Whitetail365: The Deer Hunting Blog From Field & Stream

My shed hunting buddies and I have had a long-standing joke that one of us would one day train a dog to find antlers. This thought might have also occurred to you if you’ve lived the twin curses of 1) being an antler addict and 2) having ever hunted over a bird dog or retriever.

The concept of a shed dog is near and dear to my heart whenever I’ve had an unsuccessful trip (which happened today) and especially when I’m accompanied by my doofus golden retriever (which is always). Though I love dogs on principle, I also believe they should earn their supper, and Colby has never done anything to pull his considerable weight while shed hunting. I have even rigged ingenious little collars that would allow him to tote a medicinal keg of Gatorade for me, but he refuses. And retrieve a shed? Maybe if I find it first and slather it with bacon grease….

Perhaps I should turn my freeloading golden over to Roger Sigler, an astute dog trainer and master of the shed, at his facility in northwest Missouri. Mr. Sigler has perfected the art of training shed-hunting dogs, and you can even purchase “started dogs” from him that will find and retrieve cast antlers. I found Roger by reading a magazine article that detailed a 3-1/2 day trip he and his dogs took to Canada last year, a safari that yielded for over 100 antlers. Check out his website for more info.

While Roger admits that Labradors make the best horn-dogs, he is getting so good at his craft that he’s even tutoring a young pit bull. No word on whether that pup actually gives up the bone he’s found, and I’ll probably wait to send Colby there for training ‘til I know the PB has graduated. In the meantime, guess I’ll rely on binocs and boot leather.

Last week my friend Ted Marum and I were invited to Hillivew, Minnesota, to talk to a group of hunters about quality deer management. You’ll note I did not capitalize these last three words, as Ted and I were not representing the Quality Deer Management Association. Rather, we were asked to talk about our practical experiences implementing QDM principles; restraining harvest of young bucks, shooting an adequate number of does, and improving habitat.

Hillview is not so much a town as it is a few buildings in the north-central part of the Gopher State. But this is a small place with big ideas. About 7 years ago, members of the Aho family (there are 18 siblings in this family of Finnish ancestry, at least half of which deer hunt!) decided they were tired of the quality (or lack thereof) of deer hunting on their farm. So they implemented QDM principles for themselves, then started talking to their neighbors. This fall, Melvin Aho (our host) and his clan figured that, between their holdings and neighboring farms, there were over 15,000 acres under some form of QDM in the area.

Ted and I spoke to a crowd well over 200 people that day. We also got an eyeful of antlers, listened to some excited and enthusiastic deer hunters, and enjoyed a great meal and camaraderie. The event was attended not only by hunters, but landowners, DNR wardens and biologists, and representatives to the state legislature. There were raffle prizes (the biggest pot was a drawing where hunters tossed their unused buck tags into a pot), as well as cash awards in the “Big Doe” contest (the hunter and the landowner where the doe was killed each received $500). I’ve been involved in QDM for quite a while, but I’ve met few groups who can match the Hillview crowd for enthusiasm!

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a pile of deerskins, you already know NFL legend Brett Favre has retired.  So why is this beat-to-death news appearing in Buck Tracker? Because the man is a whitetail freak.

Oh, I loved Favre for the same reasons everyone else did. He was tough, he played with the zeal of a teenager, and he conducted himself like a gentleman. And, of course, he was a Packer. As a Wisconsin native who grew up in the Lombardi era, I didn’t so much choose to be a Packer fan as I had it bottle-fed to me. So Favre kept the fun in cheering for the Green & Gold…though I’ll have to admit I never missed a Sunday afternoon in the deer woods to do that.

And now Favre won’t have to, either. While most folks concentrate on Favre’s on-field stats, Wisconsin’s 700,000 deer hunters recognized something equally important - he was one of them. If there was time after a Sunday home game, or if the team had a Monday off, Brett was in a tree stand with a bow in his hands.

Coincidentally, the central Wisconsin farm Favre hunted lies not far from the Bestul family homestead. In fact, an area game warden was the guy who registered Favre’s deer when he was successful. It did my heart good to know that one of the NFL’s biggest guns loved deer hunting in the same woods that taught me to love the whitetail.

So No. 4 will now chase deer in the woods of his native Mississippi. We’re gonna miss him here up north next fall - though probably for different reasons than the rest of the nation. And though I’m sure Brett will have his share of Sundays when he misses his old job, I’m betting the deer woods will provide sufficient therapy.