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Congratulations, Dad!
By Aaron Rippstein
Sometimes the best bucks are the ones taken by the people we love. I wanted to share this buck taken by my dad, Rob, on Nov. 4, 2017 in Highland County, Ohio. Growing up in southern California didn’t offer many opportunities to go deer hunting, so when my family moved to Ohio in 1992, my father wanted to try something different. It didn&rsquo... READ MORE
First of Many
By Lyndsey Wesner
I’ve had a lot of firsts in the past eight months, so after I caught my first 20-pound king salmon, shot my first 8-point buck with a bow, took my first doe with a bow, and my first doe with a muzzleloader, naturally I expressed desire to shoot my first turkey.
My husband Rick said, “It's not easy. They have keen eyesight, and the slig... READ MORE
Opening Day Duck
By Roper Wilkes
Big South Carolina buck instead turns out to be a huge doe. Hi, Smalltown Bucks fans! My wife Joan and I run 707 Deer Processing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and we thought you might be interested in seeing this deer. Our friend, 18-year-old Bryan Williamson, harvested this massive 204-pound antlered doe on Sept. 2. Bryan comes from a die-hard ... READ MORE
Small Property, Big Results
By Chris Casper
Every buck is an opportunity to be a better hunter. I live in Georgia’s Oglethorpe County, but I got permission to hunt a small, approximately 10-acre tract surrounded by a subdivision in Athens-Clarke County. I scouted the area and found several promising spots. I got my first trail camera picture of a dandy buck I named Subdivision in late ... READ MORE
Ghosts of Christmas Past
By Burnell Simmons
Far too many of us take hunting and Christmases for granted.
Thirteen years — that’s how long it’s been since I fell 25 feet from my treestand. I survived the fall and the hospital stay and made it home for that Christmas in 2001.
It happened at 8:20 a.m. on Dec. 16. I had to walk home from the swamp I was hunting because I had ... READ MORE
From Sinkhole to Cloud Nine
By Mat Ritchison
On a cold and frosty Sunday morning, Nov. 3, 2013, I decided to hunt one of my favorite stands about 40 yards from the edge of a half-picked, Indiana cornfield. I was aloft 20 minutes before dawn.
Shortly after daybreak, I decided to start things off with an aggressive rattling sequence – to paint the deer a picture. I grunted three times, p... READ MORE
In Memory of Papaw
By Kyle Bevis
We all want big bucks, but hunting is more about the memories. On December 20, 2010, I harvested my first buck on my Papaw’s old home place. It took many long days of hunting, but I was determined to shoot a buck just to share it with him. It was funny because every time we would come in from hunting, the first question he would ask is, "Did ... READ MORE
No Limits
By Bonnie Olson King
New hunter overcomes challenges to claim her first buck. The 2015 hunting season turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I was 64 at the time and had only taken up hunting in 2012, when I retired from my nursing career due to significant health issues. That fall, I received a crossbow for my birthday, and that was when h... READ MORE
What the Doctor Ordered
By William Miley
The best therapy is spending time in a deer stand. I live in Abilene, Texas, but I am from Westminster in Maryland. About 17 years ago, my family attended a church picnic for 4th of July. Someone had set up a bow range as part of the entertainment, and my good friend Rick Ellis told me to give it a shot. I borrowed pastor Ed Conrad’s compound... READ MORE
It’s Great To Be Back!
By Chuck Manetta
Frustrated Florida hunter finally gets back to the deer woods. I was born and raised in Miami, Fla. I grew up in the Everglades and have a piece of land inside the Everglades National Preserve with two hunting cabins. While you might not think of Florida as a whitetail paradise, we had a healthy number of deer back in the day. They weren’t gi... READ MORE