Deer & Deer Hunting Field Editor Les Davenport shot this 11-point buck last week while bow-hunting in Illinois. Les had seen the buck several times this fall and photographed it with his trail cameras last summer. Congratulations, Les, on taking such a fine buck!

Deer hunters continue to send us photos of great bucks taken in South Dakota. This one, taken by 24-year-old Travis Zenk, is his fifth-largest deer. He is from a farm near Webster in Day County. Congratulations, Travis.

'Tis the season for photos of big bucks to circulate like wild-fire across the Internet. We don't know much about this South Dakota buck, but it does sport a very palmated rack. It was reportedly shot near Watertown, South Dakota.

Details on these three fine bucks are sketchy, but they were reportedly shot near Augustus, Wisconsin. From the e-mail, they were killed "within 1 mile and within a 36 hour period of each other.  The middle one scored 160+ the other 2 were in the low 150’s."

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!

A news report outlined two recent stories involving deer breaking and entering into two Nebraska homes.

"Monnie and Harvey Maske, 4630 Van Dorn St., say they came home from church on Sunday to find their home in shambles. There was broken glass, furniture knocked over and blood everywhere.

Monnie Maske says they thought someone had trashed their home until they found a set of antlers outside a broken picture window in the living room.

About three miles away near 69th and La Salle streets, another homeowner reported a deer had crashed into his basement window.

Police tried to track the deer, but had no luck."

Source: JournalStar.com

We were contacted recently by Jason Dorshorst, of Plover, Wisconsin, with a photo of a very nice buck taken from a ground blind. The buck was shot just north of Iola, Wisconsin.

The remarkable thing about this hunt wasn't the deer -- though it is a very good buck with 11 points, weighing 200 pounds and rough scoring 155 gross (151 net) with a 23-inch inside spread. No, what's remarkable was the hunter: That's because Dorshorst -- who was injured in a motorcycle accident and became a paraplegic -- was hunting at ground level, in a blind, from his wheelchair.
 
Taking big bucks can be challenging enough, but few can understand the unique challenges Dorshorst has overcome to stay in the game and successfully take trophy deer. Great job, Jason.

On Nov. 1, Bob Decker, of Eau Claire, Wis., killed what was possibly the most famous whitetail in North America.

The buck was filmed earlier this year near Mondovi, Wis., and the video was released on Field and Stream's Web site. Whitetail authorities across the country immediately began to debate whether the giant whitetail could be a walking world record — larger than Milo Hansen's huge Canadian typical.

Decker knew the buck was filmed near his lease, but he never imagined he would kill the monster whitetail. But at 9:30 a.m., the huge buck appeared 40 yards from his stand.

According to Jack Dodge, the taxidermist who will mount Decker's amazing buck, Decker didn't even realize the buck was the same deer he had seen on the internet.

"He thought it was a big 10-pointer," Dodge said. "He was turned the wrong way and had to turn around to get a shot at him."

Decker made the shot, though, as the buck passed directly under his stand.

According to Dodge, the giant buck has a 14-point main frame and a total of 16 points. Dodge aged the deer at just 31/2 years old. The buck field dressed at 200 pounds.

"It has incredible tine length but not a lot of brow-tine length," Dodge said. "We'll have to see what it comes out at, but it is an amazing buck, and it couldn't have been killed by a nicer guy."

For more on Decker's hunt and pictures of the buck, visit the story online at the Eau Claire Leader Telegram.