Techniques For Finding ShedsA new shed antler search technique is getting even more people involved in this non-consumptive sport. The technique, called the “shed drive,” is similar to the deer drive hunting technique so popular in the Midwest. The shed drive involves organizing your partners in a line with each member evenly spaced across the line at the edge of the area to be searched. Drive members then walk through the area, picking up sheds along the way, until everyone...

Last fall I returned from a deer hunt in SW North Dakota where we were filming for Bucks of Tecomate. The location I was hunting had been hit the year before by Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) and unknown to me I was going to be in for a crash course in what this fatal disease is. Although many people refer to EHD as Blue Tongue, it’s important to realize these two diseases are anti-genetically different. Very similar clinical signs but...

Yearling Bucks versus Mature BucksIn the previous article I discussed Dr. Stephen Webb’s study on how water availability and protein feeders affected mature buck movement. Thirteen of these mature bucks that Webb tracked were originally captured and radio collared as yearling bucks in 1998. Evan McCoy, a Masters student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, tracked these yearling bucks to determine dispersal rates and distances. As yearlings, these 13 bucks had home ranges that averaged 1,028 acres with core areas that averaged...

We had just rounded a curve on the ranch road when we noticed, at the same time, a huge-framed buck crossing a prickly pear flat only 50 yards from our truck. I slammed on the brakes and we both scrambled for the binoculars. The big buck didn’t miss a step and continued walking, almost nonchalantly, at an angle away from us. We watched the buck walk the entire 150 yards to the brush line on the other side of the...

Mickey W. Hellickson, Charles A. DeYoung, Randy W. DeYoung, Randy Fugate, Donnie Harmel, David G. Hewitt, and E. L. “Butch” YoungSelective breeding experiments with penned deer have documented rapid improvement in antler quality. Our objective was to determine if rapid improvement was possible in a free-ranging population subjected to selective harvest.This South Texas study included 9,500-acre treatment and control areas. Both received similar, conservative, sport harvest. The treatment area also received intensive culling of 1.5-year-old bucks with <6 antler points...

How Well Do Stocked Deer Survive?Overall, 34 of the 47 translocated deer (72 percent) survived at least one year after the release. However, bucks involved in Study Two survived better than the deer stocked during Study One. Fourteen of 22 deer (64 percent) survived at least one year during Study One compared to 20 of 25 bucks (80 percent) that survived at least one year during Study Two.The deer translocated during Study One were moved 5-7 times further than the...

Deer Stocking HistoryAround 1900, the white-tailed deer population in the U.S. reached an all-time low at less than 500,000 animals. In fact, deer were essentially extinct in many states and existed only in very remote areas of other states. As a result, most states closed the hunting season. Deer populations however, were slow to rebuild on their own.In order to augment this natural rebuilding process, several states began actively stocking live-captured wild deer from areas of excess. These captured deer...

In the Part I, I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of high fencing your property for management purposes. In Part II, I will examine the negative effects of building your high fence against existing low fence and deer population explosion.Don’t Build Against Existing Low Fence!During the middle of my Ph.D. research project examining the movements of 125 radio-collared bucks, the landowner had a new high fence constructed along two boundaries of my study area. This new high fence was built...