A bowhunting acquaintance once said of my fondness of archery, you’ve been around archery since dirt.

Ever since Robin Hood came out as a TV show in the late 1950 and early 1960’s I had found my hero, to fight for truth and justice and to live off the game and fish in the field and streams of Sherwood Forest. Millions of young boys like me took to the field and forest with makeshift longbows made of a maple or hickory sapling. There were  no video games back then. My mother who was a home maker said to my brother and I during the summer, lunch is at 12 and dinner is at 5 pm. Go play till then, and get out of the house.

Even back then I absorbed the honorable nature of Robin Hood played by Richard Greene to fight for rights of the people and the rule of law by a just leader and not the tyrant that Prince John portrayed on TV in the early 1960’s. 

I built my first long bow at the age of 6 from a maple sapling and string from the kitchen drawer. I used whatever I could get to shoot as an arrow, often it was a shaft of goldenrod. Later at 10 years old I bugged my mother to use her S&H Green Stamps to purchase my first recurve bow. I was on  my way to becoming a hunter back then. My father worked building nuclear submarines but in his spare time when he was not gardening, he had a long bow he would sometimes shoot in the back yard.

Enter the Rifle – My dad taught my brother and I to shoot a single shot 22 rifle and worked us up to a 30-30 and 38-55 Winchester for deer hunting. I killed my first deer, a doe, with the 38-55 Winchester and loved that lever action.

My love of hunting was equal to my love of shooting and hunting with both gun and bow, it is a life long passion I cherish. 

Back to the Bow – I shot instinctive for years thanks to Fred Bear, who I personally met at Kittery Trading Post in the 1960’s. I was good at it on targets. But then I tried the first compound bows and they gave me a huge edge in hunting, though I still had a nostalgic love of recurves and long bows.

Back in the 1970’s, my first new compound bow was a Herter’s Power Magnum.  Today it is a museum piece, one of the first production compound bows.  It had a set of timing cams that you could adjust with an Allen wrench. Timing cam’s? What the heck is that! The second bow was a Martin Cougar magnum 50% let off. I ran the 3D archery program at a local club for many years with great satisfaction.  I have endeavored to study bow-building long bows and recurves for a time and made a  dozen Self Bows of hickory and maple but it did not hold my interest as a life long endeavor as I still loved to hunt first and foremost.

The third compound bow was a High Country Sniper I won in a raffle w/65% let off which I took to Africa with great success. I competed with it at 3D archery and at indoor league where I won my share of trophies. I was pleased to often be top shot in my archery league.

My fourth bow is a Hoyt X-Tec (a 10 year old bow) which I shot at 70 lbs for quite some time. Of late I have a pinched neck nerve but am trying to get my bow arm back in shape for some whitetail action using much less poundage.

Good Hunting!

© 2018

Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in several states and 2 provinces. It slowly kills deer, moose, and elk. When contracted, it is fatal in all cases says Center of Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/cwd-animals.html

CWD is caused by a protein called a “prion” the deer “cervid” manufactures. When manufactured incorrectly by the deer, the protein, then will eventually kill it. The deer will become sick and die. Humans thus far have not been affected for consuming CWD game meat but if meat tests positive from a “CWD Management Zone”, meat should be buried in a land fill.

It is passed on to other deer “cervids” by making contact with saliva,urine, and feces. The higher the density of deer the faster it can travel. The most susceptible are whitetails due to the large numbers in some areas, especially deer farms and ranches who raise deer to hunt, for harvest for food,  or to create better genetics.

In the case of captive deer farms, they have been at the center of the CWD issue because it is found there often first and then it is passed to surrounding wild populations.

The map below makes my point. It was updated in July of 2018.

Where there are yellow dots, these were captive deer facilities where, when CWD was discovered, all the deer were euthanized to prevent the spread.

A red dot means it was recently found but the deer have not been euthanized at this time.

Grey and dark grey areas are wild populations surrounding the captive deer that have contracted the disease and the areas are designated as CWD Management Zones

Some of these captive deer farms raised deer to be relocated to areas that perhaps had poor deer genetics thus unknowingly possibly spreading the disease to wild populations.

The hard part is that there is no test at this time for live deer according to officials. The deer’s head, brain and tissue are tested in a lab for the errant “prion”. Once found, the land area of concern is identified and managed as a CWD Management Area at both the National and State level.

Early mapping techniques highlighted and indicted the whole state thus making much of the center of the USA all black and obscuring and masking the real focal points of the disease.

In New York you can see the yellow former captive deer facility and the surrounding wild population which was (i believe) secondarily infected now termed CWD Management Zones. The same can be seen in Texas at a captive deer facility and the secondary wild deer infection CWD Management Zone.  In Saskatchewan and Alberta there were dozens of captive deer, breeding, farming and ranching facilities that had to be euthanized. That is a lot of dead deer and the surrounding secondary infection which resulted.

https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/

Concentrating high density populations of wildlife is risky as it allows disease to move rapidly though them. Wildlife that feed in a concentrated area like a feeder are more susceptible to spread of disease that those wild animals who forage separately. In the case of CWD at farms, deer are fed supplements at feeders allowing the CWD to spread via saliva and move deep into large numbers of deer. Euthanizing was the only solution.

In grey areas were CWD Management Zones exist, all deer harvested are recommended to be tested for CWD prior to consuming the meat.

Accordingly, states must test road killed deer or deer the state has euthanized to test to ensure that the disease has not spread.

In Summary, my investigations have revealed excellent teamwork at the state and national level to define and isolate CWD. I am encouraged that CWD Management areas are on the road to recovery and that management lessons have been learned.

New Laws and rules should be forthcoming.

What this tells me as a hunter is that wildlife agencies are on top of this and that we should look forward to the deer hunt and eat some of the finest venison on the planet!

Good Hunting!

The New Hampshire Fish and Game department has over the years created a very helpful website. Below is a very well written summary of how New Hampshire manages its whitetail deer population by NH Deer Biologist Dan Bergeron. The chart is also found in this article. As you can see since 1982 to 2016, the total deer harvest has tripled state wide from around three thousand to nearly ten thousand.

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/deer-mgt.html

In addition to this deer harvest information there is a mountain of data found in the 2017 Wildlife Harvest Summary.

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/documents/2017-harvest-summary.pdf 

From a hunter perspective here in Southern NH, Posted Land is a fact of life. Some hunters can gain written landowner permission to hunt in these posted areas. Do your research! It may pay off!

Other hunters seek out New Hampshire’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) where hunting on state owned land is encouraged. See maps below

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/maps/wma.html

Way up north near Errol and further to Pittsburg, NH there are miles of open land provided by lumber companies and miles of dirt roads to get you far off the beaten path if you desire. Deer densities are lower but there are fields, deep coniferous woods and waters are simply wild. A marvelous opportunity to get away from it all.

What is so terrific about the NH Fish and Game website is that it is comprehensive provides a rich resource for information on New Hampshire Wildlife, Licensing,  the Department itself etc. A great source of educational information.

For those of you who spend time with the Harvest Survey, there is enough information by town to see where you may want to set foot this fall to deer hunt. New is good!

NH Antler and Trophy Club host a yearly gathering of Trophy Deer. See this facebook page for big bucks of New Hampshire.

Good Researching and Good Hunting!

For years there are hunters (not me) who believe Moon Phases are important in determining the best time to hunt mature whitetail bucks who can be seen moving in day light. These hunters are some of the best in the world. Yet studies are showing that the bulk of mature buck movement still occur at dawn and dusk (known as crepuscular activity) according to QDMA (Quality Deer Management Association) and a myriad of deer and buck studies. See below. Join QDMA Today!

https://www.qdma.com/10-things-know-mature-buck-movements/

Ok after reading that, does it change your mind? Maybe so.  If you hunt by the Moon Phase and are successful are you going to stop using the Moon in your hunt calculations. Perhaps not. But the article and studies add to our knowledge base as hunters. Some of what I have read is simple common sense. Don’t muck up your deer stand before prime time. But if everyone else is mucking it up already, count your mature buck as nocturnal, no moon phase will change that. I found an area that had lots of deer activity, but it was all at night. Every other tree had a treestand in it. My cameras captured a buck at night…like a ghost in the distant blackness. There were very few deer taken there if any and narry a decent buck.

Years back I saw a trail of deer activity heading up a hill behind homes where I could not hunt, so I hunted the base of the hill. At pre-dawn I was on the ground waiting for light when footsteps approached and stopped just 25 yards from me. We both stood in silent darkness waiting for each to move. Finally the deer continued up the hill and I could not see him just hooves shooshing in the leaves. The following week I hunted afternoon with my recurve in a treestand not far from the encounter. It was a nice 8 point buck that came down the path but just out of my recurve kill range. I watched him get to an Oak tree with lots of nuts beneath it and could hear him gobble the acorns with the speed of lightning and darkness arrived. I sat for a few more minutes in the blackness listening to the buck eat like there was no tomorrow. As quiet as I could, I got down, the buck stopped eating, likely hearing me. I let the place cool off for a few day but did not see that buck again.

The QDMA report reinforces that bucks move at dawn and dusk. In my case above in late October the buck movement was at pre-dawn, before light and he was not chasing a doe. He was bedded before dawn, a nocturnal deer, almost.

I have killed several bucks, all without any Moon knowledge, all during the rut before November 10th except one on the 26th. One was rattled and grunted in, another was enticed out of his bed with scents, and the other 2 bucks were near does and nearby key trails where they appeared in mid morning and caused them to stand and move. I believe the buck was bedded so he could smell anything approaching. And two bucks I called in to bow range with a deer call, one a bleat and the other a grunt, both fell to a well placed broadhead.

In all cases, the November deer were killed during the day and not far from the does. I have seen 2 does on separate occasions go into buck bedding areas. One doe headed in at 9AM and the other at dusk. I believe seeking to be mated. I mean the ladies were just going right into their bedroom.

A mature buck according to QDMA is 4 1/2 years or greater. I have never seen a mature buck but once in New Brunswick, Canada and he bested me. He was huge of body, full neck and brisket, a bit of a pot belly and a solid set of antlers, usually more than 8 points. Like the image below.

Photo Getty Images.

New Hampshire deer are not as numerous as in New Jersey and Pennsylvania by a long shot and tend to be harvested in the southern part of the state as 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old deer and a few 3 1/2 year. Yes there are 4 1/2 year old deer down here but you will likely never see them. Deer in the northern part of the state require great effort and that is were you find the 4 1/2 year old bucks who cover lots of territory. Hunt them in snow looking for large buck tracks like the Benoit’s for success but be ready to walk miles and drag your 250 pound deer for miles. These are places where hunting partners are a necessity.

I am now interested in Moon Phases as novelty but one thing is for sure, if you believe something will happen, as in seeing a mature deer because a Moon chart says so,  then your senses are keen, sharp and observant where otherwise you may walk within feet of a bruiser and never see him.

If moon charts increase your alertness then maybe that is all you need, a belief that it will happen. There will be many times where you see little or nothing, so having an edge perhaps helps.

Places like Alberta and Saskatchewan place corn to draw deer and bucks from far off places so you hunt often from a blind. If the years previous was good for deer then you will be in luck without any moon or in years past where there was heavy deep snow the herd took a beating.

Deer, particularly bucks that know they are being hunted are very very wary indeed. It is food and the urge to mate in the Rut that is their major Achilles heel in making them occasionally visible. If, during the rut, there are does nearby and buck scrapes, where bucks place their calling card of urine and tarsal gland then in NH non-urine based deer scents are suggested as a great tool to create curiosity or I have taken a baggie and small spade with me and collected dirt from local scrapes and freeze it. Snow laden beds and scrapes are places to collect deer odors too.

A recent NH deer kill at a check in station may be a place to ask a friend who is checking in their deer for a tuft of tarsal gland from a buck or doe.

So be alert, be ready! Moon or not! Think hunt the Rut where rattling grunting and scents work the best. I have purchased a non-urine based scent called REALDEER™ and bowhunters I spoke to in Ohio say it works as an attractant and cover scent.  I will be using it this year. I can’t say it works for me yet but time will tell.

Good Hunting!

© 2018