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More huge deer! Sit out the first 5 weeks?? Movement by cover type

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Jamie Ferguson killed a legend. Word on that deer had gotten around to at least 5 states, and a local family had been hunting it for years, but Jamie’s the one who got ‘er done! Story from Bowhunting:

> “Everyone knew of him and he was not camera-shy at all. Once the season came in, I don’t know how but he seemed to elude everyone.

> “If you talked to anyone, especially anyone who hunted the area, they couldn’t believe the deer was still alive. I guess he had, from what I’ve been told, a pretty good travel size area – people would see him all over.”

> Then in mid-Sept the deer disappeared from the cameras as it altered its patterns. Ferguson didn’t pick up a single photo of it again until mid-Oct, and when the deer did make an appearance it was intermittent.

> “I knew once that pattern started, he was kind of leaving his home area, maybe searching for does. So I knew at that point if he showed back up again, my window was going to be a 2- or 3-day window to have an opportunity to harvest him.

> “He came in directly downwind from me. I was using Ozonics – I’m a firm believer in those now. He was probably 35 or 40 yards when I first saw him and he was closing the distance. He was just kind of out cruising and I shot him at about 18 yards.”

> Following the shot, the deer ran a short distance and stopped. Ferguson says it stood motionless about 45 yards away, then began walking and disappeared into a thicket located on an adjacent property.

Amazingly, they didn’t recover the deer until 2 days later, after bumping it a couple times when it looked legit dead – on its back, the whole deal. Even a tracking dog couldn’t find it!

> “One kind of crazy thing I noticed when we were tracking the deer was the number of cameras and treestands we saw (from) other people hunting the deer. It was quite insane.”

The non-typ has 25 scoreable points, a 21 7/8 inside spread and a 29 7/8 outside spread:

> “Somewhere around the 1st of Nov he’d broken a G4 off and he lost probably another 6 to 7 inches from that.”

🤯 What a deer!

Huge congrats to Michael Perry on that huge deer! 6.5-yr-old deer’s rack has “long beams, split points, stickers and heavy beading on the bases” and green grosses at 196 3/8″!! 🤯 Sounds like Michael knows what he’s doing – NA Whitetail had the story, here’s a little bit of it:

> Michael Perry hunts public land on several different WMAs in AL. And he has great success in areas where others fail. Michael’s success comes from effort and knowledge gained through years of scouting. He puts in miles checking out new places, and he remembers when he finds a spot that looks good.

> 2 years ago he found a new spot that looked promising. There was a creek crossing in the spot, and there was a thicket which could serve as a bedding area. On a hunch, he set up a trail camera that soon captured photos of a good buck. The deer was moving through at night, but Michael figured in time he might catch him on his feet during daylight.

> Michael had already taken bucks good enough to make the Alabama Whitetail Records program with his bow and rifle. So, when his wife, Kathy, gave him a CVA .50 cal muzzleloader for Christmas in 2019, he decided to try for the next one with it. In 2020, he didn’t get it done. But he was still getting pictures of the buck back in the thicket.

Diehard hunter and TX state trooper Tarif Alkhatib was after that deer big-time all season – here’s the story (can’t link it – it’s at dev-media.everest.com):

> “I started watching him last year, and this season he really made home on one of the properties I have [permission to hunt]…. It was crazy how many cameras and stands I had out for this particular deer.”

> …his first actual encounter with Shredder was on Nov 23. He saw the buck a second time the following morning

> Alkhatib’s 3rd encounter would occur 4-5 days later…had the buck at 10 yards but never had a good shot opportunity. After that, the deer started using the other side of the 400-acre farm…he would encounter the buck two more times over the following week.

> By that point, he says, “I thought this deer was unkillable because I had encountered him 5 times and had him in range 3 different times. I just didn’t have an ethical shot.”

> Alkhatib’s patience and persistence began to pay off the night of Dec 7, when he received a photo of Shredder bedded down with a doe near the exact same spot where he had his first encounter…. Around 9:30 am, after sitting in the stand for more than 4 hours, he finally got the opportunity he needed when Shredder ran off a button buck and presented a slight quartering-to shot at 18 yards.

Some scoring deets from heralddemocrat.com:

> With a mainframe 12-point rack, an abnormal point coming off of each G-2 tine, and symmetry differences from one side to the other, the buck’s gross score is reportedly in the mid-190s and the net score is reportedly in the upper-170s as a typical.

> Assuming that those reported early numbers hold up after any official scoring takes place down the road following a mandatory 60-day drying period, the buck taken by Alkhatib earlier this week could be a record breaker here in Grayson County.

> The top hunter-killed typical whitetail in Grayson County remains Jim Lillis’ huge Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge archery buck from late Nov 2007. That buck…is a mainframe 10-pointer that has a net score of 175 2/8″.

Interesting little bit of info from this post, about an outfitter in KY:

> We were stunned to hear he never hunts a single day during Oct or the 1st week of Nov – not even a camera is placed. This allows the bigger, wiser bucks to feel secure while making their rub lines and scrapes. When rifle-hunting begins, those bucks are committed to their areas and cannot establish a new territory elsewhere. Wow.

How ’bout that? Another tough to handle tip from that post:

> I’d [purposely] left my binoculars at camp. Too much unwanted motion, Carl warned. A big buck stands for long periods just looking and he may be anywhere around you. Any movement is a big risk.

Good post on OutdoorLife.com, here’s a few excerpts:

> “The 6.5 Creedmoor is like a .243 where—they kill deer, don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of people who kill deer with them. But they just don’t leave a blood trail, hardly ever. And it’s just because it’s such a small entry hole … It’s the size of a pencil, and a lot of times the bullets go in and expand and there’s no exit, and nowhere for the blood to go. … Or if it does exit, there’s not a lot of room for blood to get out. Running deer cover a lot of ground fast, so you can end up with really minimal blood in the course of a few hundred yards.”

> But even if you have a higher sectional density with the 6.5 Creedmoor, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a heavy blood trail on a pass through.

> “If you like 2 leaky holes…you’re going to want to shoot something like a Nosler AccuBond, a Barnes Monolithic or a Hornaday GMX. If you want lots of internal damage but not necessarily a pass-through, look at the Hornaday ELD-X or a Nosler Ballistic Tip – any of those lighter, polymer-tip bullets should fit the bill. Just know that there’s still a chance that it’ll blow through the deer.”

> “There’s going to be a lot of rifle hunters who…say, ‘Man, every deer I shoot with a rifle I shoot in the shoulder, and it drops right there.’ And the tracker will say, ‘Until they don’t. If you’re aiming for the shoulder and miss your spot, there’s just meat and bone up there.”

> Simpson advises hunters (using any method – bow or rifle) to aim for the vital V: the lower third of the deer, just behind its elbow. While this is very good advice for bowhunters who have to worry about deer ducking the string, it can also help rifle hunters: A lower exit wound can create better a blood trail.

1. PA hunters say after 3 years they hate the new opening day.

Firearms opener was moved from the Monday after Thanksgiving to the Saturday after back in 2019.

2. IN hunting license cost going up.

First increase since 2006:

> A combination hunting and fishing license for IN residents will now cost $32, up from $25…an annual hunting license will now cost $20, up $3….

> Non-residents…$90 for an annual hunting license, up $10 from previous years.

3. IA: Jan antlerless season in 5 counties.

4. NY: Late “holiday” bow season in southern zone.

5. FL: Check out proposed regs for next season.

6. ND: Muley Foundation sent $$ to PLOTS landowners.

> Mule Deer Foundation chapters in ND recently sent $28,110 to landowners enrolled in the [DN DNR’s] Private Land Open To Sportsmen program. MDF has partnered with the department on the PLOTS program since 2007, and these payments supported public access opportunities on 46,902 acres in 2021.

7. CAN hunting guides resorting to ecotourism.

Canada’s ultra-restrictive covid measures have really hurt their guides and outfitters….

8. ME grandad guides grandaughter to grand slam.

Deer, turkey, moose and bear in 1 season. Apparently his grandsons weren’t interested….

9. MN’s Revo Brands buys Outdoor Edge knives.

Can’t tell what else Revo owns but:

> Revo Brands operates in partnership with Vertikal Brands, a holding company established by Clearview Capital in partnership with, and managed by, a group of outdoor industry executives, to pursue the acquisition of premium brands in the outdoor industry.

10. GA: Look at the size of this hog!

David Kolesnik is 6′ 7″ and weighs 300 lbs so…?

1. Tikka T3x Lite Roughtech review.

> …the Tikka T3x Lite Roughtech is very similar to the other 25 rifles in the T3x line up with one noticeable difference: The T3x Lite Roughtech has been blessed with a stock coating which delivers durability and resistance to scratched but also an improved grip for wet and more extreme hunting conditions. The Roughtech coating gives the stock a much more grainy feel which allows your wet hands or gloves to keep a hold of your rifle hunting from a tree stand or climbing a steep incline.

2. 10 rifles under $1,000…including the T3x.

3. 5 best budget scopes.

All under $300 but one:

1. Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9x40mm CDS Duplex

2. Burris Fullfield E1 4.5-14x42mm

3. Bushnell Elite 4500 2.5-10x40mm

4. Vortex Crossfire II 4-12x40mm AO

5. Leupold VX-3HD 3.5-10x40mm CDS-ZL Duplex

4. Review: Boyds Classic stock.

> The most noticeable performance improvement was in the accuracy. The fully free-floated barrel combined with the pillar bedding tightened up the groups substantially. This rifle has a tendency to throw the 3rd or 4th shot of each group, opening up decent groups to 2-3 MOA groups. I suspect that the barrel contacts the stock irregularly as the barrel warms, causing the thrown shot.

> That all stopped once it was in the Boyds stock. Groups stayed tight for 5 rounds, which is about the heat-imposed limit in a very thin barrel contour like a Featherweight. I have no reservations in stating that this stock made my rifle more accurate.

Study: Movement rates by cover type.

From research on GPS-collared deer in the South but applicable lots of places:

> Movement rates were highest in food plots during the day for bucks and does, but buck movement rates (250 yards/hour) were higher than doe movement rates (150 yards/hour).

> Not surprisingly, movement rates during the day were lowest in hardwood drains for both sexes. Specifically, bucks moved at a rate of about 50 yards/hour and does moved at a rate of about 75 yards/hour.

> “Although deer are more likely to be present in dense cover during the day, their lower movement rates in those areas can negatively impact your chances of encountering them there.”

> These findings make sense to experienced hunters who know that deer move relatively quickly in food plots during the day, grabbing a bite here and there, before eventually making their way back to cover. Once in an area of low risk such as dense vegetation, deer often bed down to ruminate, occasionally getting back on their feet to casually forage.

> When you consider the nighttime movement data, it becomes immediately apparent how important hunting pressure/risk is in driving these movement patterns. Specifically, movement rates were consistent across cover types for both sexes at night, and averaged 150 to 200 yards/hour.

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