If you’ve been following this blog, you may remember that one of our most popular caption-contest photos ever featured a kid hauling a deer on his shoulders as he rode a bike down the street. You gave us a ton of good captions for that one, but of course only one person could win. When I stumbled on this picture a couple of days ago, I though of all you poor folks who came oh-so-close last time but still wound up with nothing.
So here’s your second chance with a deer-on-a-bike photo. Go ahead and have at it; if the judging team (Hurteau and I--plus whomeever we wind up calling to settle our differences) chooses your caption, you’ll win a $100 gift card to buy some swag from our friends at Bass Pro Shops.
I grew up hunting deer in Wisconsin. I distinctly remember how much I yearned to take a trophy buck. And while I occasionally pine for the hunts of my youth, the truth is that my odds of tagging a wall-hanger are far better now than they ever were when I got my start in the 1970s.
According to a recent press release by the Boone and Crockett Club, whitetail entries in the B&C book have skyrocketed in recent years, rising some 400 percent across whitetail range in the past three decades. And some states, Wisconsin in particular, have made incredible jumps. Badger State hunters registered 40 bucks in the B&C book from 1980-85. That number soared to 383 animals from 2005-2010, an increase of 857 percent! Illinois’ jump for that same time period is even higher at 896 percent. And Ontario went from a single deer during the 1980-85 period to 41 from 2005-10—an incredible 4,000 percent gain!
I’m the first to admit that I’m no rifleman. I've always lived in shotgun-only country. While I've taken my share of deer with a gun, all have been at close range. What's more, for many years now my primary weapon has been a bow--either recurve or compound. All of this adds up to one simple fact: Deer beyond 70 or 80 yards seem a long way out there to me.
So when I was invited on a rifle hunt in Alabama last week, I did what I always do on a rifle hunt--pray the deer stay close. Oh I know what a centerfire rifle is capable of, but I'm just not enough of a rifleman to let the weapon realize its potential. On the last morning of the hunt I proved it, whiffing on a buck that was an easy target.
Rural Virginia will enjoy peace and quiet with respite from hunters for at least another year, after a House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources subcommittee voted to table three bills that would have repealed or rolled back the state’s current ban on Sunday hunting. A member of that subcommittee, 60th District House representative James Edmunds, said Thursday there was a “tremendous amount of opposition” to Sunday hunting.
Dallas-area hunters may soon be able to bowhunt in their home county if a Texas Parks and Wildlife proposal gets the nod. And another proposal would make it legal for Texas hunters to use suppressors for most firearms when hunting.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is considering opening deer hunting in three North Texas counties and another on the upper coast this fall as part of recommended changes to the 2012-13 Statewide Hunting Proclamation. TPWD staff recommended an open season for deer in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, and Galveston counties during a presentation Wednesday to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s Regulations Committee....
The term “world-record whitetail” gets tossed around so much these days that it’s easy to ignore. But the buck pictured at left may well be the real deal.
First, we have a new high-speed video to show you, which is cool on its own merits. It illustrates, like you’ve probably never seen before, the most common complaint about a Whisker Biscuit arrow rest: “Too much fletching contact.” Check it out.
It’s plain to see that there is indeed a mountain of such contact. No one could argue otherwise. So much so that, as I say, it’s just crazy that a Whisker Biscuit can be so accurate.
Mostly, wildlife in a library is found in two-dimensional form, safely contained in the pages of the collection. But a deer's visitation was more than words at the Washington Highlands Interim Library on Tuesday afternoon. One librarian was in the bathroom, and another checking emails when they heard the crash of glass. Both staff members walked toward the sound of the commotion and discovered a small deer had leapt through one of the windows at the interim library, located on 4037 S. Capitol St. SW.