Whitetail Deer Hunting Questions and Answers - Page 3

* Important note. Questions should now be directed to the message board. Ask under the appropriate catagory. Example, Turkey questions should be asked in the Turkey forum. If you can't find an appropriate forum then do your best. I will add new forums as they become neccessary.
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..My fourteen year old grandson has been selected to
participate in a youth hunt. He will be shooting a Winchester .243!
Do you have any suggestions on books to get or location of
sources that might help me get him ready for this hunt.
Thank you
(this is an extreme paraphrase of the actual email with much left out.)


When sighting in a brand new rifle it is a good idea to shoot a
number of bullets through the barrel before any serious attempt
at sighting in for use. New barrels will usually spray bullets
around very wildly. So plan on shooting about 50 rounds of ammo
before a new rifle will hold a tight pattern. My rifles first
shots were hitting close then out of the blue the third and
forth shot missed the paper at only 50 yards. So don't trust a
couple of consistent hits.

Some people will sight their rifle in at only 25 yards. For
example looking at a ballistics chart and then sighting their
guns in to hit where the table says they should hit at 25 yards.
This is how to start but you should never attempt long shots
with a rifle unless you have checked your rifles performance at
longer distances.

Hunting tip: If you are hunting deer from a blind make sure
you have a rest for your rifle. It is to easy to miss a deer at
ANY range when shooting freehand. If it is a permenant stand
then have a rest. If it is a spot on a hillside you just found
then at least have a stick to hold so you can rest the rifle on
your hand holding the stick. This can prevent a bunch of grief.



..I hunt in southwest mississippi. I have been supplement
feeding deer. I feed cracked corn and soymeal. The protien is
about 20%. Is there any problems that could come out of this
type of feeding. The deer look to be growing better antlers. Is
there other foods I could feed?


I don't think that there will be any problem with feeding them.
There are other foods you could feed them but unless the cost
is less (which it probably wouldn't be) I would just stay
with what you are feeding them. But since you asked what
other foods you could feed them I suspect that you want to
vary their diet so that it would be more balanced. I would
say to that, that the deer are getting plenty of natural
foods as well as you feed. So they are getting a balanced
diet. I think you would be better served by fertilizing the
native vegatation then alternating feed type or changing
feed type. The deer are almost certainly getting a large
portion of their diet from natural grown plants in the area.
This will always be the case. So if you can improve the
mineral content and protein content of the natural vegetation
then that will be the only way I see to truely improve on
what you are doing.


..head shot on deer?


Shooting Deer in the head is not a good idea. The Kill area
on the head is much smaller than that of the chest. If
your shot is off just a bit on the head the result is a live
deer with no jaw that will starve to death while in great
pain. It is much easier to kill a deer without wounding it
by shooting at the much larger chest. If you miss a deer
that is a lot of meat you just missed out on.

.. got a doe the other day and I'm real happy to have meat in the freezer,
however, now I have a whole new list of questions. If you don't want to
respond I won't feel offended, you're probably a busy guy.
There were four does in under the stand,
one big, two middle size, and one that looked to
be a yearling (no spots). I shot one of the two middle size ones, should
I have taken the big one, will this hurt the hunting during the rut (I'm
pretty much done until then). Should I leave the rest of the does alone
this year, if I do take another doe, which one should I take? Sorry about
bugging you with this but

Again, please don't feel you have to respond to these questions, thanks
for your time and good luck this year.


There are a number of reasons that you could use to decide which doe to
take. If you were after meat as No. 1 reason then the size would have been
the most important factor. You are obviously concerned with more than just
that. From your email it appears that what you saw was POSSIBLY a mother
and two of here daughters and one of the three does yearlings. That is the
first assumtion that comes to mind but it is also possible that one or maybe
even both of the other does where just as old only not as big as the "big"
doe. For argument sake lets assume it was her daughters, that being my
best GUESS.
I will list some possible reasons to shoot the oldest deer.
1. Bigger more meat.
2. Would maybe end up with all of the remaining does leaving the area,
thereby opening the area up to a buck or to too establish his home range on
your land. (the last one probably is wrong)

Reasons to pass on the older deer.
1. Older whitetails or more successful at raising their young.
2. The younger deer were part of the older does group. Now that she is
dead they might shift there range and now you won't get the pleasure of
watching as many deer in your area.


Let me just say that the last reason in each each set is pure speculation.
I have no knowledge of how the does respond to the matriark being taken.
With deer hunting you hear all kinds of stuff from people of all experiences
levels. Much of this is just assumtions that they are passing off as fact.
I have read Chuck Adams saying something that I knew was not the truth
(this had to do with arrow penetration or something.) I am not trying to
pick on Chuck, its just that you will hear a lot of B.S. past off as fact. And
those last reasons are not based on research or anything just a possible out
come cooked up in my head. A possible better example would be that big
rubs are made by big bucks and small rubs are made by small bucks. That one is
pure hog wash but is commonly passed around as fact.

Mike Guerin
http://thejump.net

..the Texas hill country. We have a wonderful place to hunt
(south of Brady), but I am having trouble convincing other
members that we need to MANAGE what we have before it is too late.

Almost all of the trophy bucks that you see taken on those hunting
show have been passed over by hunters, usually numerous
times before they are taken.

Contrary to popular belief if a buck isn't killed this year
it will be 1 year older the next. Lets do the math.
1.5 years old + 1 more year of growth = 2.5 years old

I have applied this same formula to deer of many different
ages and it alway comes out the same (one year older)!
Unless you want to do the math for each age you will have
to take my word for it! :-)

Good Luck convincing the members where you hunt of this
very advanced math phenomenon. Just another example of
where the education process has failed us.
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