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Season Premiere Night on VERSUS: The Buck Stops Here and 5 Other Awesome Hunting Shows!
Posted On: September 3, 2010 | By: mike hanback
VERSUS, the most-watched sports cable network in the country for outdoor programming, debuts 6 season premieres of heart-pounding hunting shows tonight, Friday, September 3. All times Eastern:
7:00 p.m. Winchester World of Whitetail: Larry Weishuhn works with new ammo and hunts a buck.
7:30 p.m. Winchester Whitetail Revolution: Joe Codd is in Kentucky, pulling out all the stops to score a buck. You’ll also see the first of 10 new Buck of a Lifetime segments hosted by Hanback. I think this is the best batch of big-buck profiles we’ve done yet.
8:00 p.m. The Buck Stops Here with Mike Hanback: Back out on the Montana Milk River, baby! Nuff said, just watch!
8:30 p.m. The Bucks of Tecomate featuring Jeff Foxworthy and David Morris: David and friends hunt the vast prairies of Eastern Colorado for monster bucks.
9:30 p.m. Elk Fever
10:00 p.m. The Best and Worst of Tred Barta: My buddy is back in action, heading out to hunt for elk in this action-packed episode. God bless you, Tred, I'll be watching.
Thanks for supporting all our shows (and set your DVRs). comment
Acorn Update: Heavy In Your Hunting Area?
Posted On: September 3, 2010 | By: mike hanback
On FB, my friend and colleague Bill Winke said there are more acorns already on the ground in all parts of the Midwest than is typical for this time of year. Black and red oaks are loaded and seem best for the deer in his part of southern Iowa.
Rob said that in southern Ohio there hasn’t been this much mast in years. The white oaks are really producing, and lots of blacks and red oaks as well.
Charles confirmed a boom year for white oaks. He has already noticed less action on his cams near clover fields.
All these knowledgeable hunters point out that the heavy mast wil make the early-season bowhunting tricky. You’ll see fewer deer in and around fields and food plots and the stands you've hung there. In heavy acorn years, deer scatter out more and feed deeper in the woods. TIP: Move a cam back in the woods and set it on a well-pocked trail near heavy acorns--I bet you find at least one good buck.
Tree-stand placement and tweaking will be critical. Hot evening stands will be near productive oak trees, and good morning sets will be on trails in funnels that head back into cover.
What is the status of the acorns in your area? I'd like to get a nationwide report. If you haven’t checked yet, make a swing through your woods and let us know.
Some of you hunt where there are no oaks/acorns. Is there a preferred mast that your deer like to eat? comment
Best Summer Job: Dart-Gunning Deer for a Tennessee Research Project
Posted On: September 2, 2010 | By: mike hanbackWhat did you do this summer? Austin had the coolest job I know of, and he sent this report:
Mike: As part of a team of research assistants for the University of Tennessee, we were hired to shoot (using dart guns) 10 does and 10 bucks on a WMA in south-central Tennessee this summer. The guns were loaded with darts containing the appropriate drug mixtures to immobilize the whitetails, and GPS transmitters were inserted into the animals to track them once hit.
The dart guns we used have a maximum range of about 30 yards, so essentially it was bowhunting with a 3-9 scope and badass!
Telemetry equipment was used to track the deer to their downed location. The animals were fitted with ear tags and GPS collars to track their movements. We monitored pulse oxygen rate, heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature, and took live weights and hair samples. The entire process for each deer averaged about an hour; we then administered a reversal drug to allow the deer to recover and leave the area under full control.
The research purpose is to track deer movement throughout the hunting seasons—specifically, to find out what types of cover the deer seek out, and to monitor how movement and pressure relate to vehicle strikes along highways in the area. GPS collars on each deer send off signals to a satellite, which are then sent to a computer to locate the animals’ exact coordinates. Collared deer can be hunted and shot at any point during the legal season; the results should be interesting to see where and to what extreme deer movement occurs from the result of hunting pressure.
BTW, the ages of the bucks we darted were 2½ years (five animals), 3½ (3) and 4½ (2). We saw one of the older bucks again later in the summer, and he is a solid P&Y 10-point, about 130”. –Thanks, Austin.Great stuff, thanks Austin. comment
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