Grunts & Gobbles

Deer Hunting

How to age white-tailed deer: Part V

Dave Moreland

The older age classes, 7 ½ on up, represent the end of the trail for a deer population. The average lifespan for a white-tailed deer is around 5 years; in captivity deer may live up to 14 years. Much depends on the degree of hunting that takes place on the landscape. […]

Deer Hunting

How to age white-tailed deer: Part III

Dave Moreland

Last month I wrote about the 1 ½-year-old age class, or yearling deer. The key that separates the yearling age class from the 2-year-old age class is the third premolar. Yearling deer have three temporary premolars that begin to break up and are shed when the deer is 17 to 18 months old. […]

The stages of eruption of the third molar in yearling deer is clearly visible in this photo: Jawbone No. 5 shows the replacement of the temporary premolars with the new permanent molars.
Deer Hunting

How to age white-tailed deer: Part II

Dave Moreland

The key to aging yearling deer — deer that are 1 year old—  is the third premolar. The third premolar is a temporary tooth that has three cusps (or crests.) Both fawns and yearling deer have this temporary three-cusped premolar. […]

Grunts & Gobbles

No turkey hunting in March

Dave Moreland

Yes, that’s right — for the first time in the lifetime of this author there is no turkey hunting in Louisiana in March. Of course, I grew up hunting in North Louisiana in the 60s and there were no turkeys to hunt in those days. LDWF was trying to restock birds in that area but for various reasons, the restocking effort was not working.

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Deer Hunting

The season may be over — but memories remain

Dave Moreland

For the most part, the 2017 deer season is over, although some DMAP cooperators in the Tier 1 classification can still hunt a couple of weeks in February. For Area 1 and 6 hunters, this could still give you time to connect with a deer, and perhaps even that elusive trophy. February is the month for rabbit hunters, and no doubt the hounds are out and about chasing bunnies. Years ago we did a rabbit study with LSU, and we already knew rabbits pretty much breed year-round. But February, March and April were the months that all the female rabbits we collected (we collected about 15 rabbits every month) were either pregnant or lactating. The management areas are open for small game hunting, so public land hunters still have good opportunity to be out in the woods and fields.

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