MikeHanback.com

More Roadkill: Hungry?

From George minutes ago: Mike, since your theme of the day is roadkill, thought you'd enjoy this. Hungry? LOL.

More Road-Kill: Ohio Couple Hits Doe, Delivers Fawn

On the heels of our earlier post about deer in the road, this just in from the Port Clinton (Ohio) News Herald.com:

Wade and Cindy Sutherland had no time to react when a large deer jumped over the concrete guardrail Wednesday on Ohio 2 and smashed into the hood of their car… "We backed up to make sure it wasn't suffering," she said. "All of a sudden, little hooves were sticking out of it. I said, 'Oh no, she's having a baby.'" The Erie Township couple parked their car beside the doe… While semi-trucks roared by them, the couple delivered a tiny, white-spotted female fawn.

The 7-pounder was turned over to a wildlife rehabilitation center where it is doing fine and will be released back into the wild this fall. Sadly, the mama doe and another fawn inside her did not survive. So far as I can tell nobody is going to eat the road kill.

Happy Ending #2: Cindy to the paper, "I got our income tax refund yesterday, and we're going to use that and our stimulus check to get a new car."

Manitoba: Monster Velvet Archery Buck

“Know anything about this one, Mike?” Ron asked after seeing it on the Boone and Crockett website:

This giant whitetail was reportedly taken near LaBroquerie, Manitoba by a youth using archery tackle. No further information is currently available, but we'll update this post as soon as we learn more.

Actually, I do know more. I have the U.S. rights to the story and lots more pictures of Colin Bourrier’s massive velvet giant. The feature article will appear in Sportsman’s Bowhunting Annual magazine due to hit newsstands later this summer. Once the magazine hits, I’ll reprint the story here.

A couple of teasers: Colin’s first archery buck…shot last August out back of his house…nobody had ever seen the monster before…highest-scoring whitetail ever killed with a bow by a kid Colin’s age, I believe…final score…well, you’ll have to wait and read that in the magazine.

 

Would You Eat Road-Kill Doe?

ALERT! Watch out for deer in the road, especially at dawn and dusk and night. The PA Game Commission points out that in the spring deer travel farther than normal in search of food, often congregating in grassy areas along busy highways. Also, as does get ready to drop their fawns, they kick off last year’s fawns; the young, disoriented deer run across roads and cause accidents. The young bucks disperse especially far, maybe 5 to 20 miles, as they look for a home range where they will live happily ever after.

So be careful, you sure as hell don’t need to spend $100 for a tank of gas and then smash a deer and have to shell out another $500 deductible or more to get your car or truck fixed.

BTW, I read that in PA and other states, you can keep a doe that you kill with your car if you call a wildlife office and tell them you are carrying home the road kill. But if you smash a buck with any size rack later this summer you have to turn him over to the authorities. Weird. Whatever happened to finders keepers?

Which bring us to the question of the day? Would you eat road-kill doe? Somebody told me one time it’s not all that bad, pulverized and tenderized, but I’ll pass, especially this time of year.

Texas Axis Deer

Mike: This is what I do down here in Texas during the lull following the whitetail and spring turkey seasons. I took this free-ranging axis buck off the recreational deer lease I hold this past Wednesday afternoon. He weighed in at 246#, had 35" main beams, and a 28 1/2" inside spread. Have you ever hunted this species? They are a fantastic animal, I spend hours observing and filming them on the lease. We probably have more free-ranging exotics on the lease than whitetails. Regards, Wren 

Wren, I've never hunted an axis deer, but that is one beautiful animal! Anybody else on the blog ever got one...Rodger, Big Daddy, anyone?

How NOT to Settle a Treestand Dispute

Minnesota conservation officer Matt Frericks took a cell call from a young hunter in a tree stand. The boy yelped that he was being confronted by a mad guy on the ground who said he had built the stand, thus owned it and thus the squatter should get the hell down. The young hunter shot back that since the stand was on public land, anybody could use it. The mad guy stormed off, came back with a chainsaw, and warned the young hunter one last time to get down or he would cut the stand down. The young hunter relented and scrambled down; the madman proceeded to fell the tree! The CO showed up and "enforcement action was taken on the hunter (cutter) who thought he owned the stand."

This is a ridiculous but TRUE story with a motto: Never climb into a stranger's stand, not even if it's on state land. The public domain issue aside, it's just not the right thing to do. Besides, don't you want to shoot a buck in a spot you found and from a stand you set?

Another New York Giant Buck (172 3/8" drops and mass!)

Marc from NYbowhunter.com sent this a while back: Hi Mike, how's it going? I just came across this monster that was taken on November 17, 2007 in Broome County, NY by Rocco DiRosa. The 14-point buck gross-scored 172 3/8 and netted 167 5/8. You can find more pictures here.

Wow, the little drops are cool, lol, but look at the mass on that old animal. NY has more big deer than I thought, will have to get up there and hunt me one someday :)

Bullwinkle (the Deer) Shot in Alabama

No Photoshop conspiracy theory here. Gordon Murph killed this big-nosed buck in Escambia County, AL last January. David Murph said of the weird critter his uncle shot, “Other than the swollen face, he was healthy. He had plenty of fat on him. I've been told that back in October, a neighboring club got pictures of this same buck on a game camera, and he had the swollen nose then.”

The buck had a disease that is being tracked by the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the Univ. of Georgia. Scattered cases of big-nosed deer have been reported across the South and up to Delaware. Scientists say it appears to be a bacterial infection. It is affecting few deer at this point, and they don’t see any grave impacts to herd health yet.

But officials want to know more. If you or a buddy were to shoot a Big Nose this fall, take it to the nearest wildlife agency so they can extract tissue samples. Don’t freeze the head, because that ruins the samples.

Then mount that thing as is--imagine the looks and comments your Buckwinkle would get!

Update: Rambo's Bow & Broadheads

Back in January I asked if anybody knew which bow Stallone was shooting in the latest Rambo flick, which was pretty gruesome with a death toll of something like 236. There was a lot of speculation, but I knew we would eventually get to the bottom of it, believe it or not there are people out there who actually research these kinds of things. Cartertown.com says:

In the new movie "Rambo" Stallone reportedly used a Hoyt Matrix and a Hoyt Gamemaster. He requested the Gamemaster at 70# and traded for 50# after a few weeks. This apparently has to do with the fact that he's expected to remain at full draw for unreasonable lengths of time during the filming process. I have read that the "exploding tips" were actually the "Razorbak 5" broadheads in their protective plastic covers and painted gold.

For more click the link, which has a lot of cool photos and the modern history on all the Hoyt bows Sly used in the Rambo series. There's even a section on Rambo's knives.

Big Daddy Hunts Africa

Hey Mike: Hunting whitetails is my first love but you can't hunt them year-round. So during the northern hemisphere's summer I go to Africa. Here's a picture of a cape buffalo I killed in July 2007 while hunting in Tanzania's Selous Reserve. The bull had a spread of 42" and weighed over 2000 pounds. One shot from my .458WM between the eyes from 20 yards put him on the ground. Big Daddy

Thanks, BD. It is always great to put the face with the name of the blogger. To all the rest, send me a picture of you with a buck, shooting a bow, holding a shed, whatever. So long as it's legal and rated PG-13 I'll post it. BTW, later this summer we'll have a forum feature where it will be easy to post your photos and stories, stay tuned and thanks for your support.