New World Record Nontypical Coues Deer
By Pope & Young Club On May 19th, at a Cabela’s in Phoenix Arizona, Marvin Zieser, Corky Richardson, Roy Grace and Ed Fanchin convened a P&Y Special Panel of Judges to measure a non-typical Coues deer taken by Wesley Ely of Wilcox, Arizona. The deer was shot in August 2017 in velvet and stripped prior to the official measurement. The final score of 139 2/8 ties the existing P&Y World Record. “It all began on a summer scouting trip in 2013 when I noticed a young buck with massive antlers,” stated Wesley. “I continued to scout and occasionally hunt the area while the buck kept getting bigger each year. After an unsuccessful 2017 early hunt, I decided to devote all of my time-off to find the buck’s summer habits. 16 days before opening day, I began to pattern this elusive animal. On opening day in the middle of public land, I couldn’t help but hope that I was the only person chasing this big Coues’ deer. I watched the buck through my binoculars for four hours that morning and waited until he bedded down for the day. After an hour hike into the canyon, I was looking at the biggest Coues’ buck I had ever seen. In a stalk that seemed like an eternity, I crept and crawled closer to this small-bodied giant. I took my time, carefully applying all the things I had learned for years on how to make a successful stalk. As I released the arrow, my heart filled with hope and anticipation! Shaking with excitement, I watched through binoculars as the buck, with a complete pass through, slowly disappeared over the hill. When I discovered the Coues’ buck I had been hunting for four years lying motionless, I was in complete awe. I sat silently for a few minutes; admiring this intelligent animal and reflecting on what a humbling challenge it had been to take such an incredible buck.” “It was a pleasure to be part of the special process of recognizing a Pope and Young Club World Record,” said Ed Fanchin, Records Chair for the Pope & Young Club. “This was an unusual set of antlers that challenged the judges, who are some of the most experienced in the Club. This incredible animal is a testament to sound wildlife management across North America. Congratulations to Wes.” At the close of every biennial recording period, numerical awards and honorable mentions are awarded to the most outstanding bow-harvested animals in each species category entered during this two-year recording period. New World’s Records are recognized, and awards are presented to these exceptional animals during the Pope and Young Club’s Biennial Convention and Awards Banquet. Wesley’s Coues’ deer will be on display at the 31st Biennial Convention in Omaha, Nebraska April 10th – 13th, 2019. This is an official Pope and Young Club World Record of the 31st Recording Period and the second using a Special Panel of Judges. The Pope and Young Club is a non-profit North American conservation and bowhunting organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of bowhunting by striving to increase awareness and appreciation of bowhunting foundations, principles and values. The Pope and Young Club is focused on Fair Chase hunting ethics that support the ethical pursuit of free-ranging, wild game animals without unfair advantage while promoting the conservation of both habitat and wildlife. The Club also maintains the universally recognized repository of records and statistics on North American big game animals harvested with a bow and arrow.
The Months of May and June; the Timing of the Whitetail Rut
Rutting action varies greatly from south to north across the North America. The birth of fawns has a lot to do with the timing of the whitetail breeding period across the continent. The reasons why this is the case may surprise you. By Bernie Barringer There are abundant theories about the timing of the rut. In some years, it seems like the rut breaks loose all at once, and in other years, hunters will say it’s a “trickle rut” because they do not see the intense rutting activity. Books have been written about the impact of moon phase on the breeding activity, and some hunters are religious about planning their hunts around the correct moon phase for what they believe will be the best activity periods for bucks rutting. Several studies on the movements of radio collared and GPS tracked deer have cast considerable doubt on any theory that links the moon to rutting activity. In fact when you finish reading this, I think you will see that there is very little room for impact of moon phase on rutting activity. The key to when the deer need to breed has everything to do with when the fawns will be born. In the northern half of the US, the vast majority of whitetail fawns will be born during the month of May. This is very important to the survival of the species. In the southern reaches of the whitetail’s range, you can see evidence of rutting activity in late October and November much like you do in the north, but you will also see the majority of the breeding take place during December and even into January in many areas. This has everything to do with the milder winters. A fawn born during July in Texas or Florida for example has a pretty good chance of making it to adulthood. No so in Minnesota where I’m from. In Minnesota or Maine or any of the Canadian provinces, a fawn would only be three months old when the first cold, snowy weather sets in for the winter. Their chances of making it through that first blizzard in November are pretty slim. However, a fawn born in May will have the body size needed and will have the time to grow the necessary coat of guard hair and put on the fat needed to tough it out through that first winter. If you graphed out the rut, you would see that the breeding activity in the south takes place over a long curve and the peak is not as noticeable. Does may be bred any time from November through January. In the Canadian provinces, the peak of the rut is very pronounced and the vast majority of the breeding takes place over a two- to three-week period. In fact there is about one week each year when the bucks are going bonkers and the does are getting bred in a chaotic melee of rutting activity. The timing of the northern rut necessarily must take place over a short period of time in the fall, so the fawns will be born in a short period of time in the spring. Snowstorms in the north are common in April, and cold nights take their toll on tiny little fawns. Any fawns born while the nighttime temperatures are falling well below freezing have high mortality rates. Getting a foot of snow dumped on a newborn fawn is often a death sentence. So how do the deer know this? The rut is entirely controlled by photoperiodism. The length of daylight hours triggers the pituitary gland to release hormones and prepare the deers’ bodies for breeding. The changing length of daylight hours are more dramatic the farther from the equator you get. Summers in the north are long and winters are short. In the northernmost habitats where whi tetails live, there will be 20 hours of daylight at the day’s longest point in June, and there may be 18 hours of dark in the deepest parts of winter. That’s a dramatic change to take place over just a few months. On average, it is changing 8-10 minutes per day. In the southern parts of the whitetail’s range, the changes are not so dramatic. Days aren’t so short in the winter and nights aren’t so short in the summer. A change of a minute or two a day is enough to get from one end of the spectrum to the other. These radical changes in daylight hours dramatically affect the pituitary glands in the northern deer so the rut comes on fast and furious and then it’s over just as fast. So when someone talks about moon phase, weather or any other influences over rutting behavior, we know that these factors are very minor if they have any affect at all. Those positions become very difficult to defend in the light of the importance of the timing of fawning. The rut in the south can be quite drawn out, but in the north, it must be compressed into a very short window of opportunity; the health and survival of the spring-born fawns dictate it.
Six Great Road-Trips for a Velvet Whitetail
By Bernie Barringer In the lives and “careers” of most deer hunters, a process takes place over time as the desires of a hunter mature. At first, just shooting a deer, any deer is satisfying. Then shooting a number of deer becomes a priority and the third stage of the process takes place when the hunter desires to bag a unique specimen of the species. That might mean holding out for a true giant, or it might mean travelling in order to have a chance at bagging a subspecies. Or it might mean the desire to collect a whitetail buck while it’s in velvet stage. Whitetails across North America tend to shed their velvet during the first week in September. Sometimes the fuzz can come off during the last week of August, but the majority will become hard-antlered between September 1st and 7th. There are a handful of locations across North America where you can legally have a great chance of shooting a velvet buck at this time. These opportunities offer several positive aspects to the hunts. Not only does the season open early when the majority of the bucks have not yet shed their soft antler covering, but these bucks are in some of their most consistent and predictable patterns of the year. They are quite visible at this time of the year, plus they are focused on bedding and feeding every day. These bucks follow a daily routine that makes them very “patternable.” Shooting one is about as close to a slam dunk as you can get in whitetail hunting. Here are my top five picks for getting a velvet buck for your trophy collection. Public Land in North Dakota North Dakota is a gold mine for the Do-it-Yourself bowhunter. Public land is abundant and there are still places where hunting permission will be granted on a handshake. Tens of thousands of acres of US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) land surrounds the Missouri River and its reservoirs, and all of them are open to public hunting. Much of it is grassland, but food plots, shelterbelts and oak groves left over from century-old farmsteads attract whitetails. Lake Sakakawea is a huge reservoir 125 miles long and almost the entire shoreline is ACOE land. You could spend a lifetime poking around looking for whitetails. Much of the area has a very low human population and little hunting pressure during archery season. North Dakota also offers a program known as PLOTS: Private Land Open to Sportsmen. Landowners allow public access to their land through this program. The good news about PLOTS land is that no access by any type of vehicle is allowed. It’s walking only. The vast majority of this land is prairie that attracts bird hunters, but the hunter who does his homework can find small pockets of great whitetail habitat that rarely get hunted. Because it is walking access only, anything that is a mile or so from the nearest road may never see a deer hunter. Most locals have a place to hunt where they don’t have to hoof it so far. Surprisingly, few nonresident hunters take advantage of North Dakota’s whitetail opportunities. You will have to do your homework and be willing to work hard to bag a buck in North Dakota, but if you like the challenge of a DIY Road-trip, this could be the hunt for you. A nonresident deer license is only $215. Nonresidents must purchase the license online or by phone and have it mailed which takes about ten days. The archery season opens the Friday closest to September 1st each year. Southeastern Montana While the Northeastern part of Montana gets a lot of publicity for whitetail hunting, the Southeastern corner of the state has quietly been producing some really nice bucks. Because the season opens September 1st, there is a short window of opportunity to bag a velvet buck. While Northeastern Montana slowly recovers from blue tongue disease and some bad winterkills, Southeastern Montana whitetail populations have remained strong. Look to the lowlands along the Powder River and Tongue River watersheds for numbers of whitetails and a quality of deer that will surprise even the seasoned bowhunting road-tripper. This is arid country with river bottoms surrounded by sagebrush-covered hills. The deer bed in the cottonwood groves during the day and move out into the irrigated alfalfa fields to feed. Their patterns are very consistent and the sheer numbers of deer are striking. It is not unusual to see 50-plus deer per sitting. The first week in September last year I saw nine Pope & Young bucks in velvet during a four-hour evening sit in 90-degree heat. The majority of the properties with good deer populations are leased by outfitters. Most outfitters offer hunts for whitetails and mule deer, plus antelope if you want to combine the two into one hunt. This is one of those hunts that every serious bowhunter should put on their “Must Do” list. It’s that good. Montana is proud of its nonresident hunting tags. The tags and licenses will set you back $552 for the any-deer tag. This allows you to shoot a whitetail or a mule deer. You must apply by March 15, but for this area you will draw every other year and sometimes in consecutive years. You can spring for the more expensive Elk/Deer combo license ($980!)which guarantees you a deer tag; then if you do not hunt elk you can apply for a refund of the elk portion of the tag. Forest Fringe Area of Alberta Alberta has long been known to produce trophy whitetails due to its low hunting pressure the cold northern climate that dissuades all but the hardiest hunters during the frigid rifle season. But for bowhunters, Alberta is not at the top of their destination list. It should be on your list because of the opportunity to take a whopper in velvet during the first week of September. In fact, there some large areas designated primitive
The Beginner’s Guide to Choosing an Elk Hunt
The Beginner’s Guide to Choosing an Elk Hunt Just about everyone I know has an elk hunt on their bucket list, including me. I recently did some research about the available options for elk hunts and I thought I would share with you what I learned. I called up Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures for a free consultation to explore the options, and I got some great advice on what I will loosely group into four different categories of elk hunts. Let’s look at each of them, which will help you choose which one is best for you. Lodge/Ranch Hunt On the upper end of the spectrum is a hunt where you will be wined and dined and have a fantastic overall experience. Most of these hunts offer high success rates but you will have a great time even if you do not get an elk. The hunts take place while based in plush lodging, often a five star lodge, and you are taken to your hunting area each day by an experienced guide. They are typically on private ranches where the elk are well managed and your chances of shooting a trophy are good. For the most part these are not the most physically challenging hunts, although you may have to walk a few miles each day. Other times you may be spending more of your hunting time in a 4X4 pickup or ATV, or maybe on horseback. Once your elk is down, it is skinned and processed for you. These lodge hunts are great experiences and the price tag will run somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000. The DIY Hunt On the other end of the spectrum is a totally do-it-yourself elk hunt. You are responsible for everything from acquiring the tag, doing the research on where and when to go, transportation, lodging, and getting your elk out once you shoot it, which can be one of the biggest challenges of all. Some DIY hunters set up camp or base out of an RV and hike long miles to get into the elk each day. Trophy quality is generally low on these hunts unless you apply for years and draw a special high-quality area. Cabelas T.A.G.S. can help you with that. Some people enjoy the challenge of figuring it out and hunting without any guide or other assistance. This is not for everyone, and the success rates are pretty low, which makes it all the more rewarding when you are successful in going it alone. Semi-Guided Public Land Hunts These hunts are a step above the DIY hunt but you will end up doing the majority of the work yourself. The most common form of the semi-guided hunt is the drop camp hunt. In this case, you consult with an experienced outfitter who helps you choose a location to hunt and provides you with the majority of the equipment you will need. The outfitter will take you and the equipment into the hunting area, normally by pack horse, help set up everything, then leave. You are on your own for hunting. He comes back in to pick you and your game up at an agreed-upon date. This is a good way to avoid the high costs of owning all the equipment and horses, while still taking advantage of the conveniences they provide. A hunt like this will cost between $2,500 and $4,500. Wilderness Outfitters This is much like the drop camp hunt except you will have a guide along to show you the ropes and help you get your elk. You will also most likely have a cook/wrangler who will serve hot meals and help with the everyday chores around camp, including the challenge of getting your elk quartered and back to camp. This hunt, like the drop camp hunt, requires a reasonably good physical condition because some days can consist of rigorous hikes. These hunts have fairly highs success rates because you have someone with experience in the area helping you make decisions. You can also hunt harder because you can concentrate on the hunt rather than worrying about the everyday camp chores such as cooking, chopping firewood, tending to the horses, etc. These hunts will run from $5,000-$8,000. Base Camp Hunts The base camp hunt normally consists of RV’s or wall tents and is typically in an area you can drive to. You will hunt on horses or ATV’s or at times 4X4 pickups. There is a degree of comfort to be found in these camps that cannot be found in the wilderness hunts. You will probably have a tent or trailer set up with a shower, and of course you can make a drive to a nearby town in case of an emergency. Some of these camps are quite plush and offer a wide choice of drinks and plenty of fine eating. When set up in the right area, elk hunting can be excellent. The availability of motorized vehicles eases the difficulty of getting your elk back to camp. The physical activity level varies greatly with the camp and outfitter so make sure you ask questions about that topic before choosing which one to book. Generally, these hunts will cost between $4,500 and $8,000. You know you want to do it. So choose the elk hunt that fits your needs, budget, physical ability and preferences and just go do it. If the spark for a new experience lies within you, the counselors at Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures can help. Give them a call and start planning your adventure today.