Hey everyone, It's been a while since I last made a journal entry on HuntOnly, but I've been doing my best to spend a good amount of time in the woods this year. I've been bow hunting pretty hard since the opener in mid September. Up until this week I was hunting food sources, either oaks, cut fields, or food plots. I was having decent success, with seeing plenty of deer, but never one of the bigger bucks I'm after.

Everything has changed greatly in the last two weeks. Starting in the middle of last week (Oct 21) I noticed more and more sign, scrapes and rubs were popping up everywhere. The weekend before that we saw a full moon, and warmer temps that completely shut down deer movement. Since then we've had a good amount of cold weather and the crops have come off the fields. At the end of last week I saw my first decent buck, a shooter by my standards but it was far too dark to take an ethical shot. I hunted Saturday in a terrible rain, but managed to see a few deer and noticed two bucks on the move despite the weather. Wednesday (Oct 29) I hunted and saw a large increase in rubs and buck activity. I usually start my rut calendar with the New moon in late October, and wouldn't you know we had one Tuesday night. Well the hunt Wednesday was particularly good because I was able to see 4 different bucks and even had three of them respond to "The Can" and circle downwind within bow range. I could have shot them had they been within my goals for the season. I also had a young buck chasing a doe around, although I don't think she was quite ready. That being said, I think the next two to three weeks are going to be the best weeks by far to be in the woods, the deer will really be on the move in search of mates, and us hunters can use that to our advantage. So make time to get out there and put a big buck on the ground. Be sure to post pictures in our forums for all to enjoy, and remember, stay Safe!

Posted by E. Jones at 07:26 AM | Permalink

1.Based on hunter reports, about one deer in 30,000 is an albino.

2.Melanistic deer are very dark sometimes even black and results from overproduction of pigment and is less common than albinism.

3.Albinism is a recessive trait and both parents must carry the gene before it can occur in their offspring.

4.The speed at which antlers grow, also makes them the fastest growing structures in the animal kingdom.

5.Antler growth is usually complete by the end of August

6.The deer genus was given the name Odocoileus by Rafinesque in 1832

7.A doe giving birth in areas of good food will have twins. However triplets are common as well as occasional quadruplets.

8.Largest body weight on record of a Whitetail deer is 511 pounds.

9.Recent Estimates put the Deer Population in the United States at around 30 million animals

10. The whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus), is named for it’s signature tail and the white under part.

11. According to scientists there are 38 Sub-species of Whitetail Deer.

12. A whitetail buck usually weighs 130 to 220 pounds, but have been recorded at well over 350 Pounds.

13. Market gunning, unregulated hunting and poor land-use practices severely depressed deer populations in the early 1900s. By about 1930 the U.S. population was thought to number about 300,000 animals.

14. A Whitetail buck will shed his antlers every year, usually sometime in late December through Feb.

15. Whitetails have an average life span of 8 to 11 years.

16. Deer do not have a gall bladder on their livers. This allows them to eat vegetation that would kill domestic animals.

17. The members of the deer family are ruminants, having a four-compartmented stomach, which allows the deer to feed very rapidly.

18. A Whitetail has a top speed between 35 to 40 miles per hour.

19. A deer's gestation period is 200 to 205 days, most of the fawns being born in the latter part of May or the first part of June.

20. Deer need 10 to 12 pounds of food per day to satisfy their needs.

21. The Whitetail Deer is the most abundant Big Game animal in North America.

22. The average whitetail stands between 36 and 40 inches high at the top of the shoulder.

23. The Florida Key deer, Odocoileus virginianus clovium, is the smallest sub-species of our native deer.

24. There is one authenticated record of a deer kept in captivity that lived to be nineteen years old.

25. A deer can clear an 8-foot hurdle from a standing position.

26. Deer swim well and at a good pace. They have been clocked at speeds up to 13 miles per hour.

27. At birth a baby doe weighs about 4 1/2 pounds while a buck weighs 5 1/2 pounds.

28. The fawns are born over a period of time that may extend from ten minutes up to two hours.

29. By the time the fawns are twenty minutes old, they can walk slowly on very shaky legs.

30. Recent Estimates put the Deer Population in the United States at around 30 million animals

31. About 40 percent of the young does may breed in their first autumn so that they give birth when they are one year old.

Posted by S. Johnson at 01:51 PM | Permalink

Many whitetail hunters do the majority of their scouting during the off-season or just before start of the deer season. The knowledge gained during these times is essential in putting the pieces of the puzzle together in order to harvest a mature buck or a freezer filling doe during the fall, but sometimes the areas you’ve located before the season don’t produce like you had hoped. In order to ensure success in this situation, you must incorporate some in-season scouting tactics.

For many years, I spent countless hours in the woods before the season trying to figure out feeding areas, bedding areas, and the travel corridors between the two. During some seasons, the information I gathered during this time would lead to some great stands during the following season. Other times, I would be left watching the action from a distance due to circumstances that I couldn’t figure out. After a couple marginally successful seasons, I decided it was time to begin scouting year round. I quickly learned that aspects of the woods change from year to year. Oaks produce sporadically, crop fields rotate, or trees fall and block trails. Without doing some scouting during the season, some of these could go unnoticed and leave a hunter wondering what happened to all of the great sign he or she saw left behind from the past season.
When doing your in-season scouting, take the same scent free precautions you would take before preparing for a hunt and make sure to do it during mid day when whitetails aren’t as likely to be on their feet. I prefer to do the majority of my scouting during the season after leaving the stand in the mornings. More than likely, you will know what the crops are on the property you are hunting, but it is often times easy to neglect neighboring properties. You won’t be hunting over these food sources, but they can still impact the movement on the property you’re hunting. You may also be set up in a spot that was loaded with sign from the season before only to spend many wasted hours hoping for a deer to pass by. By doing some scouting, you may quickly learn of an obstruction on the trail leading into the area you are sitting in. Without doing some investigating, you could spend many more lonely hours in the spot, relocate to another area, or move the obstruction and hope the deer return to their prior movements.
I like to concentrate on finding food sources and bedding areas while doing my scouting. Most oak trees don’t produce acorns year after year. What was a dynamite spot last year could be terrible this year because of the lack of food in the area. I’ve sat near oak trees that make the cool fall mornings sounds like its raining even though it’s sunny. Deer after deer parade into the area. Just this past week I sat in a spot that was good for at least a dozen deer every sit last season, but saw zero deer that first morning. When I got down I did a little walking around and didn’t see a single acorn on the ground nor in any of the oaks along the hillside. So I set off from there to find some acorns. I spent over an hour searching for an oak that was producing. Finally after walking many, many acres, I stumbled upon a hilltop with a handful of acorns on the ground. I marked it with my GPS and came in the next morning. Within the first 30 minutes of day light, I had two does for the freezer. Without scouting the day before, I would have never known about the spot, and by making sure I was scent free, I was able to walk through the area without leaving scent behind that would spook the deer the following morning.
In order to ensure your success this season, spend a little time doing some in season scouting during times deer aren’t normally moving. We all know how important scouting is during the off-season, but sometimes the sign you see during these months doesn’t always lead you to the right areas come fall. By taking the proper precautions, in season scouting can greatly increase your odds of filling your tags this fall.

Posted by B. Hagemeier at 01:48 PM | Permalink

It’s been quite a while since I have seen something take over the bowhunting world like the Rage Broadheads have done in the past year. These heads are “All the RAGE” as they are saying. After reading countless positive experiences from people who have used Rage broadheads, I decided to give them a try this season and have been thoroughly impressed so far.

Upon receiving the two packages I ordered, I installed the practice tip that is included with each pack of heads. The arrow flew perfectly with my field tips at distances out to forty yards. The practice heads look the same as the real heads themselves but the blades don’t open up which ensures easy removal from your target. I was shooting into a bag target and the heads were easy pulled out after shooting. I would be hesitant to use the practice heads in a 3-d or foam target for fear they would really take some chunks out of it and decrease it life of use.
I weighed the heads to check for grain consistency and found them to be all relatively close. The range between the heaviest and lightest of the 6 heads was only 1.9 grains. These blades are easily locked into the place when the blades fold back and click into the rubber o-rings that come with them. The buyer is also supplied with 3 replacement o-rings.
My first experience with the real head was this past week when a couple does traveled into an oak ridge. Both shots were at distances of around 30 yards. The first doe was shot slightly quartering away and the second was perfectly broadside. Neither traveled far and left remarkable blood trails that made for easy tracking even in the dim light of the overcast morning. Upon recovery of the arrows, the blades were all still intact and could probably be re-sharpened for further use, but Rage now offers replacement blades for their heads. The blood trails started within 5 yards of the location of the shot. It looked as though someone took a glass of red paint and threw it down the trail. I’ve seen great blood trails in the past from archery kills, but these topped them all.
The entry and exit holes that the 2 blade Rage created were very impressive. With a cutting diameter of 2.5 inches, there were two huge holes in both deer. In the first doe, both lungs were completely gone, and the second one nearly had her heart cut in two.
Neither shot was affected by the ribs when it entered the deer. Due to the design of the head, a hunter must be conscious of shot placement. Hitting the shoulder bone would greatly decrease penetration, but that is an issue with nearly every head on the market. Both shots easily passed through coming from a 63 lbs. Switchback and 380 grain arrow.
I’m excited to see the next wound these heads create!

We, the members and field staff of HuntOnly.com, decided to take these broadheads into the field and do so real world testing. So far the field staff and members have taken more then 10 deer with these broadheads and the results have been phenomenal. The entry holes these broadheads make are creating blood trails like I have never seen and the deer are traveling an average of less then 50 yards.

HuntOnly.com, its members and field staff are in no way affiliated with Rage Broadheads and have been given no discounts or broadheads to try. We are real world hunters buying new products and doing our own real world testing.

Here are some of the Comments we have seen so far on these new Rage Broadheads.

“They fly great, and as you can see from the pics they open a hole up.”

“I can say this; the entrance wound with the rage is like nothing else I have seen before. Not from a fixed or mechanical.”

“I will say, I have never seen a wound like this come from a broadhead.”

If you are interested in seeing some of the photos of entry holes and blood trails the Rage broadheads are making you can see them by clicking below. Please note these are GRAPHIC Photos and viewer discretion is advised!

Rage Broadhead R&D

Posted by B. Hagemeier at 11:00 AM | Permalink

While Rattling for Whitetails has been around for years, using decoys to dupe a wary deer is somewhat a new trend. There are many different decoys on the market today and many different opinions on whether to use a buck or a doe. Here is a quick list of tips and tricks that may help you, should you decide to give a decoy a try this fall…

1.Putting a fake deer in the woods anywhere near you is almost asking for trouble from other hunters. Using blaze orange while carrying your decoy to the setup is a necessity for anyone on any property. I would also recommend using some blaze orange on or very near the decoy, you don’t want to dupe other hunters into your setup. Hunting from a treestand is a good idea as well.

2. Keeping your decoy scent free is vital to the success of fooling a big buck. Just as you would keep your clothes and other hunting equipment scent free, the decoy should be treated in the same manner. Once the decoy is setup, spay it down with a good cover scent to kill any human odors that may have gotten on it.

3. Using your decoy in a high traffic area is a key to success. Keep in mind this is a visual attractant, if you take your decoy into the thickest pine thicket, the chances of a deer seeing your setup are greatly decreased. Use the decoy in an open funnel area, or feeding area where lots of deer are apt to travel.

4. Be sure to use the wind when deciding on a decoy setup. Big bucks often like to approach from the downwind side, so make sure the wind is in your favor incase a buck decides to circle before committing.

5. Keep the decoy close to your stand or ground location. Bucks will sometimes get within 10 or 15 yards of the decoy and figure out something isn’t right. By keeping the decoy close, you may still be able to get a shot off before he spooks.

6. Bucks approach decoys differently depending on if it’s a buck or a doe decoy. If it’s a doe decoy, they will mostly likely approach from the rump side of the decoy, so setup the decoy in such a way that you have a good shooting lane directly behind the doe and most of the time you will want to face the doe away from your stand location, so the buck will circle in closer to you.

7. When approaching a buck decoy, most of the time the buck will approach from the front prepared for battle. Make sure your setup allows for the buck to walk into a shooting lane before he gets to the head of the decoy. Also keep in mind, sometimes the buck will charge from a few yards away. If the shot presents itself, take it!

8. Buck and doe scents are a great addition to decoy setups. Use attracting scents that work during the time of year you are using the decoy. If your hunting the rut, then use doe in heat or dominate buck urine to make your setup seem even more realistic.

9. Using a buck and a doe in your setup is a great way to fool a big whitetail. Having a sub-dominate buck tending a doe is a surefire way to set a big whitetail into fight mode. Having the doe bedded about 6-8 yards from your buck decoy is a great way to set the scene and very realistic. Keep the other tips in mind when setting this up to make sure the buck doesn’t approach in such a way you can’t get a shot at him. In this situation the buck will most likely approach the buck decoy, so keep that in mind.

Decoying whitetail deer is a great way to harvest Giant Bucks. It’s a lot of setup and preparation work to get everything right, but during the right time of year with the right setup you can fool a huge buck into bow range that may not have otherwise committed to calling or rattling.

Good Luck this year and if you have questions or stories to share we’d love to hear from you on the Forums!!

Posted by S. Johnson at 09:47 AM | Permalink

This was Written by Tom Dickson, DNR information officer

If you don't hunt, you might wonder what's so appealing about this activity. Why, for example, would anyone sit for hours in a chilly duck blind? Or trudge mile after mile through soggy cattail sloughs? And what's the thrill in trying to kill an animal, anyway? If hunters want to be outdoors and see animals, can't they just watch wildlife without shooting them?

Why someone hunts is a personal matter. Many do it to spend time outdoors with friends or family. Others hunt to continue a tradition passed down from their parents and grandparents. Some go for the satisfaction of providing their own meat or the challenge of outwitting a wild animal. Many hunt simply because they feel an urge to do so. As environmentalist and hunter Aldo Leopold put it, "the instinct that finds delight in the sight and pursuit of game is bred into the very fiber of the race."

It's hard to generalize what hunters are doing when they go afield each fall. But it is possible to explain what hunters are not doing, and to shed light on some aspects of hunting that might puzzle those who don't participate. Hunters aren't killing animals needlessly.

People who say there's no need to kill animals for meat when it can be bought in a grocery store don't understand how food happens: Whether someone eats venison or beef, a big brown-eyed mammal has to die first. The animal doesn't care whether you pay someone else to kill it or you do it yourself.

Of course, vegetarians don't kill animals. Or do they? Most vegetable production is done at the expense of wild creatures, either by converting wildlife habitat to cropland or requiring the application of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Soybeans and corn, for example, are often grown on wetlands that have been drained and plowed. Without a place to nest, a hen mallard doesn't die, but she doesn't raise any young, either.

1. Hunters aren't being cruel to wild animals.

Most wild animals don't pass away in comfort, sedated by veterinary medication. They usually die a violent, agonizing death. Though a hunter's bullet or arrow can cause a wild animal pain and trauma, such a death is no worse than the other ways wildlife perish. A deer not shot eventually will be killed by a car, predator, exposure, or starvation. An old, weakened pheasant doesn't die in its sleep. It gets caught by a hawk and eaten.

Of course, hunters don't do individual wild animals any favors by killing them, but they also don't do anything unnaturally cruel.

2. Hunters aren't dangerous, inept, or trigger-happy.

Hunting would seem more prone to accidents and fatalities than outdoor activities that don't use firearms. Not so. According to National Safety Council statistics, far more people per 100,000 participants are injured while bicycling or playing baseball than while hunting. And the Council's most recent statistics show that while roughly 100 people die nationwide in hunting accidents each year, more than 1,500 die in swimming-related incidents.

One reason for hunting's safety record: Most states require young hunters to pass a firearms safety course. In Minnesota alone, 4,000 volunteer instructors give firearms safety training to 20,000 young hunters each year.

Just as they handle their gun cautiously, so do most hunters strive to kill game as cleanly as possible. Hunters practice their marksmanship, study wildlife behavior and biology, and take pains to follow a wounded animal to ensure any suffering ends quickly.

As do all activities, hunting has its share of scofflaws. But most hunters obey the law and act ethically. To nab the wrongdoers among them, hunters created Turn In Poachers, a nonprofit organization that offers rewards for information leading to the arrest of fish and game law violators.

3. Hunters aren't harming wildlife populations.

Hunters see to that out of self-interest. That's why they support state and federal conservation agencies limiting seasons to just a few weeks or months a year, limiting the number of animals they kill, and placing restrictions on killing females of some species. These regulations help ensure that wildlife populations stay healthy. They also make the pursuit of game more difficult, requiring hunters to use their wits, patience, and hunting skills.

4. Hunters aren't using non-hunters? tax dollars.

Hunters pay their own way, and then some. Minnesota hunters fund almost all Department of Natural Resources habitat acquisition and wildlife research with their license fees and a federal excise tax on hunting equipment. In addition, their financial support pays to improve populations of non-game wildlife. Wetland destruction has wiped out the habitats of many bird species, causing their numbers to decline. Were it not for wetlands bought and improved with state and federal waterfowl stamp revenue and with the contributions of hunting conservation organizations, hunters and others who like to watch wildlife would today see fewer marsh wrens, pied-billed grebes, Forster's terns, and other wetland birds. These are some things that hunters aren't doing.

What I suspect most are doing--if they hunt for the reasons I do--is fulfilling a need to be part of the natural world that observation alone can't satisfy.

Posted by S. Johnson at 02:31 PM | Permalink

For many years the debate has raged about which caliber is best in the brush. Equally debated is if any caliber is good in the brush. When most writers refer to the brush, generally they refer to Northern Tier states and whitetail deer. Brush, however covers a good deal of the Country. Brush is defined as bushes and young trees densely packed in a particular geographic area. For this topic, I am going to stick with Northern states, as their topography is covered with more brushy areas, on average.

In the past couple of decades, gun and ammo folk have tried to develop the quintessential brush rifle test. While some had a basis of merit, most have been dismal inconclusive events. The problem is staging a test where all calibers pass through the exact same amount of brush enroute to a target. Then what is the correct distance from the brush to the target? Distances as much as 20 yards from the brush have been used. Arguably, to more equate to our brush situations, the target should be , if not in the brush, directly beside the brush. What we face is a whitetail standing up in a patch of juniper or prickly ash at a distance of less than fifty yards. Here is the real test.

As for the staged tests, probably one of the better was conducted by the late Jack O’Connor in 1962. Having hunted the brushy draws of the Southwest and evergreen mazes in Maine, he was uniquely qualified to do the test, although he mentioned the inequality in the amount of brush encountered by various rounds. After all the rounds were fired, a characteristic of a brush-penetrating rifle became prominent. Heavy blunt bullets deflect less. Odd to me that all of the various experts did not arrive at that realization without the shallow tests that were run, except then they would noit have gotten to shoot up all that ammo…hmmm. Yes, the 12 gauge was the overall winner in the majority of tests done with the 45/70 (405 Govt) and 35 Remington (200 Grain) finishing at the top of rifles.

Basic physics tells us that a cone-shaped object traveling at a rapid rate will deflect in the opposite direction from whatever part of the cone contacts an obstruction. While a round or blunt object will exert more energy into moving the obstruction out of the way. See, all us rural, agricultural, earthy folks already realized that. Had we been able to afford fancy weapons, we would have still reached for the Savage 99, Winchester 94 or Marlin 336 (yeah I know there some Winchester 88’s there, too) in 30/30, 35 Remington, 32 Special, 38-55, and 32-40. We did that because these calibers have filled larders for 150 years.

Now for the Ron Spomers out there that claim no bullet is any better than any other in the brush…I understand somebody has declared him an expert. Opinionated yes…expert is up for debate. The same guy that says a fixed 6 power scope is the ideal heavy cover optic says pointed bullets enjoy as much success going through brush as any other bullet. According to Spomer it is a matter of luck in getting past brush. O’Connor would have a field day with him. O’Connor, the proponent of very light magnification scopes with wide fields-of-views, came up with a new round to be chambered in a quick handling lever or pump action rifle. He proposed taking the 8X57 and necking it up to 338 cal. Loaded with 225 or 250 grain round nose bullets. Writer Jim Carmichael, O’Connor’s long time friend and colleague, dubbed the round the 338X57 O’Connor. If only someone had built it. The round would have tooted along at 2500FPS and destroyed anything in its way.

We have a version of what O’Connor envisioned in the 338 Federal, although not widely chambered yet. The round is too fast for O’Connor’s taste, causing more recoil than necessary, but does it produce! If a good pump or Marlin lever gets chambered in 338 Federal I will be at the front of the line.

When you head outside – take a youngster with you and pass it forward. God Bless.

Posted by H. DeLong at 09:25 AM | Permalink