Dr. Jeff Rittenhouse knew he'd be facing extreme cold on his first ever hunt in Canada. The cold was worse than expected, but he persevered, and he was rewarded with a true North Country giant!

By Brent Trumbo

Prior to the 2006 season, Jeff Rittenhouse of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, had spent 32 years chasing whitetails in southeastern Pennsylvania. He'd always dreamed of having an opportunity to shoot a true trophy buck, but as a family practitioner, his discretionary time was limited. Then, in November of the '06 season, he thought he might have blown his one big chance when he missed a shot at a P&Y buck in Delaware. Little did he know that three short weeks later he would kill one of the biggest non-typicals taken in 2006 by a non-resident in Saskatchewan!

Jeff was hunting on Indian reservation land near Jackfish Lake during the last week of November. This was his first guided whitetail hunt. The thought of shooting a massive Canadian whitetail was very exciting, but he knew the hunt would require great patience and great tolerance to extreme cold. Jeff set a realistic goal of killing a 140-class buck.

His Indian guide, Willard Swiftwolf, suggested that he hunt in a pop-up blind in the farmland where previously the guide had seen a 160-class buck.

BRUTAL COLD, HEAVY SNOW
Monday morning greeted Jeff with a minus-20-degree temperature reading and a wind chill of minus 35 degrees. Driving to the blind was difficult enough because of fresh, deep snow. But after getting his gear organized in the predawn darkness, Jeff wondered if he was wearing enough warm clothing to survive 10 grueling hours in the frozen landscape. As daylight approached, he surveyed his surroundings and mentally prepared for any potential shot scenario.

The stand faced south, where Jeff could see out across a deep coulee. A bait pile (legal in Saskatchewan) had been placed approximately 120 yards away. Snowfall affected his visibility, but in the dim morning light Jeff could see a deer at the bait. However, he could not determine its sex before it disappeared just at daylight.

Magpies kept Jeff entertained, but the weather was ruthless even though the pop-up blind offered some protection from the wind and snow. The lens of his binoculars and scope continually fogged up and iced over. By 2 p.m., the weather was so bad that Willard came back to get him. Although disappointed, Jeff had seen three small bucks and he felt victorious in enduring the cold. To add to his disappointment, that night he learned there would be no hunting on Tuesday because of worsening snowdrifts.

Wednesday morning found Jeff back in the same blind. Even though the temperature was still minus 20, he elected not to use any propane heat because of the noise and scent factor. At 9 a.m. Jeff saw a spike buck. At noon he saw a small 8-point. Trying to stay focused, he hoped for the best.

MR. BIG SUDDENLY APPEARS
At 4:45 Jeff detected movement to his right. It was a deer walking through the open at about 75 yards away. A quick appraisal revealed that it was a buck. What's more, it was a shooter. The buck had a huge body, and Jeff wondered if the deer could be the 160-class buck that Willard had mentioned. Jeff tried to get his gun into shooting position as quickly as possible, but the buck dropped down into the coulee and disappeared. Now Jeff could only hope that the buck would emerge from the other side of the coulee south of him.

Jeff had prepared for the hunt by practicing during the summer with his Remington Model 700. He felt very confident in his shooting ability, but a thin screen of brush on his side of the coulee and his elevated level of excitement did cause some concern. As he waited, he finally saw movement in the brush at the south end of the coulee.

Then, as if it were meant to be, the buck walked out into the open. With thick beams and long tines, the buck of a lifetime stopped and turned broadside. Jeff aimed behind the buck's shoulder, and his .300 Winchester magnum roared. The buck disappeared into the coulee as Jeff frantically tried to chamber another round, but the bullet jammed momentarily. With the buck gone and with much nervous anticipation about his shot, Jeff decided to sit tight and wait for Willard before starting the search.

 By Bill Cooper

Situated in northwestern Illinois a stone's throw from Albany and the Mississippi River, Chuck Hamstra's farm encompasses the same rolling terrain where his grandparents settled during the early 1930s. Over the years, in addition to maintaining the family's farming lifestyle and strong work ethic, Chuck also developed a passion for hunting, especially deer hunting.

"Neither my father or grandfather were hunters, so I'm not sure what happened with me," Chuck said with a laugh. "I must have picked up an extra gene or two from somewhere. But whatever the reason, I seem to have passed the interest on to my children and grandchildren."

The Hamstra farming landscape includes numerous agricultural fields of various sizes interspersed with small-acreage woodlots, brushy ravines, CRP lands and winding tree-lined creek drainages. In regard to whitetails, the habitat simply couldn't be much better.

The farm's home site, which is centrally located along a high ridgeline, originally included a stone farmhouse that was built in 1856. The stone house had been used by Chuck's parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, it was completely destroyed in 1996 by a tornado. The monster storm also eliminated several nearby buildings and barns, plus two large silos. A new house and farm buildings have since been rebuilt on the same site.

With agricultural fields nearly surrounding the ridgetop location, it is fairly common for Chuck or his wife Judy to spot deer from the house or barn. For the most part, these are incidental sightings made at various times throughout the year, but occasionally a buck that warrants special attention is sighted.

A NEAR MISS ON A CHARMED BUCK
During the fall of 2006, Chuck was working on equipment near the barn when he happened to see a large buck crossing one of the open fields. Gun season was open, and he assumed that hunters on one of the adjoining properties had probably jumped the deer.

"The buck was well over 200 yards away," Chuck said. "But even at that distance and without the aid of binoculars, I could tell that the deer's rack was obviously very large. I continued to watch the buck until he eventually disappeared into a brushy drainage ravine between two of our fields. After several minutes elapsed without seeing him reappear, I was pretty confidant that he had bedded down in the thick cover."

Chuck immediately contacted his two sons, David and Kevin, and told them what he had seen and where he thought the buck was located. Grabbing their shotguns, the two hunters walked to the lower end of the ravine. They split up, one man on each side of the thick, brushy cover, and slowly began to advance toward the spot where their dad had last seen the deer.

"The buck came busting out on my youngest son's side (Kevin), and he missed the deer completely," Chuck said. "Later, he told me that he'd gotten close enough to get a pretty decent look at the buck's heavy rack, and he said it appeared to include at least two drop tines.

"From my high vantage point, I had continued to watch the buck cross two additional fields and go into a distant block of woods on a bordering farm. Earlier that day, I had seen other hunters at the same location, and I naturally assumed it would be only a matter of time until the shooting started. But surprisingly, not a shot was fired! I have always been amazed at how an animal the size of a mature whitetail buck can somehow go undetected in relatively sparse cover, especially a fairly open woodlot."

A HUGE SHED SWEETENS THE POT
The buck was not seen again that fall. During the 2007-2008 season, the deer was sighted only twice. Both encounters took place at night, when members of the Hamstra clan were coyote hunting. The second sighting was made in early January by Chuck's grandson, who reported that the buck had already shed one side of his rack.

"I had no doubt that the buck was primarily nocturnal," Chuck said. "Even so, I had planned to bowhunt a good bit in January specifically for him. Weather conditions that time of year can sometimes alter a deer's movement pattern, and I had a hunch where he was located. But my plans were canceled when I heard that the deer had already shed one of his antlers."

Three months later, around the middle of April, Chuck received a welcomed call from Greg Hayen, a good friend who occasionally did a little spring gobbler hunting on the farm. Greg told him that while he was turkey hunting along a wooded ridgetop near the old cemetery, he had found a big non-typical shed antler that might possibly have belonged to the drop-tine whitetail.

• Breeding Success and Fawn Survival
• The Early and Late Ruts
• The Rut by Geographic Areas
  • Gulf Prairies and Marshes
  • Post Oak Savannah
  • Pineywoods
  • Rolling Plains
  • Edwards Plateau
  • Cross Timbers
  • Trans-Pecos
  • South Texas Plains

Welcome to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Hunting Pages. We hope you find the information you need about wildlife resources in Texas. We hope that these pages bring a better understanding of wildlife and its needs to everyone. Habitat is the key to wildlife abundance and wildlife will not continue to exist without good habitat. We believe that visual enjoyment, regulated use, and just knowing that wild things exist enriches all of us. It is the mission of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to insure that game and non-game wildlife is around for centuries to come, both for the benefit of the wild creatures and the ecosystems they occupy, as well as for human beings.

The Rut in Texas White-tailed Deer

The following was based on three years of data collected by Wildlife Technicians and Biologists throughout Texas. Our goal is to get the information out to the hunters and landowners who assisted and helped fund the project. You may have seen parts of the article in outdoor magazines.

This project was funded by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department through Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project 95, W-127-R.

The phenomenon known as "the rut" is the period when deer breed. People often ask biologists when the rut is going to occur. It's a question biologists commonly hear in the fall. Many hunters want to make sure that they plan hunting vacations to include that magical time when bucks lose all caution and deer are moving.

Can hunting the rut help? You bet. Anything that encourages bucks to move enhances the chance of seeing one. Buck deer, like most male mammals, seem to lose a lot of their natural caution when the scent of a receptive female is in the air. One of the tips gained from this study is that rutting bucks can be found during most of the hunting season in many regions of the state. Consistently successful hunters spend a lot of time in the field throughout the hunting season, not just during the peak of the rut.

Hunters and ranchers often encourage Texas Parks and Wildlife to move the season later to give deer a chance to breed. The study showed that no matter when the rut occurred, the vast majority of does were bred. Individual ranch and deer herd management are much more important than timing of the hunting season. The data will assist TPWD in determining whether the number of bucks in an area has an effect on breeding season length and success. There are many interacting factors which affect breeding.

The breeding study involved the examination of 2,436 does, the largest number of deer ever utilized in a Texas breeding study. The date of conception can be determined by looking at fetus length. An average of 200 days from conception was used to determine fawning dates. Biologists got as much information as they could from the does collected. They looked at the timing of the rut and at breeding success on 16 study areas throughout Texas for three years.

All years were combined to produce the graphs that show the rut timing. In most areas the rut varied very little from year to year. You can use the map and graphs to determine the timing of the rut in your area of interest. Will the information help with the planning of your hunt? You be the judge.

In General

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No single factor can be used to conclusively judge the age of a deer in the field. The picture at right illustrates the main indicators that should be evaluated overall to get a good estimate for a buck. The individual indicators will often vary a little from one region of Texas to the next, and sometimes even within an individual herd. If you can view known age bucks (ear tagged as fawns) in the area, you can quickly get a better read on your local herd's distinguishing characteristics.

Using the Rack as Indication of Age
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Notice that the rack (antlers) is not depicted above as an indicator. While some very general statements can be made about antler developmental characteristics at certain ages of  a buck, the rack is the least reliable of any indicator. Remembering that these statements have MANY EXCEPTIONS, antlers generally gain mass as the buck ages, generally get darker as the buck ages, generally get wider as the buck ages, and will get any nontypical points in it's genetics once the buck has matured body wise. So, if a buck's antlers are wider than it's ears, dark in color, seem thick in the beam circumferences, and have some nontypical points,  chances are good that the buck is mature. Because of the tooth wear, a post mature buck's rack may actually start getting smaller from year to year, but they usually keep the basal circumference, then it will thin out quickly from there.

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FAWN

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Many people think they could never mistake a buck fawn for a doe, but every year we have too many of those same folks wind up doing just that. On the head, the pedicels (nubs) are the most obvious clue. The ears will appear long, and the nose will appear short. The body will be smaller than the adult doe's, but is bigger than a doe fawn, so be careful. The legs look long and skinny, and the gait is usually frisky, often frolicking. The tarsal glands will be small and snow white. Does seldom travel alone, so give it a few minutes to see if more deer show up for comparison. I've seen many buck fawns by themselves.

2 AND 1/2 YEARS
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At two and a half, the animal starts bulking up a tad, but just a tad. The neck will be bigger than a doe or yearling buck, but not much. The legs still look fairly long. The face looks long and the skin tight. Eyes are near perfectly round. Slightly developed brisket. The belly still has somewhat of an upturn near the hams. The tarsal gland may have some color to it. The rump appears squared off.

3 AND 1/2 YEARS
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A three and a half year old buck reminds me of a racehorse. They are usually very lean muscle, and act ready for action. They may make rubs and scrapes if no bigger bucks are present. The neck continues to get bigger, making the head look shorter. The nose broadens, adding to this illusion. The brisket is noticeable but not pronounced. Legs look the right length now. The belly line is flat, with little up turn at the rear. The tarsal gland will be dark in rut. Rump starts looking more rounded at times and squared off at times, depending on stance. Back line is flat.

4 AND 1/2 YEARS

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If fed well, a 4 and a half year old buck really starts looking like a buck. The giveaways now are the back and belly lines, and the head. On level ground, the back will have a slight dip only, and the belly will not hang below the chest line. The head skin will not look tight or loose, and the eyes almost round but not quite. When one of these bucks walk, they still pick their feet up pretty good, and the front knees won't look bent in when the deer is walking toward you. Rump is getting pretty round, and tarsal glands will be black when near or in rut. Nontypical points may start to show up now.

5 AND 1/2 YEARS
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This one gets hard to pass up. Unless your herd is well managed, most bucks don't make it to this old, but you should actually let a buck get at least 6 before you hammer them to achieve maximum antler potential. Now, the eye will not be round anymore, it starts to look squinty. The brisket is obvious where it joins the neck. The belly hangs even with the chest or starts to hang below it a bit. They start walking knock kneed somewhat. They seem more deliberate in their actions. Skin on head starts looking a bit loose. Often have  nontypical points.

6 AND 1/2 YEARS

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When a six year old walks out, it's usually pretty obvious. All other deer pay attention. He is on top of his game and knows it. Actions are very deliberate, like a big bull swaggering in. The front knees bend in to handle the weight of the neck and rack. The belly and back sags from years of fighting gravity. When relaxed, the ears tend to droop down a bit for the same reason. The rump is well rounded. The brisket obvious. Eyes are squinted; almost mean looking. With good nutrition, all nontypical points in his genes will pop out now. This is what you've waited for. TAKE HIM!

PAST 6 AND 1/2 YEARS
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When a buck's teeth wear out, somewhere between 7 and 9 years old in normal habitat, antler and body conditions deteriorate. It is actually fairly easy to mistake a 9 year old deer for a  3 or 4 year old deer. The giveaway indicators though are the head, neck and rump. Also, muscle tone. The head will continue to have the loose skin, and the eyes will still be squinty, as in other mature bucks. The rump, however, will lose mass, not appearing rounded anymore. It won't be smoothly squared off like a young buck, either. It will be bony looking. The back may also be bony looking. Even the shoulders won't look so well muscled, and the neck certainly won't. I've noticed also that just like old men tend to get gray hair, an old buck tends to look lighter in color than other deer in the area. Not gray so much, but more of a lighter brown. Often, the hair also appears course.
 

Field Judge Score of Trophy Whitetail Deer
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Many times, a hunter must make a decision to shoot or not in a matter of seconds. It is impossible to get a deer to hold still while you break out the measuring tape and tally up his score while you make this decision, so how do you make the right choice, fast? Learn to field judge the score of whitetail deer antlers; that's how.
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Getting a fairly accurate score, quickly, is not that hard really, but it does take some practice before you'll be really good at it. What I like to do is to quickly judge mounted trophies and then actually put a tape on it to see how far off I am. After a hundred or more of these, you will find that getting within 5 score points (inches) is pretty easy. Almost anyone can be within 10 inches after just a few dozen test runs. But what do you do if you can't access several dozen mounts? Well, here is a fast, very general way to get an approximate score.
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First, look at the smaller half of the rack. Almost all deer antler sets will have some asymmetry. In other words, one side does not look exactly like the other. Try to use the smaller side if possible. Why the smaller side? BEWARE OF GROUND SHRINKAGE! Antlers almost always tend to look bigger when in the air above a live deer's head than they do on the ground by a dead one. By using the smaller side to start this process, you build a bit of ground shrinkage into the system. Now, add up the total tine length on that one side. You can use the ear of the deer as a reference. They are generally 7 to 8 inches in total length from where they join the head to the very tip. Now double that score and add either 80, 90 or 100 for the rest of the rack. A decent buck, with normal looking antlers, will generally score about 80-85 inches of base score (main beam, spread and mass combined). If the rack looks pretty heavy, the beams reach his nose in a side view, and are as wide or a bit outside the ears, but doesn't look HUGE, he will generally get a score of about 90-95 for the base score. A deer that has it all; width, long main beams and real good mass, will score 100-105 base score. Mass is very important in this computation because it is measured 8 times total, so just one inch in circumference at each measurement can add 8 inches of score. Normal mass is about 4 and 1/4 to 4 and 1/2 inches at the C-1 (first mass measurement made at the smallest point between the base and first typical point). As reference, the eye of a deer is roughly this same circumference. Spread will fool ya if you're not careful. Add just 3 or 4 inches of spread and most people will guess an added 10 inches or more in score. Usually, if they get spread, they give up mass or beam. If they get mass, they give up spread or beam, and so it goes, but it all averages out real close to the totals given. ONLY the deer that has it ALL will get that 100-105 base score. Don't get fooled! 
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And, there you have it, a five second way to get a rough score on a trophy whitetail deer.
8 +7 + 5 + 3 = 23 x 2 = 46 + 90 to 95 = 136 to 141 gross B&C ( a pretty darned nice buck)
Actual score wound up being 139 6/8 gross B&C.

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