Young Seth Bisbee began North Dakota's 2011 season with a full tank of anticipation, fueled by trail camera photographs of a huge Benson County 5x5 that had not only survived the previous winter, but also was considerably larger for having done so.

Seth was in a blind on Sept. 6 when the buck with the familiar rack came strolling in at prime time. Because dusk was fast approaching and the deer wouldn't turn, he chose to take the only shot he had, which was at the animal's chest.

In order to shoot, Seth had to draw and lean into the blind's window. And when he did, he and the buck locked gazes. A split-second later, it was gone.

"I thought I'd blown my only chance," Seth said. "I wanted to give up hunting."

He didn't, of course. He was back inside the same blind the next day, since there was no school.

About 7:45 p.m., the No. 2 deer on the family's hit list -- a 6x6 still in velvet -- appeared in front of Seth.

"I tried extremely hard to remain calm, and I did a good job of that," he said. "I drew back, leaned in and tripped my release. The arrow sailed right over its back."

The kid, convinced he'd better find another, easier pastime, almost left for home right then. He was still thinking about it 10 minutes later, when he spotted two more deer approaching.

"It was THE big one and its buddy, a smaller 5x5. I couldn't believe it!" he said.

Just like the first time, the buck was facing Seth. Unlike the first time, it didn't see the bowhunter lean into the shooting window. As soon as it raised its head, offering a clear shot to its chest, the young bowhunter tripped his release.

[Read the rest of this article...]

A New York incident has me wondering how many thousands of dollars I've tossed in the trash following a day in a deer stand.

For more than 40 years, in an effort not to booger up my hunting spots, I've been peeing in soft drink bottles -- being VERY careful to uncork the right Mountain Dew when thirsty.

Because I value scents and scent control, I start each season by buying dominant buck urine, never once considering that I could generate my own and not have to sniff the 20-ounce green bottles before quenching my thirst.

Sure, I've heard about guys who urinate in scrapes. But the notion of doing so has always struck me as risky, at best, and stupid, at worst. While deer might encounter all manner of urine in their environment, I doubt they regularly sniff the urine of something that eats cheeseburgers and drinks more coffee than Juan Valdez.

I'm not so sure now. Maybe I've been sending the ultimate buck lure to landfills from Alabama to Saskatchewan.

Before last season, Mike Canale had never peed in a scrape. Now, however, it's a pretty safe bet that he'll hit every one he encounters, even if he's made the scrape himself.

"During the summer of 2011, I read articles extolling the virtues of licking branches and mock scrapes. That inspired me to purchase some olfactory gland scent, doe urine for the dripper and to make a mock scrape complete with licking branch doused with the new glandular scent," the New York hunter said. "I also read some studies that suggested deer can't distinguish human urine from deer urine."

So he made one and doctored two real scrapes on his Ontario County farm. Every four or five days from the middle of October to mid-November, he peed in all three. As a result, the deer activity soared.

A few days into the shotgun season, Mike shot a new runner-up to the state record as it was walking toward a scrape about 50 yards from his stand. As a Semi-irregular, the deer's composite score is 207 1/8 inches.

The complete story will appear in Rack magazine in August.

[Read the rest of this article...]

When Mike Walters applied for one of the coveted permits to bowhunt a city park overrun with deer in 2011, he had no idea that drawing one would cost him almost $1,000 -- not for the permit itself, but for two mounts and 145 pounds of freezer-wrapped meat.

Both Mike and his bowhunting-addicted wife, Paula, were drawn for the 24-day, Nov. 7-30 hunt at Kansas City's Tiffany Springs Park. One of his coworkers at the Ford plant told Mike about the managed hunt at the nearly 800-acre, city-owned parcel. The man also suggested where he ought to hang a stand, a place near the airport where he'd taken a nice buck.

He could walk a mere 100 yards to the tree.

The first day aloft there, Mike saw at least 200 deer in seven hours. The second day, Nov. 14, he saw only three, but one gave him a severe case of Elvis leg.

"I've been hunting 25 years, and that was my first real taste of buck fever," said the 43-year-old auto worker from Independence, Mo.  "I had it bad, too!"

The short version of the story is that a 19-point buck -- lured either by rattling, a Tink's #69 scent bomb, or both -- came to within 5 yards of Mike's tree shortly after 9 a.m.  When it left, there was a hole in it.

The mount set Mike back a pretty penny, and he also spent almost $400 to have the deer turned into summer sausage and venison burger. But his season didn't end there, since he arrowed another fabulous buck in the park a week later.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Mike Mallett of Summerfield, Ohio, is pretty sure he'd have choked if he'd been behind the crossbow instead of his 13-year-old son, Kurtis. He knew they were looking at the local legend, a buck that had been photographed, videotaped and discussed by almost all the neighbors.

Kurtis, however, seemed surreally calm. In fact, he was so thrilled to be holding a camera and getting video footage of the approaching whitetail that he almost forgot to grab for the crossbow. The eighth-grader's passion is filming deer and sharing his videos with friends by uploading them onto his computer.

But as the buck -- clearly a 200-plus-incher -- approached a scrape, the kid realized it was in easy range, which he hadn't expected.

"Once I saw it was walking toward us, I thought, 'This is crazy. This buck's walking in here,' so I shut off the camera," Kurtis said. "But I still had to put it down quietly and raise my crossbow."

Kurtis and his dad were sharing the 15-foot-high double ladder stand on their property. Since the boy had school that day, they didn't get in it until 5:00. Some does were feeding in front of the duo when the buck showed about 6:15. It was too far, at first, but then Kurtis grunted, which seemed to put it at ease and lured it closer.

The kid says he recognized it, too.

"I turned the camera to zoom in on the rack and saw it was the same one we'd seen in others' videos," Kurtis said. "When I swapped the camera for the bow, I kept telling myself, 'Don't miss. Don't miss. Stay calm, and celebrate afterward.'"

Because they'd seen a small part of the bolt protruding as the buck wheeled and ran, they decided against trailing until the following morning. When the search began with the help of Mike's friend, Greg Love, it was a short job. The deer hadn't traveled 60 yards.

[Read the rest of this article...]