Whitetail hunters sometimes encounter deer with warts or lumps on the skin. These bumps do not hurt the deer since they are usually non-cancerous tumors called either fibromas or papillomas. In both cases, the warts or tumors are caused by viruses. The difference between the two is that fibromas grow either from the skin or from the layer beneath, while papillomas grow only from the skin.

To a hunter, both lumps will look dark-colored and hard to the touch. These external warts generally do not cause problems for afflicted animal, but they are not pretty to look at. Deer hunters often think the meat is inedible because of these tumors, but that is not the case. Since lumps are usually found only in the skin, not in the muscles, there is generally no problem.

However, there could be tumors located inside a deer’s body, such as on it’s organs, that could be cancerous and the venison should be discarded. While whitetail hunting, do not be overly alarmed if you come across an animal with external tumors because they are not uncommon.

In the end, for those landowners and hunters that are serious about managing deer populations, we should want to create the best whitetail habitat. For this is where quality hunting opportunities are literally born. The real secret that I’ve determined when looking at properties where individuals want to improve the deer herd is finding and enhancing the most limited habitat element. It’s easy to concentrate on one single facet of habitat and provide a whole lot of one thing, but they need it all!

Although food plots have their place in the whitetail hunting world, we can’t destroy needed habitat just to plant food. For the most part, I believe the whitetail herd found in America is now better fed than ever. In some cases, though, some have planted food plots with foods that deer won’t consume. A landowner may have good intentions, but sometimes enthusiasm must be anchored with a little research.

There are many reasons why food plots are planted, but the main reason is sometimes overlooked—nutrition. Food plots are often confused as places to just shoot deer. That should never be the case. If so, you have a hunting plot, or simply bait. Yes, whitetail hunting is good around food plots if they grow, but food production is the primary goal of those interested in improving their deer herd.

Food plots can help, but they are not a fix-all for better deer or deer habitat. More healthy deer populations can result from food plots, but it’s more important to pay attention to the habitat that you provide as a whole. It’s impossible to ingnore the requirements of whitetail and also expect to improve a deer herd. If you build it, they will come… and get big!

Answer: Interesting. Someone else also emailed me today about their 9 year old son doing a similar project on antler growth in whitetail. You can use these photos showing antler growth in deer from this site that show the stages of antler development.

Answer: Genes are funny things and they can recombine during conception to form either normal looking fawns or piebald fawns. It all depends on the buck and his gene composition. However, since the doe is piebald, my guess is that there is about 25% chance her fawns will be piebald right out of the gate.

If the whitetail buck carries piebald genes (even if he’s not piebald in color) then the odds go way up. Looks like you are just going to have to wait and see! Let me know what happens.

Answer: The 9 point buck looks to be exactly what you thought; a 2 1/2 year old buck. The 8 point whitetail is a yearling (1 1/2 year old buck). By the way, many people refer to fawns as yearlings. Fawns are fawns, yearlings are 1 1/2 year old does or bucks (they have their first set of antlers as yearlings).

With whitetail, some characteristics you can use to age deer on the hoof is to look at antler mass, the chest in relation to the belly, and the shape of the head. In almost all cases, antler mass increases with age. For example, look at the yearling 8 compared to the 2 1/2 year old 9. In addition, as a buck gets older, his belly gets larger and fuller. So does his chest.

With a larger chest and belly, this can cause the back of a mature whitetail to sway downward and make the legs appear shorter. Lastly, play close attention to a buck’s head. As a buck gets older, his head will appear shorter (from left to right) and deeper (up and down).

It’s a good idea to keep good photos of all age “known” age clases of bucks to improve your abilility to accurately age deer while whitetail hunting. That way, when you get photos of deer that you are unsure of, you can compare them to your file photos and judge the new whitetail buck based on the above criteria.

Answer: Record Rack is fine choice for adding supplemental nutrition to whitetail diets. If you are interested in other options, I would compare the mineral and vitamin percentages with Purina or other brands. Many feed stores will mix their own pelleted deer feed, but make sure you check the nutritional content for a head-to-head comparison of products.

Protein is necessary for keeping deer in great shape, but additional nutrients such as calcium, phosphorous, and other trace minerals are important for optimal antler and bone growth. When comparing mineral content from brand to brand, understand that additional minerals help, but I don’t know at what point additional minerals just become additional costs.

If overall deer feeds are comprable with regards to protetin and mineral and vitamin composition, then I’d go with the least expensive. Good luck with your supplemental feeding program, whitetail hunting, and deer herd improvement.

Question: We went whitetail hunting on the last weekend of the deer season and while me were riding along the trails at our hunting camp, and on the way to our stands, my father’s freind looked to the right and saw something. He stopped the four wheeler and told me and his son to be quiet, and then he walks back couple feet and fires his 30-30!

He did not tell us what he was shooting at so we started walking to see what he got. We found a blood trail and then I saw something laying down, but it did not look like a deer. It was not completely brown or white, but it was a deer with white on the back, its head was brown, and it had brown spots on it back.

Well, I said you shot a dog to my fathers freind and he says no that’s my deer. So we walk over and sure enough it was! I was surprised this was the first time I ever saw a whitetail deer with these kind of spots. What kind of deer is white with brown spots?

Answer: It sounds like the deer harvested by your father’s friend is a piebald deer. A piebald deer typically has brown and white splotches on its body similar to a paint horse. A completely white deer would be an albino, but the deer harvested on that property is definitely not an albino if it has brown spots.

Piebald deer, although not common, are not terribly rare, especially depending on where you are hunting. Piebald deer get their specially colored coats from their genetic composition, so some areas can have a high number of piebald deer. Most areas of the United States, however, have very few piebald deer. Congrats to your friend and thanks for sharing!

The overall age structure of a white-tailed deer population is younger than most people think. There are some states where the average harvested deer’s age is 1 1/2 years old. It has often been thought that antler and body size can indicate a deer’s age, but physical characteristics can often be quite misleading.

Before we start you must first understand that the number of antler points in no way corresponds to the age of a deer. Even if it did work that way, it would not help wildlife professionals in aging does. Antler size in bucks and physical development in both genders is greatly affected by diet and genetics, which may account for differences between animals of the same age taken from different locations.

The only true way to measure age in whitetail is by a deer’s teeth. The science of aging deer is based on tooth development and wear. Like humans, deer replace their baby teeth with permanent teeth at a relatively set rate. A buck will be in the process of losing its third premolar at 1 1/2 years of age. By the time a deer is 2 1/2 years old, all permanent teeth are in.

After a deer reaches 2 1/2 years old, age estimation is based largely on the rate of tooth wear. Diet and soil types may accelerate tooth wear, or not. However, estimating the age of adult deer follows a routine pattern until they are about 5 1/2 years of age. Once extreme tooth wear takes place, aging deer accurately based on tooth wear becomes less reliable. Of course, very few deer older than 5 1/2 are examined on an annual basis.

Most hunters do not realize that Texas has a special black powder season hunting season for white-tailed deer. In most cases, it takes place after the general hunting season, but it could be well worth the wait. Black powder is an effective way to extend your hunting season and put some additional venison in the freezer. Check out the following story submitted by a Colorado County deer hunter:

Well, after doing some research at stores and on the internet, I went out and purchased a Thompson Center Omega for Colorado County’s Muzzleloader Only Extended General Season.

Well, I went hunting on Saturday afternoon and had 3 Spikes and an 11 to 12 inch wide 8 point come out to the food plot. I passed on these guys (the spikes; the 8 point was not legal) in hope of something better, but those were the only deer sightings of the evening.

I returned Sunday for another afternoon of whitetail hunting at about 5:15 and the 3 spikes came back out again. Being the last day of the season, I decided to pick out the biggest spike (body and antler) and take my shot at 100 yards. In the excitement of pulling the trigger–and all the smoke surrounding the stand–all I see is 3 deer running away.

Unknowing if I had hit or missed, I reload and walk out to examine the site where the deer was standing. Finding blood, and very nice blood trail, I walk 30 steps into the timber and find the buck down–a perfect lung shot behind the shoulder!

The 250 grain bullet packed with 100 grain of powder entered between two ribs on the right side of the buck and exited breaking three ribs on the left.

An exciting year of whitetail hunting! This year I killed my first buck with a bow on October 17 and took my first buck with a muzzleloader on January 17. I don’t think I’ll ever pull my 30.06 out again.

White-tailed deer harvest was a bit down over much of Texas. The many deer processors throughout the state have reported that the number of deer they had taken in from hunters was down this year, although some more than others. I suspect the already-slow economy may have decreased the number of trips hunters made during the season. It may have even caused some to process their own deer. However, the improving habitat conditions Texas experienced last year played a role as well.

Before archery season it was dry. Very, very dry. However, just before archery season it started raining and we caught a good number of timely showers during October. That transformed the poor habitat into great habitat within a matter of days. Great from a whitetail deer management perspective, but not from a hunting perspective. The abundance of forbs caused by good ground moisture combined with a good acorn crop meant deer were eating well during October and November. Deer were not depending on corn feeders, so they tended to stay away from them.

Does were simply not visiting feeders. Does will often neglect feeders when abundant (and especially when better) forbs and acorns are available. Plus, during the rut I think whitetail does avoid feeders regardless of food availability because of constant unwanted attention from bucks. If the there was a low buck to doe ratio in your area (where you have a low number of bucks per doe), then you probably did not see many deer this year.

Deer hunting was slow this year in Texas, but that can only mean that some deer will be carried over into the upcoming hunting season. One season may have ended, but now it’s time to get ready for the next one!