcJy3AGg

   Justin Hoffman Outdoors

(By Ryan Kirby) https://ryankirby.com/pages/score
Artist Ryan Kirby has spent his entire career studying the external anatomy of the deer he paints.

As a bowhunter, Ryan studyied the internal anatomy of the deer. He states, “It’s crucial to understand the anatomy of a white-tailed deer to make clean shots and quick recoveries.”

In ‘The Anatomy & Physiology of the White-tailed Buck,’ Ryan spent month’s researching and drawing the finer points of deer anatomy to give the hunter a better look at what’s inside of North America’s most popular big-game animal.

This video will help you this fall. THE ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF THE WHITE-TAILED BUCK PRINT https://ryankirby.com/products/the-an… To purchase prints visit: https://ryankirby.com/ The Art of Hunting TM Copyright Ryan Kirby Art & Illustration LLC

Katlyn Maus has great luck and Self Films her successful mature doe  bowhunt.

My Merch – https://kaitlynmausoutdoors.square.site/ Maps – https://www.onxmaps.com/ -Use code KMO for 20% off online Camo – https://www.proishunting.com/ -Use code KM20 for 20% off gear Tree Stand Gear – https://huntriversedge.com/ -Use code Kaitlyn15 for 15% off online Archery Gear – https://www.korbinsarchery.com/ Saddle Gear – https://tethrdnation.com/ Optics – https://www.bushnell.com/ Hunting Blinds & Chairs – https://www.barronettblinds.com/ Broadheads – https://www.rekbroadheads.com/

Dawn, it was another warm morning when I settled into my treestand  for a sunrise set.

November 2, pre-rut much hotter than normal. The breeze was flat as glass and humidity hung thick throughout the timber canopy. Adding insults to my poor odds, the full moon had yet to set so with all the looming factors, I realized conditions weren’t ideal for killing an old whitetail, but when are they?

Over the years I’ve found that Whitetail reproduction occurs despite the eliminates at hand and thus being in the woods despite bad conditions can sometimes leave my hands bloody. So I loaded an arrow tipped with a deadly Grim Reaper Broadhead and put my bow on the hook then nestled myself in for a long mornings wait.

I was waiting on the edge of a thick clear cut not more than a three acre patch of new growth within a stand of mature white oaks. A good hiding place for a doe who may be avoiding Big Luey, I figured. I as well as Big Luey knows these things and so the ground work was laid for a simple plan that over the years has put me within bow range of many a big bruisers who were cruising for a doe in heat.

A buck’s sense of smell is his utmost supreme means of defense and likewise a tool to locate and identify receptive females. After a lifetime of hunting deer I have witnessed numerous bucks using the same courting ritual time after time. They cruise the down wind edge of bedding cover scenting the thermals for does in hiding. Their acute sense of smell affords them a thorough look into heavy cover without ever having to enter the lair. Until bingo, he smells her.

Study #1: The Comanche Ranch Study

Donnie Draeger, a wildlife biologist at the Comanche Ranch, led a Scientific Study, along with co-researchers from the ranch, CKWRI and Mississippi State University. From 2006 to 2015, the scientists used helicopters to capture bucks on three separate treatment areas – a 3,500-acre “intensive” culling site, an 18,000-acre “moderate” culling site, and a 5,000-acre control with no culling. They captured 3,332 unique bucks and culled 1,296 of them.

7 Years Later

After seven years of culling, no evidence emerged of successful genetic improvement. I won’t repeat the details of the findings because you can read my original reporting on this study here. But keep this in mind as you read on: During the study, Donnie noted 10- to 15-inch jumps in average antler size across all three sites in years with good rainfall, emphasizing the effectiveness of habitat quality and nutrition in a study that showed culling was ineffective.

Study #2: The Faith Ranch Study

The first two studies used culling of existing bucks within the natural breeding ecology of wild whitetails. The third study dispensed with culling and used more artificial techniques to control who breeds who in an attempt to influence future antler quality. The methods used are legal practices in Texas that private landowners can conduct using Deer Management Program permits (DMP). According to Texas Parks & Wildlife, DMP “…authorizes owners of high-fenced properties to temporarily detain white-tailed deer in breeding pens located on the property for the purpose of natural breeding.”

In 2007, the Faith Ranch set up two, 1,100-acre, high-fence enclosures known as the West Yana Pasture and the East Yana Pasture. West Yana included two 5-acre DMP breeding pens within the larger enclosure. West Yana was emptied of deer, while local deer enclosed in East Yana were allowed to stay. Then, helicopters captured deer on a neighboring area, and they were stocked into West Yana’s 5-acre DMP pens.

In one West Yana DMP pen, they placed 15 does and a 176-inch (gross) buck. In the other, 15 does and a 223-inch non-typical buck. These two bucks were local champions – and the envy of whitetail bucks everywhere. They each did their duty with their 15 does in their 5-acre DMP enclosure, and all resulting fawns were captured, tagged, weighed, sexed and sampled for DNA. Then bucks, does and fawns were all released into the surrounding West Yana Pasture. The next year, two more large bucks were captured from outside and placed in the DMPs with a group of does caught within West Yana. This process repeated annually.

Chef John from N.E. England Brings his recipee for Scotch Pies. It’s perfect for Venison.

   Chef John Kirkwood

Shotgun Red returns with his easy, fast recipe for cooking up a Venison Pot Pie. You’ll be a big hit in your Deer Camp this year.