Category: Deer Management Tips

Question: “I have land for deer hunting in Eastern Kansas. I want to grow bigger bucks, but I know that I have several full-rack whitetail bucks that I have seen this hunting season with missing brow tines. Should I remove these deer from my herd? In addition, I am also seeing quite a few spikes, most of them with spikes that are more than 10 inches in length, with decent mass too. Should these bucks be taken or will they grow to be larger bucks in the future? Any deer management info for this situation would be appreciated.”

Response: If you want to produce and grow bigger bucks, then I suggest learning as much as you can about deer management techniques. Manipulation of habitat and selective deer harvest can help by improving age and modifying genetics. Of course, property size is important in how much you can do for the deer in your area. The more property you have, the more you can do to help the animals in your area.

My first recommendation is to learn to age deer on the hoof. It really helps to judge a buck by his head gear based on his age. Bucks with missing brow tines should be candidates for harvest. This also goes for spikes, especially if they are 2.5 years of age or older. Most spikes are yearling bucks (1.5 years of age), and can be shot to allow the best bucks to grow and reproduce. Shooting spikes will decrease the number of bucks that reach maturity though. You must decide if you want to allow the best bucks to grow, or simply just have more mature deer.

Antler characteristics are based on genetics, so what you see is what you get. Young bucks with better than average antlers will grow up to be much better deer than say two or four point yearling bucks. Land owners that want to grow bigger bucks must manage for age, genetics and nutrition. Keep the deer numbers and the appropriate level for your habitat and that will help the bucks on your property reach their genetic potential. Selective deer hunting is just one part of the equation, but no important than the other two elements.

Hunters across the white-tailed deer’s range know that one of the best deer management practices out there is providing free-choice supplemental feed. In Texas, many hunters use food plots in the fall for deer hunting purposes, but more ranches use protein feeders for deer hunting than other other method of supplemental feeding. Protein pellets were initially offered in troughs, then came the feeder tubes and now this interesting protein feeder design from a well-known manufacturer.

Texas Hunter Products, a San Antonio based company known for making quality products for outdoor enthusiasts for over 50 years, has developed and patented a new feeder that makes feeding protein pellets easy and cost effective. Bob Brock, the company’s president had this to say about the feeder, “It’s one of the simplest and most affordable ways to accelerate antler growth in deer populations.” Continue reading Protein Feeders for Deer Hunting, Management

Landowners and deer managers want to grow and produce big whitetail bucks—and hunters want to shoot them. If no one wanted to shoot them, then why would we put so much time and effort into deer management operations? The truth is that white-tailed deer represent THE big game animal of the majority of US hunters. But big bucks are not just susceptible to hunters, they can also be affected, even killed, by testosterone poisoning. So what is testosterone poisoning in deer, you ask?

Whitetail bucks go through many changes on an annual basis. Bucks experience antler growth, then those same antlers fall off. Bucks live happily in harmony during the summer, but then they fight to the death in the fall. Most of the major events in a buck’s life occur because of a single hormone, testosterone. For the most part, testosterone simply makes bucks more aggressive. Continue reading Whitetail Deer Rut: Testosterone Poisoning of Bucks