MikeHanback.com

'Should You Leave a Deer Overnight?

Mike: Guys on TV shoot bucks late in the day. The animals run off and the hunters do the famous “back out” so as not to push them. I think I have even seen you do this on Versus. The guys always come back in the morning and find their bucks dead. My question: If a deer has been shot and left in the woods all night for 12 hours, is the meat really okay to eat? How long before it spoils? Even if it is cold out I'm not sure I would eat it. Help me out? Jim 

Jim: Great question. BTW, I can’t recall having left a buck all night on a Versus show. I do remember one episode where we tracked and found a MT 8-pointer with Coleman lanterns, that was pretty good.

Anyhow, I never like to leave a deer overnight because no matter the weather, there is always a chance the meat will spoil, or coyotes will find it. If I shoot a buck with a bullet or a saboted pill, or if I know I got two lungs with a broad-head, I always follow the deer in the dark. I agree with something you allude to: Some hunters are too quick to leave them overnight.

But, if you hit a buck so-so or poorly at dark with a broad-head, esp. in the guts, you have to wait, lest you jump the deer and drive him off your property to be lost.

How long? If the temp will stay in the mid-30s or lower you should be able to leave him all night. The meat should be okay, but no guarantees; if it has spoiled, you will know by the rancid smell when you gut. But if the temp will be in the 40s or 50s or up that night, the meat will almost certainly spoil if you wait 12 hours. Go home for 2 to 4 hours, come back with a buddy and powerful lamps, pick up the blood and try like hell to find your deer. Most of the time you can.

How many of you have left deer at dark? Was the meat okay? Has a coyote gotten one? Let's talk and learn more.

Update: White-Eyed Canadian Buck

Mike: Thought you might like to see the mount of my white-eyed Canadian buck. After your first post on the deer, a few of your readers asked to see it. Thanks, Bryan Rush

In case you missed it, Jeff sent this theory as to the deer's weird eye color. Amazing what you learn on this blog, huh?

The white-eyed deer was most likely suffering from what is known as "ocular albanism." Very simlpy, this is another melanin-related deficieny that affects many humans and forms of wildlife. The presence of melanin in the eyes is the agent that is responsible for most human and animal eyes being brown. Obviously, a complete lack of melanin in the eyes results in ocular albanism, or "eye albanism" and white eyes! Hope this helps, Jeff

So if you see a white-eyed buck coming through the woods and giving you the evil eye, now you know.

Hunt Deep: Lone Wolf Assassin Stand

In a recent post I mentioned that I have killed some of my best bucks by putting a tree stand on my back and taking off for rough-ass ridges and hollows where other hunters never wanted to go. Getting deer back out was hell sometimes, but that was part of it.

BTW, any lazy butt who kills a deer and then has the audacity to complain about the work once the animal is down will never hunt with me. If you are doing it right, wrestling a buck over and around logs, sweating a river, stumbling, bumbling back to the truck is strangely fun and invigorating, whether it takes 10 minutes or 4 hours.

Brett, a college kid, wrote and said he was fit and fired up and wanted to hunt like that. What stand would I recommend?

A climber will do, but a new option is a “micro platform” like the Lone Wolf Assassin; it’s designed for the deep-woods hunter. I tested one and it was very cool. The 18” x 14” aluminum stand weighs 6 lbs. and fits in a backpack. You can carry it anywhere and, with a few screw steps, hang it on any size or shape tree for a quick buck ambush. It comes with a sling-style seat/safety harness combo. Not cheap at $219, but a quality product. (lonewolfstands.com).

What I would give to be 23 again like Brett. With all the giants that roam the woods these days, I’d go deep with an Assassin, have a blast, kill a bunch of big deer and work like hell to get them out. You young guys, try it. You guys over 40, stick to a bigger lock-on with stick steps or a wuss ladder, both of which I use a lot now.

Eggers IL Bow Giant: "Damn Bug" Lowers Net Score

Jeff Lampe, who I told you last week knows more about all the giants that fall in Illinois than anybody, gives us this tidbit: Some kind of funky parasite cost Joel Eggers’ gigantic 11-point typical (shot with a bow in Randolph Co.) 5 to 10 inches of net score. In a recent blog post Jeff wrote:

The rack had a major deduction for some abnormal growth at the spot where the G4 point meets the main beam. A hole in the main beam appears to have been made by a parasite. Agreed measurer Tim Walmsley, “When they do that, sometimes they divert the growth. He had the sheds from the year before and they were clean, so it’s not a genetic thing. It was a damn bug hole.” In this case, growth was diverted to the G4 point at the expense of the main beam, which wound up 5 inches shorter than the other beam.

Damn bug work and all, the Eggers Buck still netted 190 6/8. Jeff says it is likely the largest typical bow kill in Illinois, and probably bigger than any typical killed with a gun as well. Wow!

Moreover, now you know what caused that gnarly bump or hole on one of your best racks—damn bug!

Cool Winter Coyote Hunt

Scott Geurink wrote and said he was going out to try to thump a few coyotes in Illinois. I wrote back, “Sounds fun, send me story/pics.” He did:

Hi Mike: First day stared out great, got stuck in a ditch and pulled out by a school bus, LOL. We hunted 2 days, saw 21 coyotes and killed 2. A lot of them were off our property, but all the action was nice! We called in one that my buddy, John, shot (first picture); he used a Tikka .223 with Black Hills 52-grain V-Max ammo.

The 12" plus crunchy snow was loud and hard for walking, but it was fun. I finally got into position and shot one at 400 plus, a great memory for me. We had to trail the coyote through the snow and up and down steep ridges. I thought I was going to die by the time we found him! I should be in better shape from all the hard trailing :)

BTW, I was shooting a New England Firearms .223 single shot (second picture) with Black Hills 52-grain match hollow-point ammo. It’s a cheaper gun than most, but man can it pound nails! I've shot a 5-shot group at 120 yards and covered it up with a quarter. Not bad for a $200 dollar gun. Thanks, Scott

A few of observations:

You know you are in a good place with our kind of people when a school bus driver pulls hunters out the ditch. In a lot of places these days they’d leave us stranded. 

We’ve got a lot of guys Scott’s and John’s age on the blog—great to see ya’ll obsessed with guns and hunting, we need more of that in America.

You can fell as much game (more) with a $200 gun as with a $2,000 rifle if it is one of the good ones; you use accurate ammo and a good scope; and shoot a lot.

We all need to kill more coyotes (black bears, cougars, wolves too). To hell with the antis and greenies, gun hunting is the only way to control predators. Good job Scott and John for taking out 2.

Proper Bow-Shooting Stance

Hey Mike: This picture illustrates the perfect stance when shooting a bow at either a target or a deer. Notice the good body/chest positioning, the full extension of the bow arm and the correct angle of the release arm for a true, straight shot. I am so inspired that I am going out back to shoot some more arrows now :) Have a good one, Jack

Iowa Shed Hunt: Boy Schools Dad, 200" to 0

Thanks to Chris Ellis for this awesome story:

Usually a trip in the Iowa woods with my youngest son, Aaron, consists of stick throwing, snowballs and plain old goofing off. I didn’t know if the boy would ever take shed hunting as serious as Dad does.

Last Friday I picked up a 4-point with junk that went 76”. I’d spent the week watching 8 bucks. Four of them had shed out, 2 still sported both sides and 2 were half racks; the 4-point I had found was off one of those bucks.

The other night after work I took a quick walk to see if I could find the other side. Aaron and I split up. I told him to check a hillside full of deer beds; I would circle around and meet him. When I got 300 yards away Aaron yelled, “Dad, I found one!” Then he yelled, “Dad, I’ve got another one and I think it’s the match!”

When I got over there, he was holding up a dandy match. Aaron’s first unassisted find was a 150-plus set! After a little celebrating we headed to another area. I got a kick out of him telling me, “Now I know what to look for Dad.”

We split up and worked some heavy trails in the snow. Aaron started yelling—he had found another big one and man was he was excited! Dad was too! I think he is hooked now. We can't wait to get back out in the woods!

Final tally: Aaron 3, Dad 0. I’ve been schooled before on shed hunts, but never 200 inches to 0 :) Thanks, Chris Ellis, proud dad!

Oklahoma: Locked 150" Bucks in Tank!

Jake sent this: A guy named Mike found 2 big bucks with locked horns, a 12- a 14-point, drowned in a stock tank on a Oklahoma ranch. Look at the colors of the bucks, pink and black, they were submerged for a while. I suppose they got in a fight near the pond (probably back in Nov. rut), shoved each other into the water, lost their hoofing, fell and thrashed about until they drowned. Dang, another cruel way to go. We've found bucks in a well pit, hooked on a wire fence and now in a stock pond. What's next?

Shed-Hunting Find: 5 Drop Tines!

Mike: This rack was reportedly found in Indiana recently and it was supposed the deer died from EHD. I thought you might like to see it :) BTW, supposedly grosses 220, and I would have to agree. Thanks, Chad

Nice find right there, 5 drops baby! Been out there awhile in the woods, wonder how many people walked right by it? You have got to walk slow and look staight down at the ground, not too far out front or you'll miss a lot of skulls and esp. single antlers.

Have a good weekend, send me pictures and info of big sheds/cool stuff you find.

Finally Time for Teachers to Carry Firearms?

Has the time come for school teachers and college professors across the land to carry firearms to protect themselves and their students (our kids) from the next lunatic?

I blogged this on my old site more than a year ago, after a senseless and tragic high school shooting. I re-raise the issue in the aftermath of the Northern Illinois Univ. shootings last week that left 5 more innocent people dead. I cannot shake the massacre that occurred here in VA a year ago, when that madman killed more than 30 unsuspecting students and profs at Tech.

It might be doable. The specifics would have to be worked out by security professionals a lot smarter and more qualified than me, but consider this rough draft:

Law enforcement (sheriff, local police, state police, FBI working together) conducts intensive background and mental health checks on teachers/college professors who volunteer for a marshal program. (It’s purely volunteer, like our military.) Those who pass are winnowed down to those with a firearms/shooting background. Retired police officers with spotless records and retired military with honorable discharges are rated at the top.

Several educators from each school/university sign up for a hard-core security, firearms and crisis management training program. If they pass, they are issued handguns and concealed carry permits. They do not pack their heat per se, but keep the firearms locked in a hidden safe in their classrooms. The identity of the armed teachers and the location of the safes are never disclosed.

The teachers are like air marshals, mixed in with the general population, with the element of deterrent and surprise. God forbid when the next madman comes into a school and starts threatening or shooting or taking hostages, a marshal/educator unlocks his or her gun, sneaks down to Room 200 or whatever and takes control.  

I hear the anti-gun teachers’ associations howling, and from what I have read many law enforcement agencies aren't hot on the idea, either. With universities as liberal as they are these days, I don’t know if we could find enough takers for the gun program anyway.

But I know one thing: A firearm in the hands of a law-abiding American who is not afraid to protect himself or herself is a deterrent to crime. If a lunatic coward thinks a teacher or prof might have a gun, he will think twice.

My wife, who is solidly pro-gun and a good target shooter, thinks I’m crazy. What say you?