Buckmasters Magazine

Paper Tuning Made Easy

Paper Tuning Made Easy

By P.J. Reilly

Perfect arrow flight requires a properly aligned setup. Straight as an arrow. You hear the expression, and immediately an image appears. You see a perfect line – no bends, no waves, no variation of any kind. Straight as an arrow is the gold standard. So what bowhunter wouldn’t want their arrows to literally fly straight as an arrow? If ... READ MORE

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

By Ed Waite

Nothing says love like a bloody arrow and a big gut pile. Skylee Moore wasn’t a hunter, but her boyfriend, Peter Gravens, sure seemed excited when he talked about it. And because it would be another way for the couple to spend time together and get outdoors, the 19-year-old decided to give it a try. It didn’t hurt that Peter’s fam... READ MORE

Whitetails in the Myths

Whitetails in the Myths

By Bob Humphrey

Debunking some of deer management’s most common misconceptions. How are myths and misconceptions created? It often starts with limited understanding of the subject. We’re constantly looking for answers to unravel the mysteries of the whitetail, so we make assumptions and draw conclusions based on information available to us at the time.... READ MORE

Donnie’s Darko

Donnie’s Darko

By Mike Handley

Iowa bowhunter arrows unique first deer. Donnie Kay had almost grown accustomed to blank stares, scowls and even guffaws. That’s how the first-year bowhunter’s claims of seeing a black deer in Boone County, Iowa, last fall were received. He might as well have said he’d seen a 6-foot-tall rabbit. “Nobody believed me,” h... READ MORE

Fast (and Cheap) Food Plots

Fast (and Cheap) Food Plots

By David Hart

You don’t have to spend a fortune to draw and hold deer. Life tends to get in the way of food plots. Kids, work, vacations and other obligations fill up our evenings and weekends. Before you know it, you’ve missed the window of opportunity for planting a food plot. If that’s not enough, you’ve whittled down your bank account... READ MORE

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!

By Bob Humphrey

An inside look at the Whitetail Fighting Federation. Ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to tonight's main event. In the blue corner, weighing 248 pounds, sporting 8 points and heavy mass, the challenger: Bruiser McBuck. And in the red corner weighing 257 pounds and sporting 10 tall tines, the reigning heavyweight champion, Old Mossy Horns. Let’s G... READ MORE

Know When to Hold ’Em

Know When to Hold ’Em

By Bob Humphrey

How to tell when it’s time to go all-in while hunting out of state. It’s the first sit on the first day of a five-day hunt in a place you’ve never been. The sun has yet to rise above the treetops, but the surrounding forest is coming alive. Woodpeckers bark their scratchy calls, and the first squirrel stirs from its slumber and sc... READ MORE

Weather Gone Wild

Weather Gone Wild

By David Hart

How do whitetails cope with extreme weather events? Ice-covered branches crashed to the ground like chandeliers falling on a marble foyer. With each passing minute, the limbs in the forest in front of me grew heavier as rain fell and then froze on everything it touched. By 4 p.m., a half inch of ice coated the southwestern Missouri landscape. I was... READ MORE

Right or Left

Right or Left

By Rodney Bryson

It pays to practice gun shooting from both sides. My first rifle was a .35-caliber Marlin, and I couldn’t wait to take it to the range. There, I met June Harrill, who watched me before asking if I wanted to learn how to shoot. I must have been really bad. I was able to swallow my pride and accept the offer, and June and I became good friends.... READ MORE

The Last Drag

The Last Drag

By A. Hunter Smith

Old habits die hard. Some harder than others. My brother is older than I am by 20 years, and I’m no spring chicken. After 40-plus years in the field together, and both of us hard hunters, lately we find ourselves more “stove up” in the mornings than not. A walking stick is no longer a novelty for us, but a dire necessity. Yet we s... READ MORE

Stop, Drop and Hunt

Stop, Drop and Hunt

By Bill Zahm

Thank goodness for work meetings on the opening day of firearms season. Although armed with my beloved crossbow, I spent opening day of Indiana’s 2011 gun season in a swamp stand at my Tit Lake hunting area in Huntington County. It was a frosty morning, and my rattling and grunting lured a big 8-pointer with a broken rack to within 15 yards j... READ MORE

A Question of Weight

A Question of Weight

By P.J. Reilly

Are you shooting the correct poundage on your compound bow? There’s nothing sweeter than watching a nock disappear into a buck’s vitals. When you see that, the odds are pretty good you’ll be picking up that deer’s rack before too long. Conversely, the sight of a nock flopping up and down as a buck runs off carrying your arro... READ MORE

Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen

By Joseph M. Scavone

Patience and hard work pay off for this New York bowhunter. Bowhunting for my family and friends is not about a season; it’s a lifestyle. We get together year-round, weekend after weekend, to chase mature whitetails. Whether setting cameras and stands or just scouting, we spend a ton more time in the woods preparing to hunt than actually hunt... READ MORE

Makin’ It Through

Makin’ It Through

By Bob Humphrey

Northern winters are tough, but whitetails have the tools to survive. As hunting season ends, the mercury plummets, snow piles up outside, and I hang up most of my gear for another year. But I still keep a few trail cameras out to keep tabs on the local deer herd and see which bucks made it through the season. Perusing some post-season trail camera... READ MORE

Handgunning for Whitetails

Handgunning for Whitetails

By Dick Metcalf

A little practice and sound hunting technique are all that’s required. Handgun deer hunting has come a long way since I took my first white-tailed buck with a 6-inch S&W .357 Magnum revolver back in 1979. Then, anyone who went out after deer with a revolver, or even a single-shot .44 Magnum Thompson/Center, was considered mildly disturbed... READ MORE

Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy

By Tracy Breen

The pitfalls and rewards of providing supplemental feed to whitetails. One of the many things the antis don’t understand about deer hunters is how much we care about whitetails. It’s that love that drives so many hunters in the North to put out food during rough winters. Although feeding deer sounds like a great idea, deer pellets, shel... READ MORE

Should We Fear EHD?

Should We Fear EHD?

By David Hart

Outbreaks seem to be more frequent and devastating. Around mid-November last year, social media sites started buzzing about what seemed like a sudden decline in Virginia’s deer population. Some members of the hunting community dismissed the claims as a result of the bumper crop of acorns. After all, when mast is abundant, the deer harvest dec... READ MORE

Give Fawns a Chance

Give Fawns a Chance

By David Hart

Fawns are under intense pressure these days. Here’s how to help. Shoot a coyote, save a fawn. What deer hunter hasn’t heard that phrase in recent years? It’s an especially common theme in much of the Southeast, where coyote numbers have skyrocketed in the last decade. With that spike in predator numbers comes a considerably higher... READ MORE

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

By P.J. Reilly

Tips for staying warm in a freezing deer stand. Talk about a quintessential catch-22. Some of North America’s best deer hunting occurs when the mercury is in the basement. Add a little wind and maybe some snow, and you end up with miserable conditions. It’s hard to sit still, and it’s even harder not to heed the beckoning warmth o... READ MORE

The Day Chad Clark Lied

The Day Chad Clark Lied

By Dale Weddle

What’s the world coming to when you can’t trust the word of your hunting buddies? When Chad Clark split off from his buddies on opening day of Kentucky’s 2013 rifle season, he told them that if they heard him shoot, he was going to be standing over a 10-pointer his trail cameras had photographed earlier in the fall. He lied. The 1... READ MORE

Copyright 2024 by Buckmasters, Ltd.

Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd