The whitetail deer hunting season in Texas has started off so-so after a better than average year for rainfall and natural forage. In fact, I think the good habitat conditions across much of the Lone Star State are making the deer hunting this fall downright difficult. October was pretty cool, but November for the most part was much warmer. I hunt in Mason County and have seen very little rutting activity to date. The deer I do see appear healthy, but it seems like there has not been a true-to-form deer rut yet even though I have seen some sporadic chasing by bucks.
I’m not sure what is going on, but the deer hunting has been tough. In fact, my buddy in Lampasas County agrees with the the “half-ass” deer rut. It has been strange that hunters across Central Texas have not seen the heavy rut observed during 2008 and 2009 even though bucks have been chasing does here-and-there throughout the entire month of November. Read More…
The state of Michigan is known for great whitetail hunting as well as being home to some huge whitetail bucks, both typical and non-typical. And no one knows that better than hunter Ron Waldron of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He may have been a whitetail deer hunter most of his life, but the biggest one he has after put his hands on is one he didn’t even shoot. And by big, I mean this Lenawee County is a BIG BUCK! It is the highest-scoring non-typical buck on record for the state of Michigan.
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I moved back to Texas earlier this year, found a deer lease, and have been pumped up about whitetail hunting ever since. It really helped that my game camera captured a big mature buck on the SD card, so I’ve been daydreaming about bagging this buck since late August. So after coming up short on the opening weekend of the general deer hunting season, I headed back down to try my luck.
The big buck I was hunting had been on my game camera for some time, but then he disappeared for 2 weeks prior to the opener and I was deflated. At this point in the season, I was chalking up the missing buck to some other lucky deer hunter. But I remained diligent because, like my grandfather always said, “You just never know what will step out of the woods at any moment and turn a boring hunt into the hunt of a lifetime.” He’s gone now, but I take that to heart. Read More…
The only thing I enjoy more than whitetail deer hunting is hearing stories from other deer hunters. No matter how many years someone has been whitetail hunting or many deer they have harvested, it’s still exciting to hear about the details of a successful hunt. Although all truly successful hunts end the same, it still gets my blood pumping to re-live another hunters deer hunt through their eyes. I received this Stephens County, Texas, deer hunting story in an email:
“I got in the deer stand this morning shortly after the sun started coming up I made a few grunts right into the hunt. Not 5 minutes later I heard something walking close by and I look out to my left. There he was, a mature buck, only 30 yards from my stand. The big buck started walking away just cruising around and wouldn’t stop for me, so I had to shoot on the walk.
I am not going to lie and say this shot was the best shot ever, but it might be my luckiest. The heavy whitetail dropped in his tracks and it was my first kill with my T/C Encore Endeavor — and my first true trophy, at least in my eyes. I couldn’t be happier with this solid buck and I can’t wait to get him on the wall. Read More…
Every deer hunter dreams of a big Ohio buck, but when Jason McClintic bought his Ross County farm for whitetail deer hunting he never thought he’d stick an arrow into a true-to-life brute. Ohio has produced its share of monster bucks over the years, but knowing where to hunt always helps when it comes to putting a deer on the ground. McClintic’s land really is typical southern Ohio deer country. Prime deer country.
The landscape consists of rolling croplands of corn and beans surrounded by hillsides of maple, pin oak, chestnut oak and thick second-growth timber. Deer hunting property does not get any better than that. The hunter had used game cameras to document several good deer on his property — some good 140-class 8 point deer as well as a 170-class 10 point buck. — but had a hard time getting on those deer. One evening, he finally saw the big 10 point buck, but he missed the deer — just like he did in 2009. Read More…
It may not always get the attention that it deserves in the whitetail hunting world, but there are some big bucks in East Texas. This region is usually blessed with high amounts of rain and a whole lot of high quality food. Sure, many areas of East Texas are hunted hard, but the areas that are managed for deer make for whitetail hunting dreams. I received this lucky hunter’s story in an email:
“I have been trying to get this whitetail buck since 2007. I have never had a daylight picture of this deer until this year. Yesterday morning, I saw some good activity, but only smaller bucks. At 1:00 pm, I climbed out of my tree to get some lunch and check my game camera. From the photos, I saw that this big buck had been working the scrape behind me 2 days earlier, at 7:15 am. Read More…
Texas is known for great whitetail hunting and big bucks. Although much of the attention gets focused on South Texas, any part of the state has the potential to deliver big deer. And it happens every year with big bucks seemingly popping up out of nowhere. This year it looks like a Wood County hunter will get his day in the sun. Check out the story by the hunter who harvested this big Wood County buck.
“I harvested this buck on the early morning of October 31, 2010 in Wood County, Texas. The deer was taken by bow on a private low-fence farm from about 16 to 17 yards out. I was hunting in a stand that my dad and I hung in an oak tree at the edge of a small meadow. I had seen almost every decent buck I had on my game camera walk by that particular tree the year before, so I gave it a shot. Read More…
One of the biggest things that haunts those serious about whitetail hunting is finding a big, road-killed buck. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened down in Milam County near Alcoa. This big non-typical white-tailed buck was found on the side of the road, but it’s not the first. There was another respectable non-typical buck found in Milam County in 2008.
It seems that big bucks in this area are making a habit out of getting hit by vehicles. Or it’s probably that there are simply a good number of high quality bucks running around out there. Whatever is going on, the area is obviously producing some big bucks and would be a great area to go hunting, I just wish we would see more photos with hunters behind those deer!
