By Mike Handley

Two significant changes are being implemented in Buckmasters' Full-Credit Scoring System, both inspired by actual incidents. For starters, we're revising the fair chase affidavit on the backside of our scoresheets to allow for the states and provinces to dictate what is and isn't legal within their borders. We're also going to accept and give full credit to racks with broken points or beams, as long as the scorer sees them BEFORE they're repaired AND can get an accurate measurement when the pieces are put back into place.

Is there a harder game animal to harvest than a wild turkey? None that I know of. I've heard it said time and again that if a turkey could smell you, you'd never be able to kill one.

I marvel at the stories of the people who harvest turkeys on their first hunts. I read a story on the Buckmasters website the other day about two young ladies who each harvested mature toms at the same time, out of the same blind, on their first trip to the woods. This story made me shake my head almost in disbelief. 

To illustrate my thoughts you need to travel back to the 1980s when the movie "The Karate Kid" was released.
 
In the movie, Daniel-san, played by Ralph Macchio, walks into the home of Mr. Miyagi, played by Pat Morita. Mr. Miyagi is sitting there on the floor by a table. In Miyagi's hand ...

By Larry Teague

An unexpected thing happened while gun owners were watching the new Democratic-controlled Congress.

They were blindsided by a different part of the federal government -- the executive branch.

Rules that would break the backs of ammunition manufacturers and dry up ammo supplies are being sought by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Published as required by law in ...

Another deer season and football season have come and gone. At the risk of sounding clich‚, it seems like yesterday I headed to Wisconsin for a bow hunt and connected the HD box to my television for football viewing nirvana.

"Man, where did the time get off to?" I've heard myself say that over and over the past month. Albert Einstein proved that time can be a flexible thing if you travel fast enough. I beg to differ. I don't zip around at the speed of light, but every year, time just seems to pick up steam, and speed by faster than the year before.

How does one slow down Father Time? I am open to suggestions.

I plan on hunting only public land next deer season. My goal is to prove that with a little luck and a good deal of planning, anyone can tip the ...

-- It seems some folks here at the Buckmasters offices are snake-bitten. Of all the hunts that myself or the editors have taken, no one I know of has harvested a buck, or a doe for that matter. Every year I have been here, someone has gotten a really nice buck, and most have at least put a couple of does in the freezer, but this year is different. It is palpable.

Even the television guys are having a hard go of it this year.

I'm the type of person who needs to have things make sense. This whole season doesn't make sense. Maybe it's global warming. That is a joke, by the way. Don't get me started on that scam. Whatever it is, the reason eludes me, but like I said, you can just feel that something is different.

March 1, 2008, is the deadline for bucks to appear in the next edition of "Buckmasters Whitetail Trophy Records." All entries received after that date will not appear in print until 2011.

Like other record-keeping organizations, Buckmasters updates its record book every three years. The fourth edition, which included more than 9,000 awesome whitetails, was published during the fall of 2005. The fifth will be published next fall, and it'll contain an additional 1,500 to 2,000 deer - those that have been measured since the last book rolled off the press.

The fifth edition will feature the most up-to-date roster of trophy whitetails, including several new state- and even a couple of new world records.

Anyone interested in having his or her trophy included in the next ...

-- Every five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes the pulse of American hunters and anglers through its National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.

Results of the latest survey, just released, show that 37.8 million of us like to hunt and fish, but there are 6 percent fewer of us than in 2001, the last survey period. The good news is hunters aren't leaving the sport as fast as they did in the 1990s, and big game hunting is remaining stable.

The survey also breaks down hunting by the type of game pursued and the number of days spent in that search. The white-tailed deer continues to be far and above the most popular game animal in the ...

I am back from the Wisconsin hunt, and pretty much the only thing I have to show for my efforts is a few more pounds lost, an increased knowledge of scouting techniques and I'm a walking map of the Tiffany Wildlife area in western Wisconsin.

We arrived there about lunch time last Monday, and were greeted by gale force winds and an advancing cold front. While the cold was a good thing for the hunt, the wind doesn't do archery hunters many favors. (Or firearms hunters for that matter.) So we decided to use the remaining sunlight to scout and pick out a few stand locations for later in the week.

We found heavily used trails, droppings, big and small rubs and scrapes galore. The l ...

Final preparations are being made, the details are coming together and I am ready to go. The hunting crew leaves tomorrow for Wisconsin.

The weather report keeps getting colder by the day. Last week the extended forecast called for highs in the 40s, and lows in the 30s. Today you can knock off 10 degrees for both the high and the low temperatures. This should make for great hunting and hopefully the big boys will start looking for those does. The prediction of snow changes every day. Yes one day, no the next. We'll see.

The light cardio workouts continue. I'll be back in the gym as soon as my trip is in the books. 

Getting ready to go hunting is a MAJOR undertaking -- at least for me.  Being primarily a bowhunter, scent is my biggest concern, and I spend a lot of time agonizing over it and looking for new ways to reduce my "scent footprint."

I learn something new every year, whether from reading the articles for Buckmasters, from other hunters, or just by accident. This year was no exception.

As I was getting ready to head to Dreamwoods Adventures hunting camp in southern Illinois, I gathered up all my hunting clothes and equipment. My bow, arrows, quiver, etc., are not a problem since I shoot pretty much year-round, but the clothes and other gear seem to get scattered out over the course of the off season. Having finally gathered ev ...