Category: Deer Hunting

Question: “My hunting buddy and I were drawn for the December mule deer hunt at Caprock Canyons State Park in the Texas Panhandle. I have never been to this public hunting area, so could you offer some advice about where and how to hunt site place? We have been mule deer hunting in Texas before, but that was out in West Texas. From what I have heard, mule deer hunting at Caprock Canyons will be a bit different. Any information would be appreciated.”

Response: One of my good friends grew up in that area of the state and still hunts about 15 miles from Caprock Canyons State Park. We used to spend quite a bit of time deer hunting around that country. I have seen some monster mule deer bucks in the park. In that part of Texas, the mule deer almost always rut right after the General White-tailed Deer Season and well after the General Mule Deer Season, near first of January. Continue reading Deer Hunting at Caprock Canyons State Park

White-tailed deer hunting can be fun, but it’s also a lot of work. Hunters have tried for years to get the edge of big, mature bucks. Bait, calls and decoys can all be effective when used at the right times. However, one of the most-used methods hunters use for attracting bucks is the use of deer urine. But many states have started a deer urine ban. This is because some scientist believe that deer urine can carry chronic wasting disease (CWD). Vermont is the latest state to ban deer urine.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking hunters to help protect Vermont deer and moose by avoiding the use of urine-based attractant scents. The infectious agent of CWD, a fatal disease of deer, is a mutant protein or prion that research has shown can be passed in urine. This mutant protein can bind to soils and remain infectious for many years. Okay, so why the deer urine ban, you ask? Some captive deer facilities producing urine products for hunting have not complied with mandatory CWD disease prevention and monitoring regulations. Continue reading Deer Urine Ban: Deer Hunting Hit Below the Belt

Question: “I have a question regarding cull buck harvest for whitetail deer management. We are trying to improve our deer herd and are not sure about one of the bucks we have on a game camera. With the deer hunting season just around the corner we need another opinion. Would you shoot this whitetail buck as a cull or let him go at least another year?

My ideas on this deer are split right now. My question is, did his antler get hurt which is why his rack is off? Or is this genetically based and we should expect to see this buck with an oddball rack from here on out. We don’t have any other deer like him on our ranch. The buck does have a decent right side. We are a low fenced property in Cottle County, Texas.”

Answer: I think the question to answer with regards to your deer management outlook is, how does this buck compare to the rest of the bucks in his age group? Based on the deer surveys conducted on your property, what kind of buck age structure does your survey show? Do you need to be protecting this age class of bucks due to a small recruitment number for this age? Continue reading Deer Hunting: Cull Buck Harvest for Deer Management

Question: “First of all, to all the high fence owners or deer breeders, I know they mark their whitetail deer with ear tags. So lets say that a deer escaped the high fence or breeder pen and comes to a hunter’s feeder, a hunter looking through the scope notices that the animal has some kind of tag, can you legally shoot the deer if it comes on your property? Is shooting deer with ear tags in Texas legal?”

Answer: First, let me say that it is illegal to catch a wild deer in Texas to put a tag in its ear, or do anything else to it for that matter. So all legally ear tagged deer will belong to someone. The State approves and permits deer breeders and they will be the ones tagging deer. Whitetail deer breeders are required to tag every deer in their pens with a tag and unique number and tattoo that same number in the deer’s ear. Continue reading Deer Hunting: Shooting Deer with Ear Tags

White-tailed deer are the most coveted game animals in the United States, and Texas is no different. In fact, deer hunting is King in Texas! As long as our deer hunting heritage remains a part of our culture there will be a demand for trophy deer. This demand has led to the whitetail deer breeding industry, which has undoubtedly produced some impressive animals. The huge demand for big bucks has caused a marked increase in the business of producing and selling “trophy” deer, both to hunters and other breeders.

Deer really are a big business. The white-tailed deer breeding industry contributed more than $650 million toward the Texas economy last year. But Texas is not the only state where private landowners can breed and raise penned whitetail. Other states across the country produced proportionate monetary gains too. Whitetail deer farming can generate good income for those that have the capital to get into the business, and breeders keep cranking out bigger and bigger bucks. The photo below, from a Texas deer breeding operation, shows what looks to be the largest yearling whitetail buck ever produced. For anyone that is confused, that’s a 1 1/2 year old buck, a mere juvenile by traditional deer hunting standards. Continue reading Deer Breeding: Largest Yearling Whitetail Buck Ever?

Comment: I have a hunting lease in Mason County where my family and I go deer hunting. I don’t put out game cameras until mid-August as I do not want to have the deer spook from an IR or a flash or camera and break or damage a tine or main beam during summer antler growth. I have seen way to many bucks in the last 15 or so years when I started taking photos in June that would have a perfect rack, but then the next photo of him that night he would have a broken tine or even beam. For deer hunters in Texas that don’t know, June is the month were most bucks put on about 40 percent of their total antler growth for spring and summer, the year.

Response: Interesting account of your deer hunting experience in Texas. I’ve been hunting whitetail deer just about all of my life, but have never heard such a take on using game cameras during the summer to monitor antler growth in bucks. Most hunters use cameras heavily throughout the summer to monitor bucks on their property, but your experiences suggest that cameras may be causing bucks to spook, causing antler damage during the growth process. Continue reading Summer Antler Growth in Whitetail Bucks

Comment: In Vermont no one is allowed to feed whitetail deer, bait deer, or engage in any deer management activities. You can manage your open property to “help” deer, but there are no real incentives for farms or forested land to be used to improve a local deer herd. I think the Vermont Fish and Game could stand to hear a lot more about deer management, hunting and feeding deer, as they still believe that it causes Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

I have come to the conclusion that Federal and State Fish and Wildlife agencies are not interested in helping hunters. They walk the line between hunters who care about game and fish and non-game species and the far left nut-jobs that want to see anything traditional, including deer hunting, destroyed. Continue reading Deer Hunting in Vermont

Question: I live in northern Missouri and own 420 acres of land in an area known for good deer hunting and a good number of big whitetail bucks. We also have a lot of does. Instead of feeding corn or protein feeding or planting clover, I decided to make several small food plots and plant mostly soybeans because they are nutrient rich and they are high in protein. I also planted about 30% of my plots with smaller rape and about 10% buck wheat to see how that would would work out.

I am hoping that these food plots will help supplement the whitetail deer in my area of Missouri and improve overall antler quality and hold deer on the property. My question is whether or not this food plot mix is a good choice, and are there things that I could plant that are better for whitetail? We are really interested in deer management. Thanks for any advice. Continue reading Food Plots in Missouri

Question: My ranch is located in South Texas, it has a variety of habitat types and we use it primarily for whitetail deer hunting. The property is about 65% thick brushand about 35% semi-open grassland. We are in a drought so we cannot really do a prescribed burn on the property, so I am wondering if it would help or hurt the habitat and or deer if I went through and brush hogged all the rank, dead grass? When would be the right time of the year to do this deer management wise or for deer hunting? I know that if I mowed it and it rained the plants would all grow back much nicer. Also, if the open habitat should be manipulated through mowing, how often?

Response: From a whitetail deer management standpoint, early summer is the wrong time to be mowing grassy areas. There are a lot of fawns on the ground right now. Tall grass is fawning cover and if you want predators to have a field day, possibly removing the better part of an entire fawn crop, then mow it. However, I would recommend otherwise if you are interested in deer habitat improvement. Continue reading Habitat Management for Whitetail Deer Hunting

Question: I have been deer hunting for many years now and hunt on some good property. I have a question about feeding Record Rack protein pellets to white-tailed deer. I used it this last year on a lease, and no one else fed protein, but I thought that it was at least something better than corn. However, not one time while it was feeding RR did I see deer activity around the feeder.

I ended up switching back to corn when the feeder ran out and the deer were right back to hammering it. I know it takes time for whitetail deer to get used to something new, but the Record Rack pellets sat on the ground at two different deer leases, one in South Texas and the other in the Hill Country, and the deer would not eat it. I guess I will be sticking to 20% protein pellets and corn, but have you heard of such a thing with Record Rack? Continue reading Record Rack: Protein Feeding for Whitetail Deer