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Fishing for Bucks
By Ken Piper
Think like an angler when looking for deer on a new tract of land. Because a majority of deer hunters spend at least some time fishing, we’d like to point out that fishing skills can come in handy in the deer woods, too. One of the first things bass fishermen learn is to look for underwater structure – changes in the lake bottom that di... READ MORE
Know Your Nuts
By Ken Piper
Acorns are not like wine, and white is definitely better than red. Acorns are one of the white-tailed deer’s favorite foods, but getting a buck isn’t as simple as finding an oak tree and setting an egg timer until a bruiser walks in. There are several different types of oaks, and the subtle differences are important. Deer prefer white o... READ MORE
Stand Firm
By Ken Piper
It’s chic to take a stand these days, and that’s certainly true in the deer woods. With all due respect to still-hunters, the most effective way to hunt white-tailed deer is to take a stand in a productive spot and sit there quietly. Stands work for a number of reasons. We play a cat-and-mouse game with whitetails. Deer are using all t... READ MORE
Bottlenecks and Funnels
By Ken Piper
Anything that brings more deer into less space increases your odds of success. Last week’s tip about fences was an example of the funnel effect, where a natural or man-made feature concentrates deer travel. But there are many types of funnels and bottlenecks that give you a better chance of seeing deer. When studying aerial photos or scouting... READ MORE
Fences Concentrate Deer Trails
By Ken Piper
Use these obstacles to your advantage when selecting stand sites. Fences are common in many deer hunting areas, and it’s easy to find heavily used crossings. Deer cross fences by ducking under or jumping over. Either way, they tend to leave hair on the wire or wood. Where they duck under, they wallow out a distinct depression and kill the veg... READ MORE
Water, Water Everywhere
By Ken Piper
The more water on a property, the less important it is for hunting. Deer don’t have to drink every day to survive, but they will drink regularly if water is convenient. Water is particularly important to whitetails in the South and Southwest, where it can be hot during deer season, and in the West where water sources tend to be scarce. For hu... READ MORE
Doe-Re-Mi
By Ken Piper
Which does are best to target for removal, young or mature? You’ve probably read many articles recommending taking big, healthy does to help reduce deer populations. And that’s not bad advice. It’s just not necessarily the best advice in all situations. Some biologists are taking a new approach to thinning herds and are recommendi... READ MORE
Lightning Score on the Hoof
By Ken Piper
Score isn’t everything when it comes to whitetails, but there are times (like when hunting with an outfitter who has minimum scores for bucks) that knowing a buck’s score comes in handy. If you need to quickly guess a buck’s score, consider that an average 8-pointer that is just outside its ears and isn’t deficient in any wa... READ MORE
Smooth Is the Groove
By Ken Piper
We’d all like to improve our shooting, whether we use a gun, a bow or both. We owe it to the animals we hunt to make the best shot possible, and nobody wants to miss the trophy of a lifetime. There are books on proper shooting, but everyone can benefit from this simple tip: The moment of release is critical to a good shot. "Punching" the trig... READ MORE
Game Wardens Can Help
By Ken Piper
State game and conservation officers often get a bum rap since part of their job is enforcing laws, but most of them are open to sharing information with considerate hunters. If you’re planning to hunt on public land, call your local game authority and ask to talk to the officer who covers the given area. Ask him or her about good places to h... READ MORE
Rubs Can Show the Way
By Ken Piper
Everyone gets excited about a big, gnarly buck rub. Evidence that a rut-crazed bruiser buck is on the prowl helps us get out of bed at 3:30 a.m., and it keeps us in a stand on cold, boring days without deer sightings. On the other hand, you’ve probably read in Buckmasters magazine that rubs don’t mean a whole lot in terms of scoring on ... READ MORE
It’s Deer Hunting, Not Deer Seeing
By Ken Piper
We often preach the importance of checking distances to likely shooting locations after settling in for a hunt. And while double-checking distance is always a good idea, it’s at least as important to have a good idea of general distances before you even set up a stand. Bowhunters frequently set up too close to trails and get busted when tryin... READ MORE
You Have Instincts, Too
By Ken Piper
Hunting is like many sports in that there are certain practices that are the accepted standards for success. In other words, there’s a correct way to throw a football or swing a golf club, just as there are correct ways to set up a treestand or to shoot a gun or bow. Another way hunting mirrors sports is that when crunch time hits, there&rsqu... READ MORE
Aim According To Your Weapon
By Ken Piper
All hunters want to make the quickest, cleanest harvest possible, and that’s why we spend so much time practicing and studying deer anatomy. While learning more about deer is great, there are more things to consider than the location of a buck’s vitals. In short, optimum shot placement changes with the weapon being used. Broadhead-tippe... READ MORE
A Little Off the Top
By Ken Piper
Sometimes we focus so much on what we can see from a stand that we forget to consider what a deer sees from his angle. Whether you’re hunting with a gun, bow or muzzleloader, you will almost always have to make some kind of movement to get a shot. While a whitetail’s sense of smell is his best defense, ignore his vision at your peril. C... READ MORE
Scouting Is More Than Putting Out a Trail Cam
By Ken Piper
For many of us, scouting is half the fun of hunting – and with good reason. There’s nothing like the feeling of finding concentrated buck sign and trying to picture the buck that made it. But scouting is more than just finding good sign and picking a nearby tree on which to place a stand. Many of us spend a lot of time hunting stands th... READ MORE
Turn Bad Weather To Your Advantage
By Ken Piper
The alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m. You’re tired, but visions of that giant buck help you sit up and rub your eyes. Then you hear it - howling winds and the dreaded patter of rain on the roof. What do you do? Deer are like us when it comes to bad weather - they avoid it as much as possible. They can’t get out of the wind and rain completely... READ MORE
Try a Decoy
By Ken Piper
Turkey hunters and waterfowlers have long used decoys as standard equipment, so why haven’t deer hunters followed their lead? Perhaps it’s because deer are just so much bigger and it hasn’t been practical to carry a deer replica into the woods. With all the new materials being developed today, though, deer hunters have plenty of p... READ MORE
Rethink Still-Hunting
By Ken Piper
Many hunters look on still-hunting – the art of slowly creeping through the woods hoping to sneak up on a big buck – as something to do when deer sightings are slow and patience runs out. Regular practitioners of the still-hunt, however, know it requires a great deal of patience – even more patience than stump-sitting. The still-h... READ MORE
Don’t Call Like a Celebrity
By Ken Piper
As fun as it is to watch on TV hunting shows, mashing antlers together like thunder and playing a grunt call like a flute are not the best tactics for most hunters after a trophy buck. The reason it works so well on TV is the hunters are usually on private land with well-managed deer herds, lower hunting pressure and better buck-to-doe ratios. In t... READ MORE