Whitetail

The future of any whitetail herd is in the success and survival of each year's fawn crop. Deer are exceptionally adaptive but certainly require adequate cover for safety. Trying to grow "giant bucks" is futile if you fail to maintain a positive fawn recruitment rate. What is fawn recruitment rate...

Everyone knows to not disturb a bird’s nest. In fact, many folks enforce the myth that birds abandon every egg or fledgling touched by humans. Why, then, must wildlife agencies remind the masses each May and June to keep their mitts off “abandoned” fawns curled beneath shrubs, backyard decks, and...

In the grand scheme of things, bedding areas are small. Usually, you're working with one or two core locations, and often not more than a handful of acres in size and sometimes it's as small as your living room. So it's important to maximize the overall use and effectiveness of these areas. The more...

Safety, cover, and high-quality forage are key for whitetail management. Provide those features and you will immediately improve the huntability of your food plots and how frequently deer utilize the space. However, you must also consider crop height, cover screens, protein levels, and soil...

If you’re into math, read on. We’ll be doing a whole lot of it. Me? I’m not a math guy. I rely on numbers only when absolutely necessary. But this discussion is one of those instances. In Michigan, we have pretty fair turkey hunting. But a late-April opener and a one-bird limit leaves too much...

Snow softly popped beneath my boot like wet popcorn as I eased my heel, then toe, down to the ground. I leaned forward, squinted eyes searching ahead, and thumbed the safety on my rifle. It was there, I was ready. I had to be ready. “He could be right up hee-ya,” Hal whispered back to me in his...