A “deadhead” is the commonly used term for a buck deer carcass that you might stumble across in the woods, with antlers still attached to the skull. Generally, such a buck has been dead for several months or even a year or two, and the carcass has been ravaged by time, weather and predators. All [...] The post State Laws of “Deadhead” Deer Skulls appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

If you’re satisfied with the public or private ground you hunted last year, great. But did you lose permission to a farm, or lose a lease, or get tired of the pressure and lack of deer on a WMA near home? If so, start looking for new ground now. I could write a book on [...] The post Now Is Time to Look for New Hunting Land appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

Among new regulations enacted in 2024, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) says that hunters can now legally use drones to look for and track wounded deer. Also, the MDC has mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling stations for deer harvested during opening weekend of firearms deer season in certain counties. Hunters must take their [...] The post Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

The Deer Lab at Auburn University has a 430-acre high-fenced research facility. All the deer inside the fence are well known and documented. During the 7-year-period from 2012 to 2018, biologists and grad students were inside the facility daily, working, doing research, taking samples and looking around. They found only 284 of 747 (39%) of antlers [...] The post Shed Hunters Find Less Than 40% of Antlers appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

According to the National Deer Association’s 2025 Deer Report, hunters across the U.S. are tagging a historically high number of bucks. The total buck kill of 3,086,182 in the 2023-24 season (the last season for which complete harvest records were available) is only the second time the harvest has topped 3 million in the last [...] The post How Many Bucks Do Hunters Shoot Each Year? appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

According to experts with the National Deer Association, when you pick up a shed antler with a base that is flat or level with the burr of an antler, or hollowed out deeper up inside the shed, you can determine that buck was under stress two months or so back during peak of breeding. Conversely, [...] The post How Shed Antlers Tell the Health of Bucks appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

My hope is you’ll shoot a giant 10-pointer this fall and holler to your buddies, “Men, I’m putting this big boy on the wall!” Depending on where you live, expect to pay $600 to $800 or even more for a shoulder mount. To help you get the best return on your investment, here are some [...] The post How to Choose the Best Taxidermist appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

Trail Camera[MP:04][TP:071F][IMEI:868032061698167] Sitting here thinking back about what went right and what went wrong last deer season, which was a challenging one for me and the Big Deer TV team. The best memories are of the few days when I shot a buck on TV, but actually I will learn the most by replaying [...] The post Deer Season is Over: Learn from Last Year’s Mistakes appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

Deer hunters have been wondering, and some have been worrying about it, for many years. Here's the latest on Chronic Wasting Disease: In a recent experiment at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, scientists tried to contaminate “human cerebral organiods,” or tissues that closely resemble human brain tissue, with injections of Chronic Wasting Disease, which has [...] The post Update: Should You Eat a Deer with CWD? appeared first on Big Deer ..read more

Great guest blog on one of the coolest deer from the 2024 season from Big Deer field reporter Dean Weimer. On the evening of October 4, 2023, Danny Jestes watched a couple of does and a small buck feed in an open grass field for the better part of an hour. Then, as if shot [...] The post Giant Indiana Jestes Buck, 209 7/8 Inches NT appeared first on Big Deer ..read more