Have You Seen Bilateral Asymmetry in Antlers?
A few years ago I shot this buck while hunting with Donna and Jake McDonald at Upper Canyon Ranch near Alder, MT. (www.ucomontana.com) Notice the right hind leg has been severed just at the dewclaws, probably by a mower blade when the animal was just a fawn hiding in the alfalfa. A leathery scab had grown over the amputated foot, but the buck didn’t appear to walk much. It was often seen stepping out of brush along the creek to forage in the bordering alfalfa field, probably the same one where it had been injured years earlier.
Whitetail does lead bucks on long chases during the rut, so I doubt this one was involved with rutting. It did, however, respond to annual hormonal changes by growing antlers, stripping them of velvet, shedding and growing a new set each year. The McDonalds had been watching this buck for at least four-years before it was shot. It may have been as old as seven. It was the most tender, delicate, delicious venison I’ve ever eaten.
You’ll also notice those peculiar antlers. The one on the deer’s right side has a typical configuration with a couple of sticker points, not unusual in an older buck. It is exceptional in that it sports eight distinct, normal points. The last two are too short to count, but were they longer they’d be extremely rare G6 and G7 by B&C count. I’ve seen a few bucks with six legitimate points on one side, but never seven and certainly not eight. Have you?
Now consider the left-side antler. Deformed and contorted. Why? This is an example of bilateral asymmetry. The deer’s body compensates for the injury to the right hind foot by growing the “injured” antler on the left side. I’ve heard that a front leg injury causes the antler on the same side to contort, but I’ve never seen this. Have you? These bilateral asymmetry patterns persist throughout the life of the deer.
Antlers damaged while in velvet will grow normally in subsequent years, but damage to the pedicle (base) can result in contorted antler growth every year, since the foundation had been injured. Pedicle damage leads to multiple main beams and even third antlers sprouting from the buck’s forehead – or wherever the tissue was pushed during the injury. You can surgically move pedicel tissue to any part of a deer’s body where there is a blood supply and an antler will grow there. Or so they tell me.
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Young whitetail buck during rut season
You may have noticed how some old whitetails during the rut develop rich, dark hairs on their foreheads. I always guessed this was the result of rubbing sap and dirt into the hair while making tree rubs. Now I’ve discovered this darkening might be a natural pigmentation that serves as a visual cue indicating the sexual status of the buck. Canadian wildlife researchers G.A. and A.B. Bubenik studied this phenomenon more than 25 years ago (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Do you suppose the same thing applies to the black foreheads we see on old mule deer bucks? I stumbled onto this while researching eland (www.biomedcentral.com) for an article I’m preparing for American Hunter magazine. Old eland bulls do a number of things to advertise their size, age, mass and physical dominance including: 1. Grow huge dewlaps that augment the size of their necks/briskets 2. Change coat color from tan to blue-gray, which emphasizes bulk. 3. Grow dark, thick mats of hair on their foreheads. 4. Lowering the pitch or frequency of the clicking sound made while walking when tendons snap over a carpal bone. The older and heavier the bull, the lower the frequency of the thicker, more elongated tendon.
The idea is that these visual and audio signals will “win the game” without the bulls actually having to fight it out. I wonder if a young whitetail turns tail and sneaks away upon seeing the dark forehead of a mature buck?
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The Evil Crossbow Isn’t the Real Danger
Can you believe some folks want to hunt deer with crossbows?
Can you believe some folks think this is evil?
I don’t know what it is about hunting tools that set some people foaming, but for as long as I’ve been paying attention, rifle hunters have been whining about bow hunters. “They scare all the game and stink up the woods. They get too long of a season. They wound too much game.” In turn, “traditional” bow hunters complain about compound bow hunters who in turn grouse about muzzleloader hunters or handgun hunters …
And now they’re all complaining about crossbow hunters because crossbows are “Too easy to use! They’re too accurate. A crossbow is like a rifle. It’s not fair!”
Uh, what? Unfair? Some people are using centerfire rifles to target elk 1,200 yards away, and we’re worried about crossbows throwing bolts that poop out before 100 yards?
Meanwhile bears, cougars and wolves hunt with unlimited tags and no closed season. Idaho’s Lolo elk zone in 1995 harbored about 18,000 elk. Today it’s lucky to support 1,800. Yellowstone Park’s northern herd has plummeted from 20,000 to 2,000.
Moose in Yellowstone have dwindled from 1,000 twenty years ago to fewer than 200 today and I doubt there are truly that many. Across most of the West, mule deer populations are steadily declining as more suburbs, summer homes, giant windmill farms, airports (Denver,) Interstate highways, golf courses, ski resorts, energy exploration roads, drilling rigs, oil pads and corn fields sprawl across the land. The CRP fields that re-invigorated sharptail grouse and pheasant populations are being plowed into dust. Our few remaining virgin prairies are being sacrificed to $10 a bushel corn.
Friends, we don’t need to be squabbling about how we hunt. Rifles, handguns, long bows, quadruple-wheeled short bows, spears or slingshots. It doesn’t matter. Wildlife managers can set and adjust seasons and harvest quotas and the number of permits necessary to maintain healthy numbers of most species. How you collect your fair share is between you and your ethics (I’m not advocating poisoned bait here.) What our Game Departments can’t control are weather, disease, habitat loss, predators and gullible citizens trying to micromanage wildlife by emotion.
Urbanization has lulled many of us into a false sense of security. We live in our artificial world of plastic and electronic images. Wildlife thrives unmolested “somewhere out there.” Just confess your love for animals, wear a Save the Whales T-shirt, recycle a soda can now and then and everything will live happily ever after.
We hunters know better. We are out there in the mud and blood. We see the disappearing habitat. We know the history of our conservation battles and understand the ramifications of human activities. As a group we have saved and restored North America’s wildlife abundance. The science of wildlife management, financed and supported politically by the shared, limited harvest of Nature’s annual production, has been the most remarkable success of the environmental movement. We have protected millions of acres of wildlife habitat.
But today new pressures from a surging human population threaten all of this.
Now is the time to educate or friends and neighbors about disappearing wild habitats. Now is the time to fight for scientific wildlife management and wise land use. Now is the time to expose the lies of the animal-rights movement, which squanders hundreds of millions of dollars for no positive impact on wildlife. We are in a race against overwhelming demands for limited natural resources.
We have no time to quibble over our hunting tools.
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Would you trust this old can of gunpowder? Will it explode if you shake it? Catch on fire in a hot room?
Farmers in France still uncover unexploded bombs from WWII. Local authorities often dispose of those bombs by exploding them. Yup, the things remain viable and dangerous after more than 65 years.
So does gunpowder and hunting ammunition.
Sort of.
The smokeless gunpowder inside old rifle cartridges is quite stable and could be as potent today as it was the day it was loaded, therefore such ammunition can be dangerous if it’s chambered into a suitable rifle and fired. The bullet flying from the muzzle is the dangerous part. The cartridge itself – and the powder within it – are no more “dangerous” than a brand new cartridge. This is because modern gunpowder (smokeless) is not an explosive. Stick a match to a heap of it and it burns, but does not explode. Even old blackpowder doesn’t explode unless, like smokeless powder, it is confined. When the powder burns, the resulting gas raises pressures and, like air escaping from a punctured balloon, goes bang. They also “blow apart” the confining vessel, or, in the case of a firearm, blow an obstruction (bullet) out the muzzle. Cartridges thrown into a fire will pop and fling debris, including bullets, but not with the force generated through a barrel.
Nitrocellulose gunpowder does deteriorate with time, moisture and heat, but it becomes less potent, not more. There have been reports of large quantities of smokeless military powder confined in relatively small spaces (small rooms, perhaps cellars) degenerating to acidic gases and those gases exploding, but I have never heard of small quantities of common handloading powders exploding.
But what do you do with a canister of old gunpowder? According to Chris Hodgdon of the Hodgdon Powder Company in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, the powder in the canister shown here is WWII surplus likely manufactured way back in the 1930s or 1940s, then packaged and sold by his company in the 1950s or early 1060s. Mr. Hodgdon went on to write that the stuff in the can is “probably good if [it was] properly stored. Check for deterioration by three factors: strong smell, rust colored kernels (or rusty dust) and warm to the touch. [If] Any of these are present GET RID IF IT. Old powder makes great fertilizer for the lawn.”
So sprinkle it in your garden or lawn and water it down. But if it appears to still be good, feel free to follow directions in a handloading manual for H4831 powder and build a test load using the recommended starting dose (low powder quantity, low pressure.) Shoot this over a chronograph such as the Oehler Research 35P and note the velocity. If it falls near the numbers listed in the recipe book, the powder is still potent.
Knowing this, handloaders can sometimes find and buy “old” powder for pennies. Look at the $2.50 price on the can in this picture. Today’s H4831 is selling for about ten times more.
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An RSO visitor named Bill from way back east just asked for advice on Western whitetail outfitters. Smart guy. He’s looking the right direction for great whitetail hunting.
I explained to Bill that, while I can’t guarantee any outfitters, I have had great luck with Laughing Waters Ranch Outfitters near Bassett, Nebraska. Check out a short video on YouTube. LWRO has great river bottom habitat and lots of big bucks. I took a 143 net there two years ago, a 150 gross last Nov.
In Alberta try Willow Creek Outfitters with outfitter Andre van Hilten south of Calgary near Nanton. With Andre you have a good chance for both a mule deer AND whitetail. Eastern Montana has long been a great trophy whitetail destination, but 14 months ago it suffered a major winter kill. As if that weren’t bad enough, late last summer EHD (a viral disease) hit, wiping out as many as 90 percent of the surviving whitetails in some spots. Check carefully before booking in Montana. Some ranches retain good bucks, but it’s spotty.
Wyoming is usually good around the Black Hills and Sheridan areas. Eastern Colorado is super for massive, mature bucks, but I suspect you’ll pay a steep price for access. Expect huge mule deer in the same habitats. South Dakota can be outstanding in places depending on harvest pressure. North Dakota is a sleeper. Kansas is always great, but outfitters there seem to be following the Midwest model — they stick you in a stand and there you must sit. But man, do they have bucks! If you enjoy sitting and waiting, Kansas would be a good use of your time.
I’m afraid I can’t recommend Idaho anymore. In the 1980s and early 90s it was producing excellent whitetails, along with the best branch-antlered elk hunting in the country. Shiras moose were popping up like mushrooms in May. I saw 11 in one day while hunting grouse east of Idaho Falls! But the wolves seem to have “overharvested” Idaho’s big game. I haven’t seen a moose in years, elk numbers have nose dived in many places and whitetails are huddling on rural doorsteps to avoid wolves.
Texas is, of course, big time whitetail country, but most of the hunting is somewhat contrived in that deer are intensely managed. So are hunters. You may be directed to sit not only in one stand your entire hunt, but over a feeder that “goes off” at 8:45 AM and 4:40 PM each day. You could even be told to shoot the 4×5 with a broken G3 on the right side, but not the 5×4 with tall tines and a broken G1 on the left. This is just one way Texans manage to produce so many fully mature, spectacularly antlered bucks. They harvest no buck before its time. But this takes the “hunt” out of hunting for some of us. If you don’t mind such restrictions, Texas can certainly produce a huge buck for you.
Truly, any western ranch with whitetails and controlled access can provide outstanding hunting. Your success depends on the services the outfitter provides (food, lodging) how much pressure he puts on the deer, how freely he lets you hunt, how hard you hunt and how effectively you hunt. I’m betting you’ll see more and larger bucks on any western hunt than you see in a season in most eastern states. But don’t take my word for it. Head West and try to prove me wrong.
(Like the photo at the top? Watch me take this buck in a new episode of Winchester World of Whitetail on NBC Sports Network later this summer or early fall.)
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Spomer Stops Rogue Elephant at 20 Yards!
There are places in Africa where elephants still run rampant, destroying crops, huts and people. Countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique permit elephant hunting in order to control herds and bring in revenue to offset elephant depredation. Sport hunters pay tens of thousands of dollars to take a single elephant, the money going to placate villagers and maintain reasonable elephant numbers. In places such as Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, pachyderms swarm in numbers far beyond the carrying capacity of habitats. In many cases control officers are forced to shoot hundreds of cows and bulls to prevent destruction of vital trees and grasslands – habitat needed by other African species.
To my surprise, I had to stop a charging bull today. It jumped in front of my PH and me as we were tiptoeing down a trail in the forest of Texas, of all places. As the accompanying photo shows, this was a two-dimensional elephant, about as close to the real thing as I’ll likely get. But it sprang from the woods and I stopped it. Put a 168-grain Hornady A-Max bullet through its brain while using a Ruger American .30-06 rifle. This isn’t a recommended elephant gun, but it’s a great way to have some fun while training to shoot quickly under pressure.
Shooting and training like this goes on weekly at the FTW ranch where former Navy Seal sniper instructors and African hunters teach novices all the ropes for shooting effectively. My experiences here have enlightened me to a real need among my fellow hunters – the need to practice.
We American hunters tend to labor under the delusion we are natural game shots. Hey, it’s our heritage. Dan’l Boone and all that. But no one is a natural shot. And unless one practices shooting – seriously and repeatedly with proper technique – no one becomes an accomplished shot. Can you hit a deer that jumps up 20 yards in front of you? Can you put two rounds into a buffalo’s chest, reload your rifle, run 20 yards and put a third shot into the brain pan of another charging bull? Or even a coyote?
Can you adjust your scope or hold over a target 430-yards away and compensate for a 5 mph quartering wind just the right amount to drop a bullet onto that 9-inch target? If not, perhaps you should consider a shooting class. Today friends and I hit targets as far as 700 yards away, consistently and repeatedly, thanks to class work, study and instruction.
I know this might rub you the wrong way. It did me. I grew up a typical country kid unwilling to “waste” perfectly good hunting ammunition shooting targets. The result was I wasted more ammo while simultaneously wasting big game tags and wonderful opportunities to put venison in the freezer. I now realize that skimping on practice time and ammo is a great way to miss the buck of a lifetime. Far better to spend several hundred, even several thousands of dollars learning how to shoot correctly the first time. Then you don’t waste those rare, golden opportunities to take real game while slowly learning how to shoot. Were I a new shooter today, I’d invest big money learning to shoot before I invested bigger money on rare tags, hunting trips and fancy rifles. The Ruger American Rifles we were shooting today sell for less than $400, the Zeiss Conquest scopes for about $500. And they performed beautifully.
Whether you pay to attend a shooting class such as those taught at the FTW Ranch (http://www.ftwoutfitters.com) or teach yourself in the back pasture, you owe it to yourself, the game you hunt and your hunting heritage to practice and learn to shoot well BEFORE you hunt. Shoot near and far and then really far. Shoot quickly and slowly. Shoot precisely. Shoot until you know your rifle and ammo and trajectories like the path from your bedroom to bathroom. Then go hunting confident that you can make shots when you need to and skip those you know you can’t make. You’ll be the envy of your friends and the curse of deer and bunnies everywhere.
Hunt well, shoot better and enjoy dinner.
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Ruger’s New American Rifle Bargain
I was wrong.
When I saw the new Ruger American rifle I thought it was a cheap step down for this venerable American rifle maker. But now I’ve shot the thing – and I’m impressed. Really impressed.
In .30-06 Springfield the American — sighted with a Zeiss 3-9×40 Conquest scope – is shooting a Hornady 168-grain A-Max Garand load (2,600 fps) one-MOA. Consistently. I fired one 200-yard group that went sub-MOA. That’s three bullets into a 1.2″ circle. And all shooting was done prone off a bipod, not a sand-bagged benchrest. Target distances varied from 100 yards to 500 yards, and no bullet landed more than 4.5 inches from point of aim until my 40th shot, which just missed high left at 500 yards.
Friends, that’s an accurate rifle.
But for less than $400 how can it be?
You read correctly. This rifle will retail for less than $400, perhaps even less than $300 during some sales.
Let’s outline this rifle’s features. First, it is 100-percent American made. Every barrel, screw and spring is made here, thus the American name. I like that. Second, the barreled action is set into steel V bases molded into the thermoplastic stock. The barrel is free floating, and the bedding screws pull the base metal against the screws and V bases without touching or stressing the stock. So, even though the inexpensive plastic stock is somewhat flexible, as are all molded stocks, bedding pressure is constant and consistent. A flexible, hollow recoil pad really soaks up recoil.
Third, each cold-hammer-forged barrel is tightened to the action with a locking nut for precise headspacing. Fourth, the bolt is a three-lug design. This might not contribute anything to accuracy, but it results in a 70-degree bolt lift for quick cycling. The bolt body is full sized, so it slides smoothly without the need for guide rails and without binding. Fifth, the trigger is a Marksman adjustable trigger (from 3 to 5 pounds pull via a single screw) with a passive trigger-mounted safety that blocks the trigger. There is a tang safety, too. With the tang safety “on,” the bolt can be manipulated to run rounds through the action. But that shouldn’t be necessary, since each American rifle wears a detachable, four-round magazine. Snap it out, run the live round out of the chamber and you’re unloaded and completely safe.
The black plastic magazine box is smooth, consistent, easy to attach and detach and equally easy to load. In addition, it’s rotary, much like the familiar Ruger 10/22 magazine. Each round rotates up, aligning dead center with the chamber for easy and consistent loading. During my 60 rounds of shooting I had no glitches. The magazine loaded smoothly every time, snapped into place perfectly every time, fed perfectly every time.
The cartridge ejection port in the receiver is minimal. This means there is a bridge of steel arching over the top where most rifles have been cut away, exposing more bolt body. While that looks proper to an old shooter’s eye, it isn’t as inherently stiff as this style. More steel means more rigidity.
Each rifle ships with Weaver-style bases included, and if you send in your warranty card Ruger will return you a nylon cheek pad and ammo carrier that straps onto the butt stock. It’s valued at $20.
If this rifle sounds too good to be true for this price, test drive one at your earliest opportunity. I’ll bet you’ll change your mind. I know I have.
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Over two-thirds of the thousands of kids on the Big Brothers Big Sisters waiting list claim they would like to spend time outdoors with their mentor. Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors can help with that.
PIO-OM is a non-profit organization that connects children with their outdoor heritage by mentoring them in hunting and fishing. To accomplish that, PIO-OM needs men and women volunteer mentors. It also needs money. That’s where RSO readers can help. When you donate $50 to PIO-OM, you get 53 chances to win, via lottery, a new firearm valued between $800 and $4,300. Donate $100 and you triple your chances to win. Weekly drawings will begin the first week of March, 2012. All tickets remain in the drawing for all 52 weeks plus one bonus drawing.
Donate to Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors and not only will you have a chance to win a new gun, but most importantly, you will be furthering efforts to give more children the opportunity to experience the great outdoors we all know and love. Future financial and political support for fish, wildlife and hunting rights depends on citizens who understand our successful wildlife conservation programs.
Donate online or via phone by calling 316-290-8883. You may also send a check or money order made payable to “Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors”:
Mike Christensen
Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors, Inc.
310 E 2nd
Wichita, KS 67202
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