Today's Internet sensation...This buck was allegedly killed in Oklahoma. It is said to have 41 scorable points. From the picture, it appears that the buck became entangled in some kind of wire. We are not sure if this is what caused its demise.

Mark this one down as the new whitetail Internet wonder. Photos of this buck have been floating around the Web for at least three or four years. I just received it four times in the past week. Someone must have resurrected it and the chain of emails is being passed around once again. The mythical “412-pound buck” made the rounds recently, with the new tag-line of it being killed in northern Michigan. Although we cannot verify the location of this kill, we are certain that this buck did not weigh that much. The location of the wound, intestinal area, seems to indicate that this buck was recovered after suffering from a gastric condition for some time. This condition occurs when a deer is wounded and survives for several days (sometimes weeks). The condition causes a slow leak in the gastro-intestinal system and, hence, causes bloating of the stomach/chest chambers, and, sometimes, a bloating of the skin surfaces. This gives the appearance of a large body when, in fact, the deer is of normal size. I have seen similar cases over the years, including one Nebraska buck that ballooned so large that its head was absolutely dwarfed by its swollen neck.
--Dan Schmidt

The date and origin of this amateur video is also unknown. Thanks to some quick thinking, the good Samaritan saved this doe by using a helicopter to literally blow it off the water and back to land.

How_to_blow_away_a_deer.wmv (1.82 MB)

This is the latest deer-related video to be flying around the Internet. The unfortunate buck found itself in this predicament after apparently sparring with a homemade swing. The landowner apparently captured the video from his backyard.

DumbBuck.wmv (2.62 MB)

D&DH-TV Producer Chris Hermans and I just returned from southern Mississippi where we met loyal D&DH subscriber David Cargill for a hunt with renowned hunter and callmaker Will Primos. Cargill was the winner of our latest sweepstakes hunt and prize package that was publicized throughout the year in the magazine.

The hunt could be described in one word: HOT! When I left home from Wisconsin the morning of December 6th, the temperature gauge in the vehicle read minus 11.

We met Cargill at the Atlanta airport. Needless to say, he was fired up- -- as we were -- to get into the woods that night, but due to some airline issues we didn't arrive in Jackson in time to hunt. We did get a chance to walk though the office and meet a lot of great people, and stock up on the latest Primos calls. We then headed to camp just in time to give us a quick tour and the first food plot that we saw had a number of deer in it, including one nice buck. To say we were excited would be an understatement. But the next morning the warm weather had already arrive. Cargill would be filmed by Chris for a muzzleloader hunt, while I bowhunted. However, with the warm weather, the deer just didn't move.

After the entire first day we had seen a total of six deer, all does and fawns. Maybe our luck would change the next day! Mine didn't, as I got skunked for the second strait sit on stand. However, Cargill faired much better, harvesting the largest buck of his lifetime on film. It was a main frame eight with great mass. It grosses well over 130.

The highlight of the hunt for me was the final 30 minutes when a 3.5 year old 8-point came into range. The place we were hunting is intensely managed and try shooting only 4.5 year olds or better so we abided by the rules and passed him up, and as always once you decide to pass him up he didn't want to leave the area. He stood for the longest time at 20 yards giving us some great behavioral footage.

As we were driving back to the airport the temperature was hovering around 80 degrees and very humid and I found myself wondering what the hunt would have been like had the temperatures been 20 degree's cooler. All and all it was a great trip, and I want to thank the staff at Primos for hosting a great hunt!

--Brad Rucks, Publisher

This monster 20-pointer was allegedly killed in southwestern Wisconsin during the early December muzzleloader season. The buck is said to have 6+ inch bases and an inside spread of nearly 25 inches. It was said to be killed in the state's CWD management area.

We are seeking more information on this buck, which has been making the rounds across cyberspace. It was supposedly killed in Alberta recently. If it is legit, it seems to have well more than 40 inches of mass, which would likely push it above 200 inches B&C. We will post more information as it becomes available.

D&DH-TV Producer Chris Hermans and I just returned from a hunt at Prairie Wings Outfitters in north-central Kansas with Tim Herald of Under Armour and Bill Mitchell of Nikon Sport Optics.

This was my first trip to Kansas, and I finally got to experience first-hand what D&DH subscribers have been telling me for years: It's always windy in Kansas! I also witnessed that wind does not affect deer in this environment as it does elsewhere. Deer are used to the wind ... so much so that they move around their habitat much like deer would here in the Midwest -- even when it's blowing 25 mph or more.

We scored on a very nice 8-pointer during an afternoon hunt that saw us hunting out of a haybale blind overlooking an alfalfa field. The tending phase of the rut was in high gear, and we witnessed that when the buck came out of a nearby river-bottom hot on the heels of an estrous doe. One shot from my 7 mm Mag dropped the buck in his tracks at just over 100 yards.

Chris caught all of the exciting action on video, which will be featured in an upcoming epsiode of D&DH-TV for 2008. Check this blog for more details in the coming months.

We still have some hunting left to do here in WI, and the entire D&DH staff will be in Alabama for a hunt for the Southern rut in mid-January.

--Dan Schmidt