Table of contents for November/December 2019 - WhiteTail Special in Bowhunter

HERE ARE SOME REALITIES. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is very, very complex. It’s not as simple as EHD, where a midge bites a deer and it dies from hemorrhaging a couple weeks later. Whether you believe it or not, CWD is a much more serious threat to the deer and other ungulates we all love. This inherent complexity makes containment and control extremely difficult. This disease is spreading across the continent, and to other continents, and there is no definitive method for slowing down what seems to be rising to epidemic levels. Many hunters are turning a blind eye, hoping this problem will just go away. It won’t. There are far more questions than answers. If CWD was first identified in the late-60s, about 50 years ago, why is it…

IF YOU’RE A REGULAR READER of Bowhunter , then you know that every year we attend the Southeast Deer Study Group meeting and bring the latest whitetail science to you in our Whitetail Special. This year is no different, as we attended the 42nd Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, hosted by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. This meeting was jam-packed with deer biology, with 40 scientific presentations. I obviously can’t summarize all of them here, so I have selected those that I feel are of most interest to bowhunters. Graduate student Rainer Nichols presented his fire study done at Mississippi State University, which looked at how the timing of the burn affected forage quality later on. Traditionally, we burn habitat in the spring dormant period; however, Rainer…

If you decide to join your caveman relatives on the ground for the chase, you’ll need to equip yourself with binoculars worthy of your time afield. A solid, compact, and lightweight option is the ZULU3 8x32mm open-hinged binocular from SIG SAUER Electro-Optics. These binos fit comfortably in your hands and have an easy front-focus knob to dial-in quickly for clarity. Resolution is aided by silver-deposition, phase-coated, BAK-4 prisms. If a bulky binocular chest case isn’t your preference, you’ll appreciate the pocket-sized fit of this glass. Stash them in a cargo pocket and deploy them as needed. They even fit in some chest pockets of traditional hunting jackets. Rugged rubber armor, plus waterproof/fogproof construction, guarantee these binoculars can handle the toughest environments. Twist-up eyecups ensure ample eye relief, and for approximately…

QUESTION I keep reading about all-day sits during the whitetail rut. How do you guys tolerate sitting that long with all the issues it creates, if you know what I mean. C. Wagner, via e-mail ANSWER All-day sits are tough, but there are two significant benefits. They cut your travel into and out of your stand site in half, reducing scent and noise. And, sitting all day keeps you in the woods when rutting bucks are cruising at all hours of the day. Here are some tips to help you sit from dark to dark: • Find a stand or blind site that gives you the confidence to sit all day. I like locations close to bedding areas in deep cover, where there is still a little room for chasing.…

DURING A RECENT CONVERSATION with one of the up-and-comer YouTube stars of the hunting world, the topic of scent control came up. He flat out said, “I don’t believe in any scent control.” Not only did the conversation make me feel old, it made me feel wise. The reality of scent control is that you’re not going to beat a whitetail’s nose every time. Anyone who promises that is lying. A deer’s olfactory abilities, along with the infinitely variable world in which he lives, means that sometimes with scent control you win, sometimes you lose. A win, of course, is most typically categorized as a deer getting downwind and not turning inside out. But, what if a deer gets downwind and just acts a little boogery without snorting and taking…

The time was the last week of October. The place was western South Dakota. I was perched in a treestand situated in a tall cottonwood that stood along the banks of the Bad River. A little better than 30 minutes of legal hunting time remained as I reached for my rattling antlers. Thankfully, the wind had finally died down to a slight breeze. After going through a rather aggressive 45-second rattling sequence, I fished out a grunt call and let go with several subtle urps. A few minutes later, I heard the unmistakable sounds of a deer walking across the river behind me. I knew the deer had crossed to my side, and that it had to be very close. But at least five minutes went by before I finally…

I caught a glimpse of him up on the ridge in the timber. For the fourth time this season, I had laid eyes on the greatest buck I'd ever shared the woods with. The monstrous mainframe 10-point we’d named “Viking,” was about to walk into the food plot I was sitting over. The problem was the same as it had been the last three times: The food plot was 60 yards wide and 400 yards long and the buck could cross anywhere on his way to the cut cornfields behind us. That’s when it happened. My phone buzzed. It was a text from my father saying my grandmother didn’t have long to live. The memories flooded in… I was interrupted from my daze by one of my best friends and…

LIKE MANY READERS , I use exponentially more sick leave during the fall than any other time of the year. Why this happens is simple: I’m just too stubborn to give up on a buck. Once locked in on a particular buck, my hours on stand increase, and more times than I care to admit, I fail to even see that same deer again. Can you relate? Whether it’s seeing a buck on stand or on a trail-camera picture, stubbornness can have its benefits… But, is there a reason why you failed to even get another glimpse of a “shooter” buck? One camera study in Missouri showed as many as 40 percent of bucks (2½ years old and older) left their established home range in the fall and returned either…

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