A couple of years ago one frosty clear morning in early January 2011, as the whitetail rut was rapidly drawing to a close, I still had not closed the deal on a particular 6 ½-year-old buck that had been on our hit list for the better part of two seasons.[…]
As this article goes to press, the 2012-13 deer season is about three months in the rear view mirror. As they say, “It is time to re-load and re-mount.”[…]
In the March installment of Happy Trails, we looked at the topic of “aging bucks on the hoof,” paying particular attention to the possible use of certain visual geometric clues regarding the relationship of the tips of the antler beams to the eye and/or nose when viewed from the side as a way to reliably judge a given buck’s age in the field.[…]
In the January issue we covered the topic of “aging bucks on the hoof.”[…]
Every year I take full advantage of the Mississippi regulation that allows supplemental feeding of shelled corn to deer by way of feeders between the first day of December and the last day of February of each deer season.[…]
Two of the cornerstone tenants of modern day “quality deer management” are herd monitoring and herd management.[…]
Things have really changed over the past 40-odd years when it comes to deer hunting. There would certainly be some debate regarding certain aspects of the sport, but for the most part — in my humble opinion — we as deer hunters have never had it better than we do right now, especially here in the Deep South.[…]
Whenever I bring up the topic of mature bucks, I am referring to that segment of the buck population that is aged 5 ½ years old or older. True “mature bucks” can be as rare as proverbial “hens teeth” in most populations in the whitetail’s range.[…]
This past week I ran by the showroom of one of my favorite hunting-products companies that, fortunately for me, happens to be headquartered about a 20-minute drive from my home.[…]
My excitement level is now building to a fever pitch as I plot and plan strategies for the soon-to-begin deer season.[…]
As we transition into August and the pre-season, there are numerous tasks that we as outdoorsmen should be busily engaged in.[…]
In last month’s column we looked at some of the methods I typically use to convert my personal trail camera photo archives into meaningful and usable “deer statistics” or “intelligence.” […]
Common definitions of the word “statistics” are: 1) the mathematics of the collection, organization and interpretation of numerical data, or 2) the science that deals with the analysis and interpretation of numerical data.[…]
The pursuit by a hunter of trail-camera photo information regarding whitetail buck activity can be a labor intensive project and, as a result, the end product is absolutely what you make it to be.[…]
Over the past several years, I have, through trial and error, developed a system that allows me to efficiently deal with multiple trail cameras and memory cards as I use them to monitor deer movement on my farm in west central Mississippi.[…]
My farm in west-central Mississippi is my personal field laboratory for experimentation with trail camera techniques and practices, as I continue to study and learn about local buck patterns.[…]