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Third Time’s the Charm
By Bill Robinson
They say you’re supposed to stay out of a buck’s bedroom, but this tale defies all logic. Back in October 2012, a friend who works for me at the Clay Center, Kan., Police Department (I’m the chief) sent me a text message, saying he’d arrowed a moose of a whitetail. The word moose wasn’t an adjective; it was a nickname,... READ MORE
Under the Cover of Snowness
By Darren Warner
Mother Nature Photoshopped this Michigan hunter’s “doe.” Jeff Toy of Dowagiac, Mich., sat motionless on a red bucket near the edge of a cut cornfield. Snow blew across the field from left to right, not quite a whiteout, but far from snow-globe calm. Spindrift pelted his face, while white powder collected on his snow camouflage jac... READ MORE
Misnomer in Missouri
By Jeff Lampe
Being wrong isn’t always a bad thing. Maybe it’s a good thing that Michael Schumann and his sons, Dillon and Matthew, thought they were hunting a 180-inch buck on their ground in Randolph County, Mo., in 2013. Had they known the whitetail would actually gross more than 200, life away from a deer stand would’ve been even more unbea... READ MORE
One Good Turn …
By Ed Waite
Dibs for Ohio dropper might be the best tip ever given for services rendered. When Mark Owen decided to help a fellow deer hunter get back in the game, he expected nothing in return for his kindnesses. He certainly didn’t expect to be handed the Holy Grail. Mark sells bull semen for the artificial insemination of dairy cows, and he has custom... READ MORE
The Coffee-stained Buck
By Darren Warner
Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t. The moment Tony Losey looked out of his popup blind’s window and saw something other than raindrops, he forgot he was holding a bag of pistachios. Or maybe he just lost his grip. One moment, the Belleville, Mich., hunter was sitting in his dry dome, enjoying his snack. The next, ... READ MORE
How to Beat the No-stand Blues
By Ed Waite
To the person who stole Mike Flanigan’s treestand: Thank you. A not-so-funny thing happened to Mike Flanigan of Conneaut, Ohio, on the way to his deer stand last Oct. 27. When he arrived at his tree, the stand wasn’t there. Understandably upset, he could’ve walked back to his truck to stew in his own juices for a few hours while h... READ MORE
A Series of Fortunate Events
By Mark Sharp
Sometimes the calendar tells you it's time to be in a tree. Sometimes it's brothers-in-law, or maybe the neighbor's combining. After a long day at the job site on Nov. 8, 2013, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go bowhunting. Although early November is usually a good time to be in a deer stand, there hadn’t been much activity to that point. Whi... READ MORE
Buck of Steel
By Mike Handley
Not all deer leap tall buildings when hit by a speeding bullet. One reason even veteran deer hunters fail to get more than one shot at a fleeing deer is because they’re shocked when the animal doesn’t falter or collapse after the first boom. All too often, those who manage a follow-up shot are too rattled to make it count. That might've... READ MORE
Because the Wind Was Wrong
By Dale Weddle
Not for nothing: If Larry Price tells you a turkey dips snuff, you’ll find the can under the bird's wing. Aside from accompanying his stepfather a few times in his youth, hunting never interested James Irvine until he moved his family from an urban to a rural setting almost a decade ago. “It was just seven or eight years ago that I boug... READ MORE
Fooling Moses
By Mike Handley
Trash talk and some eau-de-deer combine to cook this buck’s grits. When Josh Stephenson saw the tsunami rolling through the yellowed stalks, he stood and grabbed his bow. Whether the parting corn represented a Biblical shift or the opening of a new fault line near Danville, Ind., whether a robed and bearded man, a herd of deer or geology was ... READ MORE
Beyond Blessed
By Jenna Gregg
Jenna Gregg’s first-buck story will be hard to top, in print and on screen. I grew up around hunting with my parents and their friends, but I never really got into it until I started dating Floyd, now my husband, who suffers from OCDHD — obsessive-compulsive deer hunting disorder. Floyd pulled me into the fold during our high school yea... READ MORE
Burger to Bone
By Dale Weddle
It’s always wise to take one last look-see before committing to a target. Larry Mangin didn’t fall far from his family tree. His maternal and paternal grandfathers — Floyd Bennett and Tony Mangin — were hunting buddies. Both grew up in the Big Bend area of Meade County, Ky. Larry’s mother, Doris, is 86. On Dec. 12, 201... READ MORE
Opening Day to Remember
By Heather Artist
The best stands are sometimes determined by luck of the draw, even if someone else is doing the drawing. Last deer season, I scheduled a 10-day vacation to coincide with the opening of Missouri’s rifle season on Nov. 16. No longer in college (I graduated the previous May), I was determined not to miss a day of hunting. My two sisters, Michell... READ MORE
‘Warm Hollow’ Buck
By Dale Weddle
This Kentuckian never imagined he’d burn his only vacation day just to make a trip to the taxidermist. When the smoke cleared and the buck was no longer there, Roger Poe began shaking. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the December cold or the fact that he’d just shot at the biggest deer he’d ever seen. Second chances are rare... READ MORE
Five Dollars to Boot
By Ed Waite
Seeing a buck of this caliber in photographs is one thing. Seeing it in the flesh can steal consonants from speech. Shawn Evangelista almost forgot how to form words last year. Even his three-word sentences, repeated for emphasis, were more a series of emitted vowel sounds, punctuated by gulps of air. You’d think that seeing — and indee... READ MORE