The photo of the buck looks like a very young deer and I am wondering if he will put on some more points with age and good nutrition? If he is just a large 5 point buck, will he fill out into an 8 point deer? Or is a good candidate to be culled? Again, this buck looks very young.”

Response: First, let me say that it is possible for deer herd improvement with selective buck harvest, but it will not work on every property. A very small property will have little impact on the whitetail deer herd at large, while a larger property can have more effect on a free range deer herd. One thing is for sure, even on a larger property herd improvement will not happen over night. It will take years of proper harvest, and even then there may be no noticeable changes if neighboring properties are not also involved in a similar deer management program.

But not all agree that culling bucks will improve the antler characteristics of a deer herd. That is, because yearling bucks disperse during early fall. Studies have shown that as many as 70 percent of yearling whitetail bucks will move five or more miles, and over 10 miles in more open country. This means that bucks are coming onto your property from the neighbors’ and vice versa. If you’ve been culling small bucks and letting those with more potential walk, yet the neighbors are shooting anything with antlers, they are the ones getting the most benefit from your whitetail management program.

Lastly, the buck that you refer to as a young is not in fact that young. Based on the photo, I would estimate this buck to be at least three years old. A three year old buck with five or six total antler points is a cull in just about everyone’s book. In fact, I’d recommend harvesting any two year old buck with seven or fewer antler points if you want deer herd improvement. A buck’s antlers must be judge based on his age. Estimating the age of deer is necessary for managing whitetail deer, but the skill of properly aging deer on the hoof is not learned over night.

Response: White-tailed deer are tough and can bounce back and heal from many types of broken bones. For what it’s worth, we have a 4 1/2 year old buck on a ranch that’s been missing part of a hind leg from just below the hock for over two years. The deer is in good body condition and is quite mobile, but the antler located on the opposite side from the bad leg is deformed. It is common that bucks with injuries to their hind legs have deformed antlers on the opposite sides.

In your case, I tend to think the broken rear leg will likely physically remove him from the rut this year. The buck will not be able to chase does, successfully fight with other bucks and will have a hard time mounting does with only one good leg. That being said, the desire to breed is strong and could ultimately do him in a fight or declining body condition. From a deer management perspective, this deer is a non-factor for breeding purposes this year.

If you have a low buck to doe ratio, then I would suggest keeping this guy out on the landscape, although as mentioned earlier there is a good chance he will not do much, if any, breeding this year. On the other hand, if you’ve got a good number of bucks then I would recommend harvesting the deer with the broken leg this coming whitetail hunting season to save your habitat, feed and winter food plots for maintaining the animals that are currently in good health. I’d recommend shooting him.

Answer: From my experience, this is the wrong way to think about buck harvest and it will not help the overall deer management program or the whitetail hunting on your property. At 3.5 years old, whitetail bucks have a lot of unseen potential left in them and are not really what most hunters would consider mature. Some bucks will reach the 130 inch mark at 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 years old, or maybe even older; maybe never.

Basing whitetail buck harvest by score is not a good idea to me either. If a buck is 5.5 years old and is a 130 inch, 8 point deer, then that is a good animal to take. However, a buck that is 5.5+ year old is always a good animal to harvest regardless of antler score. You would not believe the number of times I have heard hunters tell me that they saw 5.5 and 6.5 year old bucks that they did not shoot because they had poor antlers. I always respond:

“The first reason you should have shot those bucks because they were old. The second reason is because they had poor antlers. These are the bucks you DO NOT want on your property breeding does. A strategy that emphasizes shooting only the best bucks in WRONG! Leaving the poorest bucks in is WRONG!”

However, if a 130 inch, 10 point buck is 3.5 years old then he probably has some growing to do and alot of unseen antler potential. Shooting this buck while leaving older, lower scoring bucks walking around will not be a productive deer management strategy and will actually decrease deer quality over time. Using the wrong strategy year after year only compounds and worsens the problem.

In short, the poorest bucks on your place may never reach 130 inches of antler growth. Bucks should be culled at all age classes based on both age and antler quality. In your case, I would recommend shooting all bucks that are 3.5+ years old with 9 points or less. Bucks with 10+ points should not be harvested until they are at least 5.5 years old. This buck harvest strategy will improve your whitetail hunting, especially when combined with proper habitat management and some supplemental feeding.

Answer: Whitetail are very prolific animals so twins are quite common. The number of fawns that a doe brings to term depends on the age of the doe and her body condition of her prior to breeding and during gestation. With regards to twins always being 1 buck and 1 doe, that is not always the case. I have seen twins that are the same sex, either both bucks or both does, as much as split I do split sexes.

Furthermore, triplet fawns can occur from time to time, and more often than most hunters think. Most does will have a single fawn their first time out of the gate, and then have twins from there on out as long as they are in good body condition and have the food resources for both themselves and gestation. Even though many does will have twins they may not always raise both if habitat/food is in limited supply.

We are still shooting does under our deer management program right now and I recently harvested a 7 month old doe fawn and she was already bred and carrying triplets! That would be a lot for a first time mother, so I doubt any of them would have survived even had she given birth to them all. I have also found fawn triplets in does in the past after harvest. I always like to check late season does to see if they had been bred. You can even determine when the deer rut took place based on fawn fetus size.

The deer feeders go off in the morning and evening and no deer come in before dark. It seems they are eating at night. I guess I’m going to have to put my cameras back out and see what’s going on out there. We have only a handful of oak trees (Live oak and Texas oak) on our 600 acre ranch. I know the deer are there because we see their tracks everywhere, but it has been a very odd year. Any thoughts on why whitetail hunting has been tough in Montague County?

Answer: Good question, but hopefully you will find it somewhat comforting that you were not alone this past deer hunting season. As it turns out, hunters all around the state were having trouble finding deer, especially bucks. So Montague County was not the only piece of real estate where the deer were laying low.

It seems the great habitat conditions allowed deer to make it most, if not all, of the season without having to visit deer feeders. And many hunters said that when deer did come tot the feeders, their game camera photos let them know that they were visiting at night. Let’s face it, deer feeders are great for hunting whitetail deer when the deer are hungry, but the truth of the matter is that they prefer natural plants more than corn.

In short, blame the abundance of food on the lack of deer movement. I know you do not have many oak trees, but the falls rains across Texas allowed an abundance of forbs. In addition, whitetail deer were in great shape throughout the year, except in very late summer. The spring was amazing with rainfall allowing deer to really pack it on. Then it rained more in the fall. Deer just did not have to move until very late in the season thanks to great habitat. And by the time it’s late in the season, deer are tough to hunt anyway. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I suspect whitetail hunting will be outstanding next year due to the lack of harvest this season.

Answer: Well, I have never hunted are Ballinger or Coleman County in general, but I know this area produces a lot of whitetail deer. I have a friend that knows a guy who has a deer lease of about 2000 acres southeast of Ballinger. They are a low fence property and manage the deer herd and have had good results. I have heard that they plant many food plots and feed a good amount of protein to get the most out of the bucks.

Apparently, they do not have any feral hogs on the lease, but many serious deer hunters prefer to keep in that way. The area, from what I have been told, holds a good number of whitetail deer, dove, turkey, quail, varmints, and everything else. The county as a whole is very underdeveloped, and that is exactly what you want when looking for a variety of wildlife species. It sounds like a great area to hunt, and I know that this big Coleman County buck was harvested this year. Good luck to you.

Answer: Antler traps are a great way to get your hands on some easy deer sheds. A lot of deer hunters will refer to these devices as antler traps or shed antler traps, but they are talking about the same thing. The most common type of rack trap consists of bait, usually corn, and either netwire or some type of elastic cord that a buck gets his antlers caught in while feeding.

A simple antler trap can be fashioned from a little hog wire or chicken wire and post or rebar to help entangle the sheds. Stake the hog wire in the shape of 3 or 4 tight “V” shapes. Pour corn or other bait in the very back of the “V” so that bucks have to push their horns into the wire to reach the bait. If the antlers are ready to drop, they’ll come right off when they hang up in the wire. Also, make sure to secure the wire loosely so that in the event that the antlers are not ready to drop the buck will not become completely trapped.

With the end of the whitetail deer breeding season coming to an end, it’s a good time to learn how to make an antler trap. This is because a buck’s testosterone levels fall off after breeding, resulting in his antlers also falling off. This varies depending on location, but usually occurs within about 2 months after the peak rut activity for an area. Deer sheds become increasingly “abundant” as late winter approaches. By the time it’s very early spring whitetail deer hunting will have been long over, but shed hunting is still good!

Question: I went whitetail deer hunting the opening weekend of bow season and although I thought I was set up well, almost every deer that I saw was acting spooky. The only thing I can think of that would be bothering them is human scent. That got me wondering about scent absorption clothing. Do you think this would be a good investment and would it help my whitetail hunting?

Answer: Scent absorption clothing has become all the rage in the bowhunting community, but it does not typically work as well as it says. It does work, to some degree, but it is not foolproof by any means. All of the scent absorption hunting cloths use carbon, which is what is supposed to absorb human scent and other odors. However, the carbon does not work forever and must be maintained. The manufacturers claim the carbon can be reactivated in your dryer, but most dryers do not get hot enough to do that.

The only thing that I’ve had work for scent control are scent killing sprays and hunting clothes with silver it them. Silver is not conducive for bacteria growth, which can come from human skin, and they smell bad. If you’ve got bacteria growth in your cloths, then deer will pick you up right away. I’ve used a lot of different scent eliminating products, but I’ve been most impressed with Dead Down Wind.

The best advice I can give you for scent control before heading out whitetail hunting is to use unscented shampoo, soap and deodorant. Also, wash clothes in unscented detergents and let them air dry and then keep them outside. You can even cover them with natural plants from your area. I do not like to put them in plastic bags because I feel the bags can trap moisture, and moisture means bacteria.

My last hunting tip for scent control is to hunt with the wind in your favor. Set your blind up so that you have the biggest advantage possible… the wind in your face, and stay out of it unless conditions are right. In short, the best scent control is using the wind properly. Any whitetail hunting, especially bowhunting, under the wrong conditions will let deer know something is up and mature bucks will stay away from some time if they even think something is different. Hope all this helps you on your next hunting trip!

Question: When out whitetail deer hunting, whenever I think the rut is close or on, when a doe steps out I don’t even think of shooting her… hoping that a nice buck may be trailing her. I always keep and eye out for that rutting buck, even 45 minutes after first seeing the doe. In your hunting experience, what is the furthest (time wise) you’ve seen a buck trailing behind a doe? Just curious because I’d like to get some meat in the freezer, but I’ve also seen some rutting activity.

Answer: In all my years of whitetail deer hunting, most rutting bucks will be right the doe, or at least within one minute of her. Only on a few occasions have I seen bucks come much later that I thought were on the doe’s trail. Of course, these bucks could have simply been walking the same trail, but I don’t think so.

One factor that can effect chasing behavior in deer is the buck to doe ratio. When the buck to doe ratio is close (1:1), does that come into heat will have bucks right on top of her. However, if there are many more does than bucks, this may not always be the case. In this instance, then you are more likely see bucks that would be following further behind because they may be in search of another doe after covering the previous one. But buck to doe ratio aside, if you are deer hunting during the rut then anything can happen!

Last year, the land was mowed a lot and the grass never got over knee high. This year has been we and he never mowed and now it is almost 6 foot high. I think the grass in Johnson Grass, but I am not 100% on this. I mowed some paths for me to walk back to the blind as well as the area around the feeder, but the rest is tall grass. Will the taller grass help or hurt my whitetail deer hunting? I am not sure if it will hurt the hunting or if the deer will feel even more comfortable with the extra cover. What do you think?

Answer: Tall grass is not a problem for deer and it should not impact your whitetail hunting either. Deer need habitat that provide screening cover, whether that be brush or grass. In this case, the tall grass will likely keep more deer in your area than in the past and make for even better deer hunting than last year.

The best thing about your hunting spot is that you have a good travel corridor for deer, the creek. Whether you have tall grass or not really does not matter because deer do not leave an area. The deer use the creek to travel and feed along in past years and they will use it again this year, too, regardless of what is around it.

I think you are in store for a good year of whitetail deer hunting. Let me know how it goes and good luck!