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No DeerBlaster next week cuz of Christmas! Hope you and yours have a blessed, relaxing time of faith, family and friends…and get a deer! And thanks much for reading the DeerBlaster in 2019, we appreciate you!
Today’s Top 5
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WTHeck is with this giant eyeball antler buck??
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Looks like a third antler growing from right under the eyeball? And a drop tine on the other side that sorta “matches” it — along with uber mass and winter velvet??
Word Captain! And, uh…how’s Spock and everyone else doing…? Lol!
Backwoods Life says Clay Crawford tagged that bad boy in Early County, GA on Dec 12, and it green-scored a ridiculous 205″! Great job Clay — gonna be a great mount!
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HEAVY redemption deer for WI bowhunter.
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You know how it is: Some days, some trips, some seasons are better than others. Guess you could say WI hunter Allison Rauscher’s 2018 was on the low end of the scale. She arrowed but didn’t recover what would’ve been her biggest deer ever. Many of us know how that feels — at least the part about not recovering an animal!
Then the landowner told her she would no longer have access to that lease. As Buckmasters tells it, those deals would lead to a blessing:
> Forced to find a new place to hunt in a hurry, Allison consulted land ownership maps. She wound up contacting a woman who owned 200 acres nearby, the same woman who’d given her permission to cross onto the property to look for the buck she’d shot in 2018.
> Although she never found the deer, she took the woman some baked goods as a thank you. That gesture probably got her the yes she needed later. [Homemade cookies are ALWAYS a good idea.]
> Her earliest outings were unproductive, possibly because she never ventured into the heart of the property. When she was ready for a change of scenery, she went deeper and discovered a treasure trove of buck sign.
> When Allison struck out in the snow on Halloween, she was prepared to hunt the entire day.
She hunted all day without much success. That evening, a huge buck appeared 50 yards away:
> “Immediately my heart started pounding. It reminded me of the one I’d lost in 2018, the one that would’ve been my best ever. I was all ramped up.”
She got it together and made the shot: The heavy, tall-tined buck green-scored 173 6/8, but check this: He weighed 228 lbs, FIELD DRESSED!!!
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Check out this crazy young buck!
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Madison Daves, an accomplished deer hunter from AR, recently hunted her MO lease and didn’t tag a buck but did experience this craziness:
Full video here on Facebook, where she tells the story:
> I went out this morning just hoping to get a chance to shoot that buck of a lifetime before heading back home. What I got was so much more. I had hunted and saw some nice deer but decided it was time to head back to the truck.
> Just as I got out of my blind and started walking I looked across the field and saw what I thought at the time was a shooter. So, I did the only thing I could at that point…squat down in the middle of a fresh-cut corn field and wait.
> Well when he got a little closer I knew he was not the shooter that I was looking for, so…I pulled out my phone to get a video of him, since it looked as if he might come across in front of me.
> What happened next I’ve only heard of BUT it’s something I will never forget.
> I have killed some nice deer in the past and I can say this probably tops them all.
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Girl faked being a boy just to deer-hunt…
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…back in the day (further back than this):
Tes Jolly is now a prominent wildlife photographer and accomplished hunter, but growing up in the ’60s, she wasn’t welcome at her dad’s own deer club. Her husband, Ron, tells Realtree she had to pretend she was a boy (“Harvey”) to deer-hunt:
> Tes and her 2 brothers were eager hunters, developing their shooting skills by stalking rabbits and squirrels on the family farm.
> Eventually, [her dad, Ned] joined a hunting club with plans to take his family on hunting adventures. However, as the first season approached, he was informed of an unspoken club rule: It prohibited women and girls from attending….
> He had to tell his 9-yr-old daughter she couldn’t hunt. Tes reacted to the news with tears, confusion and hurt feelings. Ned was surprised that his daughter was so upset….
> Ned [said], “Do you really want to go hunting more than anything else?”…”Yes, sir,” Tes said. “Well, let’s see if we can make that happen. But you have to follow my rules for the time being. Maybe we can get that rule changed someday. Agreed?” he asked. “Yes, sir!”….
> The ruse was to look and act like a boy around other club members. “Harvey” was free to be Tes away from the clubhouse. And so, that was life for 3 years.
Long story short: After 3 years, it got pretty difficult to convince members that “Harvey” was a boy!
> Club members called a meeting to discuss punishment…But there were no consequences. Everyone agreed the rule was outdated anyway. Besides, any girl willing to go undercover for 3 years had to be a pretty good member prospect. So the rule was changed.
GREAT story Tes! Big props to your dad too….
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Couple great hunting-camp pranks.
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One of the best parts of camp hahaha! Couple mean ones from AllOutdoor.com:
> When one of the guys isn’t around, hang a tree stand in “his” spot and plant a mannequin (or stuff some old camo clothes to create a scarecrow). When daylight comes and he spots an interloper crowding his spot, you’d better hope he has a sense of humor.
> …pranksters who taped an alarm clock under a fellow hunter’s tree stand. Even worse, the alarm would turn itself off whenever it detected noise, so every time he went looking for it, it would shut off – only to alarm again in 15 minutes.
Got any good ones? Email us back and let us know!
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News
1. OK proposing biggest deer season changes in 20 years.
Too much for here but a few highlights:
> …the state’s season bag limit for bucks will not change. People will have an extra week to bag one with a rifle in some areas, however.
> Adding days open for antlerless deer for archery hunters on some WMAs and the 23-day gun season with a limit of 5 does and 1 buck instead of 2 does and 1 buck could indeed give more hunters a chance to get out and offer the chance to take additional does.
> The theme of changes is all about antlerless harvest….
2. IL firearms deer down then up this season.
> That number [75K in the first 7-day season] represents a 7% drop in the number of deer harvested from 2018, when nearly 81,000 deer were taken. But the 2nd part of this year’s season, Dec 5-8, saw an uptick over last year. More than 25,000 deer were harvested during the second season, a 14% increase from 2018.
3. WV harvest down in 2-week firearms season.
DNR says it’s due to a later start to the season and tons of acorns:
> Hunters killed 36,796 deer from Nov 25 through Dec 7. That was down 17% from the 2018 period.
4. MO: Suburban St Louis may allow bow season in parks.
> More people, more development, less green space, and city ordinances banning the discharge of firearms, all these factors can make it tough to keep expanding deer populations in check in populated areas.
5. MD military vets treated to a deer hunt.
Love it! THANK YOU vets!
6. WI: Furless antlered doe dropped.
> Typically, antlers on a doe will be covered in fur. But the…antlers that were completely bare.
7. WI DNR confirms rare deer kill, by mountain lion.
> “We thought it might be a wolf. But looking closer, it was definitely a cat. You could see where the deer had been feeding on acorns, and you could see the tracks where the deer had run. It was so fresh, we think when we walked out we might have scared the cat away.”
8. IA: 1 group of hunters allegedly involved in 2 shooting incidents.
From the article:
> The DNR says conservation officers were called Sunday after a house was hit with a bullet. An investigation found 18-year-old Chase Maguire of Logan was shooting at a deer over a hilltop with a .450 Bushmaster when he missed the deer and hit a house.
> Within the same group, the DNR says 38-year-old Craig Brenden of Logan was shot in the lower leg by another member of his hunting party. The shooter was shooting at a wounded deer and hit Brenden.
9. OH: 16-yr-old shot in deer drive.
Says he’s okay thankfully. Deputy Kevin Carr from the article:
> “Make sure you wear all the orange clothing so that you’re visible to the other hunters. Most importantly, if you don’t see what you’re shooting at, then don’t shoot.”
10. MI warden settles argument over 2 hunters, 1 deer.
> After following the blood trails and inspecting the bullet wounds, it was determined that the first hunter had shot the deer through its hind legs. The deer then traveled to the neighboring property where the other hunter shot the deer, killing it.
Warden said that since the deer was legally tagged by the second hunter, it’s his to keep.
11. OK wardens grab alleged “serial poacher.”
From the article:
> The wardens found 5 deer heads, syringes, meth, a rifle and a pistol in the suspect’s pickup.
12. Registration open for P&Y convention.
Mar 26-28 in VA:
> Save 20% off when you register for the full convention package. Effective through Dec 31, enter code “20OFF” at checkout to receive the discount.
13. DC: Aurelia Skipwith is the new USFWS director.
US Fish and Wildlife Service. She’s the first African American ever in the position, which is great. But the info doesn’t say whether she hunts or fishes which is kinda important:
> Skipwith has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior since Apr 19, 2017.
“…has caused the needlessly tragic death of a nonhuman resident of the area.”
– Animal rights dude talkin’ ’bout the accidental death of a deer in a cull trap. “Nonhuman resident” — some peeps have lost they dang minds….
Gooooooood-lookin’ bucks from around the US of A:
Clockwise from top L:
1. Big Buck Registry showin’ off Donald’s high-n-heavy LA buck.
2. Big buck buzzer beater on last day of SD season. Props Mark! (from SD Big Bucks)
3. Check out the wingspan on this goliath taken by Tony Kemp. (from VA Whitetails)
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Gear of the Week
Wicked Ridge drops lightest x-bow on the market.
Wicked Ridge is the “budget” brand of Ten Point crossbows, which makes some of the most innovative horizontal bows on the market. Deer & Deer Hunting says this new x-bow — the M-370 — is packed with a lot of tech that used to be found in 4-figure bows, and starts at $669:
> Weighing in at just 5.8 lbs and shooting up to a blazing 370 fps, the M-370 is the lightest value-priced high-performance hunting crossbow available on the market today.
> …features a 9.5″ wide, 180-lb bow assembly powered by new VX-5 reverse cams that elongate the power-stroke to 13.8″ and allow for increased cam rotation to produce speeds up to 370 fps with same-hole group accuracy.
> Its machined riser is fitted with 11″ TPX Limbs, DynaFLIGHT 97 string and cables, and sleek, lightweight aluminum limb pockets.
> The Wicked Ridge M-370’s new Air-Lite stock is molded from dampening glass-filled polypropylene to increase strength, reduce weight and withstand years of hunting. Its fully integrated foregrip is backed up with elongated safety wings to help keep the shooter’s hand safely out of the path of the bowstring, and its fully enclosed trigger guard provides added safety as well.
American built too! We recommend the model with the Accudraw — it’ll add $100 but makes cocking it way easier.
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Tip of the Week
Tips for hunting the 4th quarter.
Almost every doe has been bred, and bucks are worn down from chasing and fighting 24/7. Still, deer season’s still open in many parts of the country, and the hunting can be reeeeeeally good if you know what to look for. North American Whitetail talked with Jeff Danker on how to make the most of the end of the season:
> “At this stage in the game, it’s all about knowing what’s going on and that’s where relying on your (trail) cameras again is a big key. In the post-rut, it’s not…climb in a tree and hope a deer walks by, it’s more about wanting to know what’s going on and formulating a gameplan….
> “At this time of the year, bucks are going to be going back to food for sure. Deer are certainly more predictable in the post-rut than they were during the Nov rut. Plus, they’re beat up from the rut, they’re hurting, and they’re trying to feed up to get ready for wintertime.
> “You’ve got to treat Dec like Sept. You have to be very aware of things where you’re hunting, where they are bedding, where they are feeding, what their travel habits are, and what time all of that is happening. It’s why I primarily hunt evenings at this time of year because their beds will be close to food again.
> “But I also need to know where they are bedding…. If you’ve got a good cedar thicket where you hunt, at this time of the year, that’s usually where they’ll bed in many parts of the country.
> “You can’t step in on them and just go hunting, moving around without any thought. If you do, you’ll push these deer out. They are beat up, so you’ve got to go easy on them, but if you use your head, the good bucks that are left are really killable at this time of the year.”
> “If there is a big change in the weather, one way or the other, it can cause deer to get up on their feet.”
Lots more in that post, so take a look.
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Quote of the Week
Hunting is a great centuries-old tradition, and a way of providing food while teaching self-discipline and responsibility.
– Hunter talkin’ in this post. When’s the last time you thought of it like that, particularly the last two? We like it — and he’s right!
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Shot of the Week
Wow. Dang. Ultra sad but also awesome — bless you lil deer brother. From here on Facebook:
If you pray, please send a few up for that boy and his family, thank you!
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What’s the DB and who does it??
The DeerBlaster is a weekly roundup of the best, worst and funniest stuff about whitetail deer hunting culled from around the interwebz. We were kinda doing it already, just not the blastin’ it into your inbox part….
It’s put together by some deer nerds — Ted, Jay, Wade, couple more — from around the country. We excerpt content (and credit EVERYONE!), comment on content, do some original content — it’s an internet thing…. We do it because we can’t get enough deer hunting, hopefully you’re wired the same.
The DeerBlaster’s a work in progress, just like we are. Let us know what we can do better and thanks for readin’! Any issues, suggestions, whatever, just hit Reply to this email and we’ll get it. Thank you!
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