Submitted by Corey Graff, Online Editor

The red SUV sitting smack dab in the middle of a field first caught my attention. Two people were in the vehicle staring off into the field. Beyond stood what looked to be a 3 1/2 year old buck some 75 yards out who was tending a doe. The buck was chasing her around the field and staying with her very closely.

Further down the highway, a nice 2 1/2 year old buck crossed the road with nose to the ground.

Total tally for the morning: One chasing and one searching. D&DH's rut predictions appear to be spot on as we transition this week into the chasing phase. Many photos and stories of big bucks are really beginning to pour into the office.

What have you been seeing?

Wisconsin’s Lon Sherman traveled to South Dakota last weekend to chase rutting whitetails. Despite 30-40 mph winds, Sherman found success in a sheltered river bottom. He dropped this impressive buck on Nov. 8. Congratulations, Lon!

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years: consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition poses absolutely no health risk to people, including children, and that the call to ban lead ammunition was and remains a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups to forward their political agenda.

Today, additional information became available about the CDC study, originally released yesterday, that is important to disseminate to hunters, their families and the general public about the total and complete lack of any evidence of a human health risk from consuming game harvested using traditional ammunition.

For instance, in the study the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. 

In the CDC's study, children's lead levels had a mean of just 0.88 micrograms per deciliter, which is less than half the national average for children and an infinitesimally small fraction of the level that the CDC considers to be of concern for children (10 micrograms per deciliter).

Yet, despite the total and complete lack of any evidence from this study of the existence of a human health risk, the Department of Health nevertheless urges that children under 6 and pregnant women not eat venison harvested using traditional ammunition.

The North Dakota Department of Health's recommendation is based on a "zero tolerance" approach to the issue of blood lead levels that is not supported by science or the CDC's guidelines.

To further put in perspective the claims concerning the safety of game harvested using traditional ammunition, consider this statement from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) -- a state agency that has conducted an extensive panel of blood-lead testing for more than 15 years: "IDPH maintains that if lead in venison were a serious health risk, it would likely have surfaced within extensive blood-lead testing since 1992 with 500,000 youth under 6 and 25,000 adults having been screened." It has not.

The White brothers from Kansas are persistent, if they're anything. According to a story in the Whichita Eagle, they pursued one buck for four years and said it was the smartest whitetail they had ever encountered:

"From 2005 to 2007, the White brothers doggedly hunted a buck called 'Big Nine.'

Luckily they didn't get him until this week.

'Last year he was a 160-class deer and this year he's a 200,' Scott White said.

Monday evening, White made a 30-yard shot on the 11-point buck that's expected to eventually net about 185 inches, after grossing 200 7/8.

That's about one-tenth of an inch per hour the Whites annually invest in their passion for big whitetails.

Brothers Scott, Nick and Matt White are usually in a stand every day of Kansas' bow season until they've all killed trophies."

To see photos of the buck and read more details, Click Here

Tim Herald, director of marketing for Bad Boy Buggies, shot this incredible whitetail in Saskatchewan while hunting with Safari River Outdoors last week.

“I really misjudged this deer - but in a good way,” Tim said. “He gross scored 178 and change. He is a typical 10-point frame with both G-2's split along with a split brow tine. He has 45 inches of mass and 24" beams. I am very much humbled by this incredible animal.”

Congratulations, Tim!