DeerFever.com

Improperly field-dressing a deer and warm weather can impact the quality of venison warns Dr. Walter Cottrell, Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife veterinarian.

“The first step in making sure that the venison reaches the table in the best possible condition is, sighting in and practicing with your sporting arm,” Dr. Cottrell said. “Coupling that with knowledgeable shot placement ensures a clean kill and minimal damage to edible parts of the animal.

“After properly tagging their deer, hunters should wear latex or nitrile gloves to remove the entrails. Care should be taken to remove entrails without rupturing them, and hunters should drain excess blood remaining in the cavity. Do not wash out the deer in a creek. Wipe down the cavity with a dry cloth or paper towels, being careful to remove all visible blood and hair.”

Once entrails are removed, the deer should be taken from the field and cooled down as soon as possible. In warm weather, the cool-down process begins when you field-dress the deer. To improve the cool-down process, consider skinning the deer and hang the carcass in the shade, refrigerating it or placing a bag of ice in the body cavity. Never place a deer carcass – with or without the hide on it – in direct sunlight.
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Two podcasts await the deer hunters over at our network website of Todays Wilderness where you can Listen To The Outdoors!

First off an interview with Glen Berry of Berry Game Calls and Big Bull Productions find the host, Kevin Gardner, and Mr. Berry discussing the creation of this line of calls and their successful business that has catered to hunters for years. The conversation ventures forward to some elk calling techniques that are sure to help you draw more animals into shooting range this hunting season. Check out the Berry Game Calls Podcast.

Next up is a brand new show that deals with the CSI area of animal forsensics focusing on revealing the age of your whitetail deer. Henry Chidgey, Co-Founder of Wildlife Analytical Laboratories, joins Kevin to explain the process of using the Cementum Annuli method for analyzing a mammal’s teeth and extracting the age which is much more accurate than visually inspecting molar wear on an animal. Check out the Wildlife Analytical Laboratories Podcast and don’t forget to send the host of Todays Wilderness your questions to be entered in the next giveaway package. All it takes is a simple email question to enter and win!

No this isn’t a Yoopers song this is the real deal and a whopper of a whitetail buck at that. Wayne Schumacher took this behemoth of a non-typical whitetail that looks like he’s carrying a small tree on it’s head while hunting in Fon du Lac county Wisconsin. The buck was referred to as Lucky Buck and had been reported by other hunters and residents but Schumacher was unaware that he was in the same neighborhood as the huge whitetail. That is until the buck happened past Schumacher’s treestand and fell victim to a well placed arrow.

I didn’t have time to get nervous says Schumacher. It was over before I knew it and a 15 yard shot sent the buck running roughly 70 yards before collapsing to the ground. The buck has an inside antler spread of 20½ inches. Its field-dressed weight was around 225 pounds and age estimates are that the deer is at least 4½ to 5 years old. A rough estimate of the green score landed the buck somewhere around 251 according to reports from people on the scene. With the current record standing at 233 Schumacher’s buck stands a very good chance of claiming the state archery record for a non-typical whitetail. Official scoring is soon to follow.

For those who follow the news here at DeerFever.com you will notice that we have begun promoting one of our network websites that reaches into the world of podcasting. Those podcasts that deal with the subject of deer hunting, we will be reciprocating those shows here at DeerFever and, as of this posting, we have created a menu item to the right for further promotion and exposure to this network option. And this podcast show definitely deals with deer hunting as our host Kevin Gardner talks with none other than Steve Scott. Vice President of the Whitetail Institute of North America.

Steve and Kevin open the show with some company background and the foundation that the Whitetail Institute was built on as well as the most notable products such as Imperial Whitetail Clover. This podcast moves along with a wealth of information and insight as Steve explains the benefits of food plotting and goes further into the techniques before closing the show with some new food plot products and insight into the procedure and time that it takes to test and manufacture these new products.
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Additional expansions of three special deer management seasons in FWP Region 6 have been approved by state officials.

The special management seasons — in a portion of the Milk River Valley, in the Sandhills area near Medicine Lake, and in the Big Dry Creek area near Jordan — were put into place in mid-December to reduce crop damage on private lands and help bring deer numbers within state population objectives.

To help increase harvests, any legal resident or non-resident hunter may now participate in any of the hunts by using unfilled deer licenses or permits from the 2008 general season. In addition, up to five more antlerless Deer B licenses can be purchased by each hunter.

All hunters participating in the special seasons are required to report each deer they harvest by calling FWP at (406) 228-3700, sending an e-mail to fwpr6gd@mt.gov, or sending written correspondence to Montana FWP, Region 6 Headquarters, 54078 U.S. Highway 2 West, Glasgow, MT 59230.

To encourage their participation, non-resident licenses will be discounted to $20 after the purchase of the first antlerless Deer B license at the full price of $75. Montana residents can buy the extra Deer B licenses for $10 each. Maps of the management season areas and contact information for participating landowners are available at FWP offices or by calling (406)-228-3700.

Additional details about each of these hunts:
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