MikeHanback.com

Another Indiana Monster: 22 Points, 225 4/8"!

I don’t know what they’re putting in the water (and the feed) out there, all I know is you Indiana boys are killing some monsters, like this latest one I got.

Mike: I shot this buck opening morning of shotgun season. He came by my tree stand alone about a half-hour after daylight. I downed him with a 20-yard shot from my 12 gauge. I was hunting on my farm in southern IN with my nephew Wade. Needless to say we were both pretty excited!

I had never seen this deer before, so when I walked up to him I was greatly surprised. The 22-point scored 225 4/8 NT. The rack has a spread of 34 3/8" and an inside spread of 23 3/8".

I will take luck over skill any day! Great blog you have, I check on it often. Thanks, Tim Friedman

P.S. As you can see in the bottom photo our dog Roxy was more interested in the other end of the buck!

Tim is being humble, but you know he’s right. I don’t how care how good a hunter you, or how much money you’ve got to spend, or how great or expensive your gear is, the bottom line is you gotta have some luck to be in the right place at the right time when a 225” giant like that comes by your stand. Heck, most of us will never see a buck like that in the flesh. Great job Tim and Wade, awesome hunt. One BIG thing Tim did was stay calm and close the deal on a giant like that--no luck there, but good skill.

Iowa 3rd State to Test for Lead in Venison

From an Iowa DNR news release:

Most of North Dakota’s deer are harvested by high-powered rifles while Iowa deer are primarily taken from shotguns. One of the questions…is whether there is less potential for lead fragments to be present in the meat from a deer harvested by a shotgun slug as opposed to a rifle bullet.

“There may be less fragmentation from a shotgun slug than a rifle bullet meaning less potential for lead fragments to get ground up in the meat, but we need to do the sampling to make sure,” said DNR Wildlife Bureau Chief Dale Garner.

While more and more people are screaming “Balderdash!” and even hinting at an anti-hunting conspiracy theory, Chief Garner’s assessment seems reasonable and prudent to me. I suspect the lead-in-your-burger threat might turn out to be much ado about nothing, or at least not an epic event. But shouldn’t they test and get some science to make sure?

Sad Shed Find: Giant Double-Drop Cam Buck!

Ever wonder what happened to some of those trail-cam giants that I posted on my old blog last summer?

Mike: Remember the huge double drop NT I sent you pictures of last year? Well, I found him dead last week while shed hunting.  The carcass was completely gone, but the antlers were in tiptop shape without a tooth mark to be found.  I'm not sure how he died.  We had a report of a person shooting with a spotlight in the field close to where I found him, but we got there fairly quick and waited for someone to return with no luck. Another Officer and I went back the next day and scoured the area looking for blood or any sign of a hit by the poachers, but came up with nothing. I took off most of November to hunt that buck and never saw him. He's a giant.  I scored him today at 208 gross. Take care, John Deem, Conservation Officer, Indiana DNR

UPDATE: Lead in Your Deer Meat?

From a good article today by Doug Smith at startribune.com:

Minnesota food shelves will halt distribution of venison donated by hunters after lead particles were discovered in ground venison at North Dakota food shelves. Authorities urged that any donated meat that had already left the food shelves not be eaten.

Doug’s story also pointed out: 

Neighboring Wisconsin’s head of venison-donation program has her doubts. Laurie Fike said, "I thought it was preposterous that a bullet would leave that much residue. My feeling is the lead got in there some other way. I have a lot of questions."

"I'm a big-game hunter, and have been since I was 13," said Dr. Cornatzer, who X-rayed the ND venison. "I'm eating this, and I fed this to my own children. This is terrible."

Cornatzer said that shotgun slugs and muzzleloader bullets should not be a problem since they don’t fragment on impact with a deer. (Doc's a hunter, but still unclear as to his ammo/ballistics expertise.)

I learned Dr. Cornatzer is a dermatologist, naturally leading some to wonder about his qualifications on such a potentially serious medical matter. This from a statement minutes ago from the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

There is absolutely no peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support the unfortunate and unnecessary overreaction by North Dakota health officials, based off of a study by a local dermatologist, to have food pantries discard perfectly good meat because it was taken with traditional ammunition. Furthermore, we question whether a dermatologist is even qualified to render these opinions… The decision to take nourishing, high-protein food out of the mouths of the needy was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the chemistry of lead and the human digestive system. The state is needlessly creating a scare upon hunters that has no basis in science. We strongly urge North Dakota health officials to reconsider their actions.

This is gonna get uglier I bet, I’ll stay on top of it. Check back before you grill some deer burgers this weekend...or after supper.

Monster MN Bow Buck (w/new drop tine!)

Thanks to Bucky for sending this:

Hey Mike: My friend Lance out of Brainerd, Minnesota got a picture of this buck on his trail camera a week before the end of the 06 MN archery season. Last spring he looked for the buck’s shed in the thick underbrush, and he ended up finding one—the buck was a perfect typical with NO drop tine. In the fall of 07 Lance had this one buck on his mind, but he didn’t see him at all during the rut, he didn't know what to think. Then again in December he got another cam pic of the huge whitetail, and this year he had an awesome drop! Lance got in his stand one December day and shot the buck 20 minutes before dark with his Mathews MQ32. A true giant of the North woods--this one does have a drop!

Wow, beauty, great job Lance. Lesson: The spot where Lance had his cams and hunted for 2 years was somewhere in the giant’s late-season and winter core area (why the shed dropped there). Oftentimes a monster moves around from October through December, based primarily on changing food sources, but also hunting pressure. Lance’s buck was probably using another core area maybe only 50 to 100 acres away during the Nov. rut (that’s why he did not see him) but hopped over to Lance’s joint for a new bed-feed pattern in December, like he had done the year before. To kill a big buck is important to know WHEN he is using your spot the most, then max out your time there, like Lance did after getting trail-cam pics for 2 years.

BTW, as a typical hawg ages from 4 to 5 to 6, it is not uncommon at all for him to put a on lovely drop (lol) or other stickers/junk like Lance’s buck did.

ALERT: Is Your Deer Meat Contaminated with Lead?

Special thanks to Jim for this breaking alert:

From KFYR TV News: If you've ever eaten venison…that was hunted with a high velocity bullet, a new study by Bismarck Doctors William Cornatzer and Ted Fogarty concludes there`s a good chance you ingested lead… Cornatzer conducted CT scans on 100 pounds of venison collected from dozens of different sources and was shocked to find high levels of lead in about 60% of the meat.

"I was actually expecting probably very little or none in there, maybe a copper fragment, and I about fell off my chair when I saw this first CT scan," says Cornatzer.

You can see the findings of the scan as plain as day. The bright white specks represent the deadly lead. It got there via high velocity lead-tipped bullets. "When it hits the deer, it sends little bits of schrapnel-type lead that are almost liquid at that point because of the speed the bullet is going," explains Cornatzer. He says it`s possible that lead-tainted game has been causing health problems for decades.

The North Dakota Dept. of Health has issued an advisory, pointing out that lead can cause serious health problems for everyone, and especially for children 6 and younger and pregnant women. The dept. asked food pantries across the state to stop serving donated ground venison. It told Dakota’s huge hunting public to be careful eating deer. I can’t imagine how many freezers were cleaned out, how much burger tossed.

There are enormous potential consequences here.

First, while this is just one small test study, there will be calls for bans on lead hunting bullets, like the one in southern California that would supposedly help protect the condor. I will be interested to see how the ammo companies respond.

(BTW, according to an article in the Bismark Tribune, Dr. Cornatzer has been a deer hunter for 30 years and is a board member of the Peregrine Fund, a conservation research group: his concerns were raised after seeing an X-ray at a Peregrine Fund meeting of how high-velocity bullets fragment through the entire central aspect of a deer.

I certainly have no evidence of a conspiracy theory, but you can bet one will come up, if it hasn’t already.

And what about the tons of deer meat donated by hunters to food banks and soup kitchens each year? Will all that venison be tossed? Will the great program be at risk?

Should you dump out your freezer? But then, haven't hunters and their families been safely eating bullet-shot deer for years? A lot more questions than answers at this point, stay tuned, we need to monitor this one.

Giant Iowa Muzzleloader Buck (200 3/8")

A guy sent this to Steve who sent it to me:

My brother shot this deer on the first morning of 2nd season in southern Iowa. It is a true giant. Sitting in a tree stand for a little over an hour, this monster ran through at 80 yards closely following 4 does. He grunted to stop the deer in his only shooting lane, and he put the buck down in his tracks with his TC Encore muzzleloader. The rest is history, a true giant with brows of 8 1/2 inches and G2s of 13 inches. Officially 200 3/8" gross.

No drop-tine (LOL) but without question one of the top bucks from 2007, look at the wonderfully tall frame and symmetry on that dude, a true giant indeed. I think I better put in for the Iowa draw again this year :)

NJ Big-Buck Wall of Fame

Mike: This is NJ ONLY.  A bunch of us (12) converted a two-car garage into a butcher shop. The pic below is from right above our cutting tables. You know, they have everything you need--tables, sink, wood stove, Kegerator, TV, grills, slicers, grinders, etc.  We put about 50 deer a year through it. Thanks, Richard

Awesome, that's some wall, nice racks! I think we are on to something here. Anybody else got a wall of fame, or a cool hunting/skinning shed like Richard and the gang? Send it along, it's all about the memories man.

WY Man Busted for Killing Antelope (with his truck)

Stupid criminal trick, courtesy of Wyoming Game and Fish:

Nearly 3 months after intentionally hitting and killing 2 antelope with his vehicle and posting the photos on the Internet, a Rock Springs man was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Victoria Schofield. Jonathan L. Hefner, 24, pleaded guilty Feb. 29 to 2 counts of wanton destruction of a big game animal. His sentence included: $6,000 ($3,000 for each antelope) of restitution to the Wyoming Game and Fish Depart., a 5-year suspension of hunting privileges, 12 months unsupervised probation during which time he can have no wildlife violations and a 360-day suspended jail sentence.

Game and Fish Dept. got a tip that Hefner posted photos on the Internet of the 2 antelope he creamed with his truck. Officers recognized the vehicle and location, contacted the man's employer and identified Hefner as the hit-and-run goat motorist. Good work!

Motto to poachers: Be careful what you post/brag about on the Web, Big Brother is reading and blogging 24/7 and ready to bust some ass. Also, good sentence Judge Schofield. 6 grand, a year's probation and 5 years no hunting is a pretty tough deterrent.

Big Buck Wall of Fame

Blog reader Scott sent me this photo of some of his racks. Look in the background at his wall of fame, how cool is that? Looks to be generations of buddies, family and acquaintances with their bucks and some good ones too--memories man, that's a big part of what it's all about. I thought this might give you the idea to start your own fame wall in your basement hunting room, cabin or whatever. Heck, with a digital camera and photo printer/scanner it would be way easy to do.