kevin October 18th, 2011
How do you determine a white-tailed deer’s age? It’s a question you hear a lot from beginning and life-long hunters alike. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a wide-range of answers, many of which are as smoky as a deer camp campfire.
It’s a common misconception among hunters that a white-tailed deer’s antler size will tell you all you need to know about his age. However, that’s simply not true. Rack size is more about food and nutrition, genes, and overall health than anything else.
A 2.5 year old buck could indeed have wider and/or taller antlers than a buck twice his age if all of the 
aforementioned factors play a big enough part. The same goes for a deer’s body size/weight, hoof size, gray on the face, or any other misconstrued theory you’ll often hear from even the most seasoned hunters. These factors simply shouldn’t be used to indicate relative age.
In reality, the most accurate method of aging is via tooth analysis. Over time, deer will lose certain “baby” teeth, and they’ll put a lot of wear and tear on their remaining pearly whites. By examining and studying this wear and decay, hunters have a fairly precise method to all this aging madness. But don’t think you have to be a wildlife biologist or even an experienced hunter to age your buck; there’s a very handy tool available to make things much easier.
Read more about the Deer Aging Tool in the Arkansas Hunting Forum.
kevin September 14th, 2011
The last thing you want to do is take a young buck who has yet to reach his potential out of the gene pool. It’s 
important that you let these bucks walk until their around 4.5 to 5.5 years old so that they can “spread the love” to the does in your area during the rut each year. This will, of course, produce more and more better bucks in your hunting area.
Here are a few quick tips for judging the age of a deer by sight.
1.5 Year Old Bucks: It’s relatively easy to determine a yearling buck from a more mature buck. Yearling bucks have basically a doe body with antlers. A thin “figure,” skinny neck and long thin legs is a dead giveaway. Plus, most all yearling bucks have racks that stay within the spread of the ears. Resist the temptation of taking any buck in this age range. If you do, you’re committing gene pool suicide. If you don’t let your home range bucks reach their potential, they’ll never breed does, and those does will never have the chance to produce your future wall hanger.
Come inside for more tips on Field Aging a Buck
kevin November 15th, 2010
It’s true that at no time during the season will bucks respond so positively to your grunting and rattling than during the late pre-rut.
During this time, bucks are in dominance mode–aggressive toward any other bucks in their area–and that 
means a couple of blows on the grunt, or a quick rattle of the antlers can send an already hot-under-the-collar buck into an all-out testosterone-induced fury.
But what about calling during the peak of the rut? Is grunting more effective or less effective? Should you rattle harder or softer? Are doe bleats effective? Should you grunt/rattle at all?
Well, there’s no doubt that calling during the peak is less fruitful than grunting during the final week or so leading up to it. At this point, the dominant attitude toward other bucks in the area seen during the late pre-rut has been redirected to chasing hot does that are ready to breed.
However, while peak rut calling can often be a frustrating effort, it’s not a totally lost cause.
The fact is, sometimes bucks are “between does” and will respond well to grunting, rattling and bleats.
Come inside to read more tips and techniques on how to catch the attention of peak rut bucks.
kevin October 18th, 2010
Deer hunters love to talk about the rut more than any other subject under the whitetail hunting umbrella. From the beginning of bow season (and even before), discussions of
rattling, grunting, chasing and scrapes are the topics of choice over morning coffee. By the time mid to late October rolls around, when the leaves are changing and the weather begins to cool, it might be harder to judge who’s more in heat: the hunters or the does.
But the fact is, the rut is not the only time to bag a buck. In fact, it may not even be the best time. Why? Because during the peak rut, you can throw all deer predictability out the window. Testosterone-frenzy dominates. All that scouting you’ve done for months goes by the wayside. While this certainly means bucks make more mistakes, for all of you relentless scouters out there, it can mean days of frustration and confusion.
However, during the pre-rut, you get the best of both worlds. Bucks are still fairly predictable (they still, for the most part, maintain feeding times, travel routes, bedding areas, etc.) but they do begin to move more often and roam farther, and their ever-growing curiosity for hot does and heated emotions toward imposing bucks makes grunting, rattling, planting scents, etc. all that more effective.
Let’s take a look at a few strategies for hunting the pre-rut in Arkansas. Come inside the Arkansas Hunting Forum for the full article.
kevin October 5th, 2010
Are the whitetails in your are rutting? Have you witnessed behavior indicative of the rut such as fresh scrapes, chasing activity or fighting? Or maybe, you haven’t seen 
anything at all, and you’re just wondering what the heck is going on?
With the Arkansas Rut Report Map back for it’s second season, you’ve got the chance to share your rut activity observations with other hunters around the Natural State. Our region-by-region map allows you to select your specific hunting area, read reports from other hunters on the ground, and post your own sightings.
New this year is the ability to sign in with your Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo account to share you thoughts with your hunting buddies. Of course, you can always just post as a guest if you wish.
The rut is creeping up on us fast, so get caught up on the latest whitetail activity with the only report dedicated to the Arkansas rut! Arkansas Rut Report Map
kevin September 16th, 2010
It’s less than two weeks before opening day. You’ve put in the time shooting your bow, geared up with the latest bells and
whistles from your local outfitter, and you’ve probably even been to the woods a handful of times. But have you put in the kind of scouting that will make this October your best start to bow season ever?
Let’s look at a few ways you can make these next two weeks of September the most productive days you’ve ever spent in the woods.
Scout Recently Logged Areas: Don’t forget to scout any new logging areas on or around your property, especially those a couple of years old that have started regrowth. In many cases, these areas of brush piles, new vegetation, networks of accessible logging roads and areas of dense timber cover will naturally attract whitetails for bedding and cover. It creates a whitetail sanctuary, if you will. Obviously, if the area has just been cut, it’s not going to be the best spot. But as soon as new foliage begins to sprout, deer often love it. Many any the logging industry have told me nothing brings in whitetails like a recently logged area.
Travel Routes: A little known fact is that mature does and bucks will use a parallel route to the hot route. This secondary route can be within eyesight, or it can be 150 or so yards away. Keep that in mind when you are entering and exiting your stand. If you don’t, you could ruin your chances at a good buck by either spooking a deer on this alternative route, or spreading your scent along it.
Come inside the Arkansas Hunting Forum for more pre-season deer hunting scouting tips.
aforementioned factors play a big enough part. The same goes for a deer’s body size/weight, hoof size, gray on the face, or any other misconstrued theory you’ll often hear from even the most seasoned hunters. These factors simply shouldn’t be used to indicate relative age. 
Center. More details to come soon, but here are a few of the events we have lined up:
Loading ...