Located in the Midwest, Nebraska offers a variety of trophy whitetail hunting opportunities, including whitetail deer. Spread throughout the state in the river bottoms, sand hills, agricultural fields and pine ridges, Nebraska’s landscape offers food, cover and shelter resulting in a large deer population. Deer hunters from around the nation travel to Nebraska every fall in search of deer.
The highest concentrations of whitetail deer in Nebraska can be found in the river bottoms and surrounding agricultural fields. Nebraska Game and Parks controls the deer population by splitting the state into deer management units. Each deer management has a specific quota intended to manage the overall population and quality of bucks.
Regulations
Nebraska whitetail hunting seasons open on September 15 with an archery season, followed by several management hunts in October. The management hunts, taking place between October 2 and 11, allow you to harvest antler-less deer with any weapon. An eight-day firearm season occurs in November with a muzzleloader season taking place during the entire month of December. Before hunting a specific season, you must purchase the appropriate deer permit, habitat stamp and have proof of hunter education.
Considerations
The rut, or breeding period, typically takes place during the November firearms season and is one of your best opportunities for shooting a deer. Be ready to use a variety of hunting methods based on the time of year, weapon and surrounding terrain. Use a tree stand or ground blind positioned along travel routes or feeding areas during the early archery season. During the muzzleloader season in December, the deer will be focused on feeding after the rut to prepare for the winter. Look for deer to enter the agricultural fields as they feed.
If you are interested in a do-it-yourself hunt, Nebraska offers several public land hunting opportunities, however, less than two percent of the state is available for public use. The most productive public areas are wildlife management areas and walk-in areas. Current maps can be obtained through the Nebraska Game and Parks. However using an outfitter often will put you where the deer are.
Potential
Realtree, a camouflage and hunting company, ranked Nebraska as the ninth best whitetail hunting state for a record book buck. Seven of the top 10 counties--Otoe,Gage, Sarpy, Lancaster, Douglas, Cass, Nemaha and Pawnee--are all in the southeast corner. The other three counties include Dakota, Lincoln and Clay.
LINCOLN (AP) — The number of hunting accidents in Nebraska is down.
The Nebraska Games and Parks Commission on Monday says there were eight accidents in 2010, including one death. There were 12 hunting accidents, including two deaths, in 2009.
Officials say seven of the accidents in 2010 involved the discharge of a firearm. In October, a man died after he was shot by a 14-year-old boy while hunting in Washington County. The teen was carrying a loaded and cocked muzzle loader, and it discharged as he was crossing a log, hitting the other hunter in the back.
The other accident in 2010 involved a hunter falling from an elevated stand.
The commission says hunting accidents are rare in Nebraska, but safety remains a concern.
(LINCOLN, Neb.)- Efforts to control the light goose population continue with the Light Goose Conservation Action, which begins Feb. 6, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. The dates for the conservation action are: Zone 1, Feb. 6-April 18; Zone 2, Feb. 6-April 1 and Zone 3, Feb. 6-April 18. White and blue-phase snow geese and Ross' geese may be taken statewide during the conservation action, but different regulations apply in each zone. Read the 2009 Nebraska Waterfowl Guide, which includes regulations for the 2010 conservation action, at Considerable effort has been put toward the reduction of the mid-continent snow goose population. This population attracts attention because of the damage to Arctic habitats it has caused. The use of methods to increase harvest has resulted in more than a million snow geese being harvested annually since 1998, with nearly 1.5 million taken in 1999. It is estimated that 1.4 million snow geese would have to be harvested annually to reduce the population. There are no bag or possession limits during the conservation action and hunters may shoot 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. Hunters may use unplugged shotguns and electronic calls during the conservation action. Hunting is allowed statewide except for several state wildlife management areas and federal waterfowl production areas in the Rainwater Basin region of central Nebraska. In Zones 1 and 2, hunting will be allowed only on Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday. Beginning March 24, hunting will be allowed seven days a week. In Zone 1, it is illegal to hunt within a half-mile of the outer channel of the Platte River between U.S. Highway 281 and Nebraska Highway 14. In Zone 2, it is illegal to hunt light geese within a half-mile of the outer channel of the Platte River between Feb. 8 and March 10. The no-hunting area expands to 3 miles (changed from 5) between March 11 and April 1 to provide protection for endangered whooping cranes. Conservation action hunters age 16 and older are required to have a Nebraska hunt permit, Nebraska Habitat Stamp, Nebraska Waterfowl Stamp, Federal Migratory Bird Stamp, and a Harvest Information Program number. Permits may be purchased at OutdoorNebraska.org.
Lot of geese in Platte valley. River has a lot of ice and water, so use caution. No snow geese in valley yet. The rain water basin is also frozen with NO snow geese.
Hughesville, Mo -- A deer hunting party armed with ropes and a battery-powered saw began tracking their quarry on Jan. 21 with hopes of helping two large white-tail deer live.
The night before, two bucks were spotted on Alan Meyer’s farm with their antlers locked together, about 12 miles north of Sedalia in the Hughesville area. They apparently became entangled during a fight, exhaustion and starvation their apparent fate.
But Meyer, along with family and friends, began tracking the two deer in the snow. They didn’t want to see animals they respect suffer.
“Quite a few us, we’ve all deer hunted together, and everybody just wanted to see them turned loose,” he said.
Luckily, they snow help them track the bucks.
“Sometimes the tracks were jumbled,” Meyer said. “At other times, you could hardly tell anything was wrong and they were walking side by side.”
They found the tangled 8- and 10-point bucks, but the deer ran from the rescue party, crashing through a few fences and at one time being astraddle a fence with antlers locked.
The deer fell down a few times and the hunting party tried to put a rope around their rear feet to hold them still, but the deer managed to get up.
Finally, the deer fell and Blake Meyer and Aaron Clark grabbed the bucks’ rear legs and stretched them out. The weary deer then lay still. Gary Clark used a portable battery-powered saw to cut off a main beam from one buck’s antlers. It was enough to free the deer. The dazed bucks staggered away from one another and quietly walked their separate ways into the brush.
Also helping to track and hold the deer down were Ryland Chamberlain, Trent Templeton, Justin Thomas, Jason Chamberlain and Dustin Meyer of Pettis County.
Alan Meyer, 54, said there was a time or two when the party thought they might have to kill the deer to end their suffering.
“But we stayed with it and got ‘er done,” he said. “It was a once in a lifetime experience.”
Dick Turpin, legendary Nebraska outdoorsman and 40 year employee of Nebraska Game & Parks, happened upon a mountain lion kill in north central Nebraska. In this video, Dick narrates the video he shot of the lion coming in to it's deer kill site.
Hunters say animal posed threat. Fourth recent confirmed report brings total to 14 in Missouri since 1994.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has confirmed that a group of hunters killed a young male mountain lion west of La Plata, Mo., on Saturday, Jan. 22. According to conservation agents investigating the incident, the group was hunting coyotes on a landowner's farm when several came within 20 yards of the big cat. None of the hunters had dogs. Members of the group immediately contacted conservation agents to report the incident.
At this time, no charges have been filed since it appears that the cougar presented enough danger to the hunters to warrant the shooting.
Mountain lions are protected under the Wildlife Code of Missouri. The Code does allow the killing of any mountain lion attacking or killing livestock or domestic animals, or threatening human safety. The incident must be reported to the MDC immediately and the intact carcass, including the pelt, must be surrendered to the MDC within 24 hours.
The animal weighed 128 pounds. Members of the MDC Mountain Lion Response Team will examine the animal to gather additional information, including DNA, to help determine where the big cat came from.
This is the second young male mountain lion killed in Missouri this month and the fourth confirmed report of a mountain lion in Missouri since November.
"These four reports bring our total number of confirmed reports over the past 16 years to just 14," said Rex Martensen of MDC's Mountain Lion Response Team.
Martensen added that, like in this situation, it appears that mountain lions seen in Missouri are young males roaming from other states in search of territory.
"Young male mountain lions go in search of new territories at about 18 months of age and during this time of year," he explained. "To date, we have no evidence to suggest that a breeding population of mountain lions exists in Missouri."
He added that mountain lions are nocturnal, secretive and generally avoid contact with humans.
Mountain lions (Puma concolor), also called cougars, panthers and pumas, were present in Missouri before pioneer settlement. The last documented Missouri mountain lion was killed in the Bootheel in 1927. The closest populations of mountain lions to Missouri are in South Dakota and a small population in northwest Nebraska.
Martensen added that MDC has never stocked or released mountain lions in Missouri and has no plans to do so.
Jeff Foiles, a nationally-known duck hunter and caller from Pittsfield, pled not guilty today to a 23-count federal indictment. Charges against him allege that he regularly killed ducks and geese in excess of legal limits for the purpose of creating hunting videos. Moments after the plea, Foiles, operator of Foiles Migrators, Inc., learned he is also facing charges in Canada. He was served with a summons to appear in court in Edmonton, Alberta, on April 5, the same day his trial is scheduled to start in Springfield.What the Canadian summons contains is unclear. Stay tuned to Outdoor News for further developments.
If there is one thing you can count on in the world of migration tracking this season it’s change – and what a difference a new year can make. A warming trend during the first week of the year ignited a number of reverse migration events, and birds returned to a number of previously snow-covered states. Duck numbers in southern Illinois, southern Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas rebounded significantly over the past week, as waterfowl totals on the Illinois Natural History Survey reached number nearly two times the 10-year average for the lower Mississippi survey area.
Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
With the final month of the General waterfowl season underway in the south, moderate to exceptional drought conditions persist in much of the south. With temperatures rebounding in the central tier of the United States, ducks that were driven south by ice and snow are rebounding northward into areas with better habitat conditions. While hunters are reporting flights of northbound ducks in a number of states, the bulk of the migration remains in the Deep South. Of course, the areas holding the most birds are those with water – albeit natural or well managed habitat that has been saved by the pump.
For the late season hunter in the southern states, duck numbers are good to excellent in most areas and hunting is, as it always is this time of year, not without its challenges. Birds are educated, wary and pressured. Most of these late-season survivors carry a masters-degree in decoy avoidance strategies and the lazy, lucky hunter can often go home empty-handed despite a volume of birds in their area.
While the northern hunter that is used to a half-dozen mallards over the decoys might wish for the massive groups the southern hunter can work over the decoys, there is a huge difference in having a couple of ducks land mindlessly on top of a spinning wing decoy early in the season and having hundreds of eyes looking for an excuse to flyby. Scratching out a limit in either case is never a given, and no less difficult – that’s why they call it hunting, not shooting.
Of course, every duck hunter, at some point in long duck-hunting career, experiences a shoot. It’s the kind of day where everything goes to plan and you found yourself in the right place at the right time. The birds come. Group after group they work like champions and finish like a Terry Redlin painting. You shoot straight, the dogs set the benchmark for breed standard and at the end of the hunt you kick back on the tailgate with full lanyard and soak in the moment. Yep, it’s the kind of day that every duck hunter dreams about for years to come and the tale of “that day” is retold to friends and family over and over – understanding that embellishment is acceptable, earned and actually expected.
As hunters in the south trudge forward in search of the perfect duck day, opportunity for spring hunting adventures are right around the corner for special light goose season. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to plan and book your Light Goose Adventure and experience a day under the deafening calls and tornado-styled flights of the mid-continental light goose. With a number of affordable guides operating in the Central and Mississippi Flyways, the opportunity to extend your hunting season into the spring months is merely a phone call away. So, what are you waiting for?
PACIFIC FLYWAY: Duck numbers are good to excellent for this time of year from California to New Mexico. Hunter success in California varies with the weather and winds – as it always does. Goose numbers in northern Californian remain excellent at this time and hunter success above average.
CENTRAL FLYWAY: Duck numbers remain at peak in along the Gulf Coast of Texas, with mallards scattered throughout the lower portion of the flyway. Hunting in Oklahoma remains good to excellent in most areas with duck numbers and hunter success lower in Kansas over the pat week. Light goose numbers remain near peak in eastern New Mexico and Texas. With dark goose numbers best from the panhandle north.
MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY: Mallards are scattered throughout the south from Southern Illinois to Louisiana. Numbers have declined slightly in Louisiana and increased in Arkansas over the past week, as ducks slid north on southerly winds. With hunting in Missouri now closed pressure management will become more critical in bordering areas with seasons still open.
ATLANTIC FLYWAY: Duck numbers remain good to excellent in the Carolinas at this time with hunter success improving greatly over the past week. While drought continues to plague many areas in the southeast, the mobile hunter willing to find water is finding birds. Hunter success in northern Florida is good to excellent at this time, with bird numbers up significantly over previous years.
If there is one thing you can count on in the world of migration tracking this season it’s change – and what a difference a new year can make. A warming trend during the first week of the year ignited a number of reverse migration events, and birds returned to a number of previously snow-covered states. Duck numbers in southern Illinois, southern Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas rebounded significantly over the past week, as waterfowl totals on the Illinois Natural History Survey reached number nearly two times the 10-year average for the lower Mississippi survey area.
Hello folks, and, as always, welcome to Waterfowler.com.
With the final month of the General waterfowl season underway in the south, moderate to exceptional drought conditions persist in much of the south. With temperatures rebounding in the central tier of the United States, ducks that were driven south by ice and snow are rebounding northward into areas with better habitat conditions. While hunters are reporting flights of northbound ducks in a number of states, the bulk of the migration remains in the Deep South. Of course, the areas holding the most birds are those with water – albeit natural or well managed habitat that has been saved by the pump.
For the late season hunter in the southern states, duck numbers are good to excellent in most areas and hunting is, as it always is this time of year, not without its challenges. Birds are educated, wary and pressured. Most of these late-season survivors carry a masters-degree in decoy avoidance strategies and the lazy, lucky hunter can often go home empty-handed despite a volume of birds in their area.
While the northern hunter that is used to a half-dozen mallards over the decoys might wish for the massive groups the southern hunter can work over the decoys, there is a huge difference in having a couple of ducks land mindlessly on top of a spinning wing decoy early in the season and having hundreds of eyes looking for an excuse to flyby. Scratching out a limit in either case is never a given, and no less difficult – that’s why they call it hunting, not shooting.
Of course, every duck hunter, at some point in long duck-hunting career, experiences a shoot. It’s the kind of day where everything goes to plan and you found yourself in the right place at the right time. The birds come. Group after group they work like champions and finish like a Terry Redlin painting. You shoot straight, the dogs set the benchmark for breed standard and at the end of the hunt you kick back on the tailgate with full lanyard and soak in the moment. Yep, it’s the kind of day that every duck hunter dreams about for years to come and the tale of “that day” is retold to friends and family over and over – understanding that embellishment is acceptable, earned and actually expected.
As hunters in the south trudge forward in search of the perfect duck day, opportunity for spring hunting adventures are right around the corner for special light goose season. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to plan and book your Light Goose Adventure and experience a day under the deafening calls and tornado-styled flights of the mid-continental light goose. With a number of affordable guides operating in the Central and Mississippi Flyways, the opportunity to extend your hunting season into the spring months is merely a phone call away. So, what are you waiting for?
PACIFIC FLYWAY: Duck numbers are good to excellent for this time of year from California to New Mexico. Hunter success in California varies with the weather and winds – as it always does. Goose numbers in northern Californian remain excellent at this time and hunter success above average.
CENTRAL FLYWAY: Duck numbers remain at peak in along the Gulf Coast of Texas, with mallards scattered throughout the lower portion of the flyway. Hunting in Oklahoma remains good to excellent in most areas with duck numbers and hunter success lower in Kansas over the pat week. Light goose numbers remain near peak in eastern New Mexico and Texas. With dark goose numbers best from the panhandle north.
MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY: Mallards are scattered throughout the south from Southern Illinois to Louisiana. Numbers have declined slightly in Louisiana and increased in Arkansas over the past week, as ducks slid north on southerly winds. With hunting in Missouri now closed pressure management will become more critical in bordering areas with seasons still open.
ATLANTIC FLYWAY: Duck numbers remain good to excellent in the Carolinas at this time with hunter success improving greatly over the past week. While drought continues to plague many areas in the southeast, the mobile hunter willing to find water is finding birds. Hunter success in northern Florida is good to excellent at this time, with bird numbers up significantly over previous years.
Ohio DNR found these 3 deer stuck together from fighting, over 400 inches of antler the biggest was 165 inches. So lets say you come up on these deer while you are hunting here are some questions you might ask yourself. Which one do I Shoot? How will they score IT or Them? Do I get to keep them all?
Ohio DNR found these 3 deer stuck together from fighting, over 400 inches of antler the biggest was 165 inches. So lets say you come up on these deer while you are hunting here are some questions you might ask yourself. Which one do I Shoot? How will they score IT or Them? Do I get to keep them all?
My cousins first kill. Notice the shotgun. We don't mess around with theem here. He shot the poor thing 5 times at 45yds with 00 buck shot, making sure it's beyond dead.
My cousins first kill. Notice the shotgun. We don't mess around with theem here. He shot the poor thing 5 times at 45yds with 00 buck shot, making sure it's beyond dead.
