I’ve been watching hunting videos for a couple of decades now and, for the most part, I consider myself a fan. While I won’t burn any hunting/outdoor (or other quality) time on watching other people hunt on TV, I’m happy to watch videos in the rare moments when I have nothing else going. And like many of you, I have my favorites; shows where the videography is great, the whitetails are pretty and the hunters portrayed seem like pleasant-enough individuals.
Yesterday, 27-year-old Brandon Eugene Gregory pleaded guilty to entering a Houston wildlife sanctuary and beheading a tame deer known as “Mr. Buck.” He did not originally claim full responsibility, however.
I think I’ve confessed my fondness for mulies in this space before. I have hunted them several times with my bow, and once with a muzzleloader. I was able to take a nice Montana buck with the smokepole, but the archery mulie has somehow eluded me. Someday, I hope, the cosmic tumblers will click and I’ll be able to kneel by a gorgeous bow-killed mule deer. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the anticipation and dreaming.
We’ve discussed whitetail predation in this space before, but much of that talk has focused on the major players; wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, and bears. As the photo below illustrates, bobcats can also play a role in controlling deer numbers.
I’ve made several posts regarding the huge non-typical whitetail living within the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, city limits shown below. Well the buck continues to not only live, but thrive.For an update on how he looks wearing his ’09 antlers, check out this video.
I have been messing with a variety of trail cameras this summer. This field-testing involves several makes/models from different price ranges, mainly so I can make reasonably intelligent commentary about what you can expect for your money. It has been an interesting project….and it gets me out in the woods and fields!
Janet Schwartz thinks of Bimbo as her baby. A baby that happens to be a five-year-old deer.
But the provincial Environment Ministry says the Ucluelet woman can't legally keep wildlife as a pet, and is asking Schwartz to release the doe back into the wild -- or to an animal-rehabilitation centre.
Whitetails are tougher animals than most of us give them credit for. I have butchered enough deer to know that not all seemingly-deadly wounds from broadheads and bullets are fatal. Assuming infection doesn’t set in and ravage the buck (or doe) internally, a whitetail can take a lot of abuse and still recover.
Charged with misdemeanors in the incident are 45-year-old Wayne Nisiewicz and his 24-year-old son Anthony Nisiewicz, both of rural Horicon. Holmes says the son told wardens that he legally shot big buck with a bow and arrow but investigators believe the arrow wound was inflicted after the buck had died.
One of my hunting buddies has a t-shirt that has always amused me. “There’s a place for all God’s creatures,” it proclaims in bold print, with various game animals silk-screened nearby. Then, in slightly-smaller script, the punch line: “Right next to the potatoes and gravy.”