Do Whitetail Bucks Ever Mate With Their Own Doe Offspring?
Nov 16, 2022Lindsay Thomas Jr.
The whitetail rut is a frenzied scramble. Literally, that’s the biological term for the whitetail breeding strategy – “scramble competition” – because a buck’s success at breeding does is determined mostly by his ability to…
read more
The Two Best Times to See Deer, Every Day of the Year
Sep 7, 2022Matt Ross
It was inevitable. The mature buck stepped into my shooting lane, broadside, within easy bow range – and I just couldn’t bring myself to draw back and shoot. Up until the 2021 season, I routinely…
read more
The Mysterious Adventure of an Exceptional Buck
Nov 3, 2021Lindsay Thomas Jr.
it’s difficult to trap a good deer scientist. They leave themselves room to maneuver when you ask them for certainty about deer behavior, a sort of scientific CYA. Good deer scientists say “usually” instead of…
read more
Cold Fronts May Get Hunters On Their Feet, But Bucks Answer a Different Call
Oct 6, 2021Lindsay Thomas Jr.
Don’t say it. Do not say it! Don’t say the cold front has got the bucks on their feet. You are going to say it, aren’t you? Seriously, listen to yourself this fall. You’re going…
read more
Deer Movement is a Mystery. Stop Trying to Solve It.
Sep 30, 2020Lindsay Thomas Jr.
7 antlered bucks at one time. That’s what I was watching on the afternoon of November 17, 2018. One by one they entered a large food plot from different directions, all of them yearlings to…
read more
What Scientists Learned that Changed How They Hunt Mature Bucks
Aug 26, 2020Dr. Jacob Haus, Dr. Jacob Bowman and Joe Rogerson
As professional white-tailed deer biologists, we are constantly prodded by friends and family for some type of insider information that could help improve their odds of encountering mature deer. It is always a tough question…
read more
Now You See Him: 9 Things We Know About Deer Excursions
Nov 6, 2019Matt Ross
Nothing about whitetails ever seems routine, does it? Just when you think you’ve got ‘em figured out, they seemingly throw another curve ball in the grand scheme of World Series play we call “hunting.” But that…
read more
When is Peak Rut? Your Trail-Cameras Can Tell You.
Nov 15, 2017Lindsay Thomas Jr.
When you harvest a doe late in a hunting season, you can measure any fetuses the doe is carrying using a special scale and determine when they were conceived. With enough fetal measurements, you can…
read more
The Power of the First Sit
Oct 10, 2017Alex Comstock
It’s a tried and true piece of advice you hear from deer hunters throughout the country. Save your best spots until the best time of the year. Don’t go in and muck up an area….
read more
Yearling-Buck Dispersal: How Far, How Fast, How Many?
Oct 4, 2017Lindsay Thomas Jr.
Each fall, many yearling bucks will strike out from the range where they were born, mostly in a straight line, onto ground they have never seen before. Mama is not coming with them, and they…
