MikeHanback.com

Buy It: Hooyman Tree Saw

You need to spend $40 for this thing, especially if you hang a lot of bow stands. The Hooyman saw fits in your pack and telescopes out to 5 feet. Whether you’re on the ground or strapped into a stand 18 feet up, use it to reach out and trim branches, vines and shooting lanes.The carbon blade is guaranteed sharp and durable. You'll never lug a big, heavy pole saw into the woods again. You'll never miss another deer because your arrow clipped a @%&&**$ branch you could not reach.

527 Shed Antlers (and other good stuff from this week)

Awesome week on the blog, to recap:

I added up all your shed comments and emails, and the BIG DEER bloggers have found 527 bones so far. Chris in Iowa found this 6-point beauty. Can you say 12-point monster typical this fall? Chris reports that he is excited :)

Velvet bucks were out in force across the nation, guys were spotting records numbers in places. Wonder if the full moon on June 18th and/or the Summer Solstice (20th) had anything to do with it? Always looking for deer-movement theories, man. Antler growth seems to be good to great in most areas.

SCOTUS did the right thing and affirmed our INDIVIDUAL right to own guns for self-defense and hunting. The whining, sniveling antis on TV keep pointing out that Justice Scalia is a hunter--right on!

I was most impressed with the archery advice you guys passed on to Delvin as he searches for a new bow. I must warn you that Delvin will soon be in discussions with Luke Strommen about traditional gear. Luke is, well, a traditional nut. He grew up hunting Milk River bucks with recurves, longbows and wooden arrows--that is all his dad, Eliot, and his brothers shoot to this day. As a kid (hell, he's still a kid, look at the picture) he even hung with the Wensel brothers for some years. When Luke is done with him there is a good shot Delvin will be hunting with a recurve this October. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Have a good weekend, thanks as always for your support.

Barbecued Venison in Beer

Mike: Since you are one of the premier hunting bloggers, I thought you and your readers might be interested in my new book, The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook. It contains a wide selection of wild game recipes made with beer, such as Squirrel Dinner for Two, Grilled Dove, Barbecued Venison and Sweet & Sour Trout.  With more than 400 food and drink recipes that all use beer as an ingredient, it is the largest beer cookbook to ever be published. Enjoy! John Schlimm

Click here to order John’s cookbook from Amazon. Try this recipe and tell me what you think. Sounds easy and good.

Barbecued Venison (Page 168)

6 Servings
 
Ingredients:

12 ounces beer
3 cloves garlic
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
2 onions (sliced)
3 bay leaves
3 pounds venison round steak (trim away excess fat)
2 cups barbecue sauce of choice

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the beer, garlic, salt, pepper, onions, and bay leaves, mixing well.  Add the venison to the mixture, coating it completely.  Refrigerate the venison for 12 hours to overnight, occasionally turning it.  Remove the venison and onions from the marinade and place them in a crock-pot.  Pour 1 cup of the barbecue sauce over the venison and cover the crock-pot.  Cook the venison on low for 11 hours or until desired doneness.  Serve the venison with the remaining barbecue sauce.

BTW, I’ve started a venison recipes category on the BIG DEER blog for all you game cooks. Send me your favorite to post and share.

Breaking News: Supreme Court Rules Americans have Right to Own Guns for Self-Defense and Hunting

From the AP and Yahoo News (click to read it all):

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

This is a landmark decision, a great day for us and a tremendous defeat for the anti-gunners and by extension the anti-hunters.   

Summer Buck Groups (18 to 80 in a gang is a lot!)

Two days ago from Dean in IN:

Mike: The deer have been very active. I saw a huge bachelor group last night; actually I guess you would say one group of 10 and another group of 8. A 4-wheeler buzzed down the road I was on; they spooked into each other and left the soybean field as one.

How many bucks are generally in a summer bachelor group? I know groups aren't static, but the average gang I see has between 3 and 7 members.

Yesterday from Dean:

I saw the same group of 18 last night on the back side of the property. They seem to be hanging as one big group right now. I also saw another group of 11 about 2 miles north of there. There seem to be some dingers in this group as well!

The number of bucks I'm seeing is unreal and has surpassed last summer so far. I think that since there are so many more bucks per capita in this area, the bachelor groups are growing. But, I'm seeing some smaller groups in the same areas too. I'm not sure what the moon is right now, but the deer (bucks in particular) are out and about and how! Thanks, Dean

I agree with Deano, from what I've witnessed a gang of 3 to 6 is pretty common. (See picture of "4 Amigos" my buddy CJ Davis got in SC last summer.) But Dean might be onto something--with more bucks per acre in many areas, the groups have naturally grown in numbers. Mature bucks tolerate the young bucks and let them hang around this time of year, so you get a big mix of bucks.

Out West buck groups (whitetail) tend to be been larger. Luke Strommen on the Milk River MT says: "I have seen bach groups with as many as 20 bucks (give or take) in an alfalfa field. Most of those bucks will be in the 1 1/2- to 3 1/2 year-old range. Mature bucks seem to hang in smaller groups and come into a field in their own corners (good spot for your tree stand). I have counted 140 head of deer in a field before dark, 80 to 90 of them bucks (September and velvet). Does that count as a bachelor group, LOL?"

Interesting stuff. So, how many velvet bucks have the rest of you been seeing?

Help Needed: Which New Bow would You Recommend?

Mike: I am in the market for a new bow and the folks on your blog seem to be the “real” hunter type. I do not take the time to pour over all the reviews of the latest gizmos. I would be interested in some down to earth advice for a normal guy with a budget. I am willing to pay for quality but not hype. Delvin

Let's help him out, what bow would you recommend for the money?

Missouri Court: Landowners Immune from Hunting Accidents

One day in April 2004, two people went hunting on a Missouri farm, both had permission. Tragically, one hunter mistook the other for a turkey and shot him. The farmer was named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit because the accident occurred on his land. Attorneys for the deceased claimed the farmer could have warned the men that more than one person would be hunting there that day.

The suit made it all way to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled that a landowner who gives people free access is immune to injury or death lawsuits on his property.

The ruling didn’t get much ink, but I see it as a landmark precedent for hunting-land access. Suppose the court had ruled the farmer negligent? With the threat of a lawsuit hanging over their heads and ruining their lives, why would anybody ever give hunters permission again?

I sense this was a cut-dried ruling because Missouri has a Recreational Use Act that provides immunity for landowners who give free access for hunting, camping, etc. Your state may or may not have such a law.

It doesn’t matter. When somebody gives you permission to hunt his or her land, you and only you are responsible for your actions. Think about that the next time you load your gun, climb a tree, aim at a deer…you get the picture. Be careful and safe, hunt at your own risk.

BTW, I once met a guy who drafted a simple contract and offered it to every person he asked for permission. It said that he (the hunter) was hunting at his own risk, and that he would never sue the landowner for an accident. I don’t know how much legal weight such a disclaimer would carry, and I am not recommending it cause I’m no attorney. But the guy said you would not believe how many more awesome places he got to hunt because of it. I found that interesting.

Source: Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press

90 Antlers & a New Shed-Hunting Dog

Robert, a.k.a. SHEDHEAD, sent this great report from northwest Missouri:

Howdy Mike: This year’s shed season turned out to be pretty good. I found a total of 90 sheds, 18 dead antlered bucks and 3 dead shed bucks (love those shed buck skulls).

The season was one of the oddest I've ever encountered. It started off slowly. We saw many antlered deer well into March. I really didn't start finding any until mid-March. By March 1 last year I had 77 sheds (this year only 20 by that date). We never found anything of any real size (big for us is a 70" plus shed) but we did find several in the mid to upper 60s.

Last August we got a Labrador pup and I started working with her and a shed antler. First we would just play fetch. Then I started hiding them and let her find them. Then I would take about 7 sheds into the pasture near the house, hide them and let them lay for several days to get my scent off them. I would tell her to "hunt 'em up" and she would start bird-dogging till she found one. She’d bring it back and then go looking again.

The training definitely worked. She found 19 sheds unassisted this spring. The ones I found, I had her find “assisted.” There's no better feeling than seeing your dog pop out in front of you with an antler in her mouth.

She also found 3 dead bucks but would not retrieve them. She would stand or sit by them till I came over and acknowledged her. I think she wouldn't retrieve because once I scolded her for chewing on a dead deer. She’s a house dog and doesn’t smell too good after eating rotten deer :)

Keep up the awesome work, always look forward to your blog. Robert

I doubt many of you found 90, but tell us how many sheds you did find and in what state. It will be interesting to see how many total antlers the BIG DEER bloggers picked up—300, 500, 1,000, more? And run across any dead antlered bucks? The 18 that Robert found sounds like a lot.

Anybody else got a shed-hunting dog? How cool is that.

Ruff & Tuff Electric 4-Wheeler

Ruff and Tuff, whose mission is “to help save the planet by providing people with transportation methods that are better for the environment and that save people money versus the gasoline powered alternatives,” announces the launch of the first-ever, single-motor, 4-wheel-drive electric hunting vehicle. The Hunter 4x4 is supposedly powerful (14 HP), quiet and has a 50-mile range on a single charge with its “clean and green” dry-cell battery system (48 volt, onboard charger). It can reach top speeds up to 25 mph.

The question: Would you spend $9,500 for an electric 4-wheeler (base price)? With $5 gas this fall and maybe $10 next season, I’m betting a lot of hunters would (will). Sales of electric scooters and even grass mowers are through the roof, so why not hunting buggies?

Personally I would like the hum of this machine--one of my theories is be quiet as you can so you don’t tell a big deer you are coming in to hunt him. But I’d want a thorough test drive to see how powerful this thing is. Would it have enough giddy-up to bust up out of a bog and onto a ridge with a 200-plus gutted buck on the back? The website says the 2-person model (picture) can "tackle hillsides with up to a 1,000 pounds of people and equipment aboard" so it ought to do the job.

One of the Best Deer Funnels to Bowhunt

Last week we got a good discussion going about suburban deer. Bill talked about bowhunting an urban zone near Indianapolis:

One of the best stand sites backs up against the interstate. Weird being in that tree before daybreak and hearing cars and trucks going behind me. But it turns out to be a great travel route. They go from park property on the other side of the interstate, follow a creek under the interstate and move through the property. Two 10 pointers and a good-sized 8 were taken last year.

He hits on a killer bow tactic. A bridge access or box culvert beneath a busy interstate or a lonely rural road is a great deer funnel. Whitetails are like us; they take the easiest, safest path from A to B whenever they can. Why jump a fence, clatter across 2 or 4 lanes of blacktop and dodge cars when you could stroll casually and hidden in a ditch or creek beneath a highway? Just look at the picture--if you were a buck wouldn't you walk through there?

I have never shot a buck in a funnel like this, but I know a lot of guys who have. Try it if one exists where you hunt. Check the creek/river bank or culvert mud and you’ll see all the tracks. Analyze the trail that runs out from the funnel and hang a stand maybe 80 to 100 yards or farther off the road (your state might have a minimum legal hunting distance from a public road, so know that and abide). Set up high on a bank if you can. If it’s open country like the picture and you can glass the funnel for a buck coming or going through it, that’s good. Anybody tried this?

Note: Strictly a bow tactic. For obvious reasons never gun hunt close to a road funnel.