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Velvet Surprise
By David M. Cole
I wasn’t a white-tailed deer hunter until I met Donna Shuman at Georgia Southern University. The first time I traveled to her hometown to meet her family, I was instructed to go to their hunting club. I arrived just after dark, just in time to see my future wife dragging a nice buck under a fence.
After we were married, I became an avid deer... READ MORE
The Bow Stalk
By Taylor Maas
Never-quit attitude helps Iowa bowhunter recover his biggest-ever buck. October 11, 2017 started similar to most other fall workdays. After getting to the office that morning, I checked the weather throughout the day, trying to decide if and where I should hunt that evening. The wind that evening allowed me to hunt from a stand I had never tried be... READ MORE
Who Needs Fishing?
By Quintin Sullivan
Let me preface this story by saying that my son Joseph is one of the best kids on the planet. Sure, I’m biased, but the kid has some amazing accomplishments under his belt, and he’s not even 13 yet. Joseph is an avid fisherman who ties his own flies (and sells them under the name Joe Hunter), and in 2013 alone caught a 7-pound largemout... READ MORE
Thanksgiving Surprise
By Sawyer Johnson
Some of the best hunts don’t end with a filled tag. One of the greatest things about hunting is going out and not knowing what you’ll see or experience. This sense of wonderment is what keeps me out in the mountains, because I might experience something incredible at any moment. On Thanksgiving morning in western Montana, having already... READ MORE
Forged in Fire
By Tim Kamats
Hunting bonds between father and child can never be broken. In life we are allotted just so many opportunities to create bonds that stand the test of time. Hunting with my daughter Xaura proved to be one such opportunity. At the tender age of 10, Xaura and I started talking about her accompanying me through the woods in search of the ever-elusive P... READ MORE
The Perfect 10
By Jeffery Patterson
Call it beginner’s luck or call it fate, but you can add another hunter to our ranks. I got my crossbow from a friend who said he wanted to sew a seed in my life. At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about, but I decided to give this hunting thing a try. I got up at 5:30 on the first day of Virginia’s archery season and was in... READ MORE
The Brow Tine Buck
By Brandon Carter
The fall of 2012 was one of the toughest whitetail seasons I had ever seen. EHD outbreaks across the Midwest during the drought-plagued summer significantly reduced buck numbers. Weather conditions were not favorable for daytime movement or rut activity, you had to make every encounter count. Of course, luck always plays a part. Anything and everyt... READ MORE
Countdown to Kansas
By Carlo Longobardo
I’m a NYC fireman, and I’ve hunted since I was a kid. I’ve made a lot of memories with my father and family members. Now I’m proudly passing on the tradition to my son and daughter.
This past fall was the second time I headed to Kansas to bowhunt the rut, and I’d literally been in a countdown for a year.
On my first ... 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
If It Feels Right ...
By William Sawyer
Trust your instincts when you think you’ve made a great shot. During the 2014 archery season in Guilford County, North Carolina, I had found a large rub while putting out some corn. It looked like a great place to set up, but I didn’t want to hunt it until conditions were perfect. On the second Saturday of the season, I asked my wife to... READ MORE