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Reader Features
'Lock, Stock & Barrel: Understanding the Firearms Industry' | From the National Shooting Sports Foundation
-- "For more than 200 years a unique industry in America has made products that have been part of our country's great tradition of freedom, self-reliance and enjoyment of the outdoors." So begins a new vi...
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One Big Mistake | By Adam Hayden
-- I want to thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to do what I do and then still bless me with an animal like this. It’s very humbling. He definitely guided that arrow for me, because it wasn’t the best "form" shot I have ever...
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Second Shot’s a Charm | By Tyler Ramey
-- I had bowhunted with my Dad several times in the 2009 deer season, but I had yet to get close to a buck. I’ve taken several does since I started hunting, and I really had my heart set on getting a buck this year.
On Sunday afterno...
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The Grey Ghost | By Clint Anderson
-- It was the second night at deer camp. We gathered around the fireplace, allowing its warmth to embrace us as we shared stories of the previous day. My uncle had harvested a nice 10-point whitetail, which was still in the back of...
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Smooth as Velvet | By Rick Garrett
-- One of my longtime goals as a hunter has been to arrow a nice buck still in velvet. Here in Kentucky, it’s very unusual for one of our bucks to carry velvet past the 12th of September, giving us a week – maybe ...
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Man’s Best Friend? | By Michael Stewart
-- Bowhunting in my home state of Mississippi means swatting mosquitoes, keeping a keen eye out for snakes and hoping you don’t dehydrate before you make it back from your deer stand. Needless to say, my first bowhunt in Ohio foun...
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Beginners Luck | By Matt Sloan
-- Beads of sweat rolled down my face as I hoisted my bow up the tree. The warm September afternoon made my hike up the hill and into my stand less than pleasant. I had started to wonder if my friends were right when they told me I was...
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Vintage Year | By Bennie L. Wynkoop
-- On Dec. 5, 2005 – two days before my 52nd birthday – the alarm woke me at 4 a.m. After checking the weather outside in Virginia Beach, Va., I got dressed and started packing my hunting gear in the truck. My son’s friend...
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Almost Déjà vu | By David W. Smith
-- When I struck out on opening day of Texas’ 2008 deer season with my new bottle of doe urine, I headed for the spot where I’d taken my first buck. I’d shot the 9-pointer during the last hour of another opening day, and I ...
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Lesson Learned | By Michael Dalton
-- My 7-year-old son came to me one day and asked, “Dad, what is it like to go deer hunting?”
I explained, “Deer hunting is funny. The only thing you know for certain is: nothing is for certain. It’s not just about killing deer,...
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The Power of … um … Love | By Larry Robertson
-- I have a friend who doesn’t hunt, but he loves venison. He’d asked me several times to hunt his 10-acre tract if I’d split the meat with him.
I didn’t put much stock in a place so small, but I finally got around to visiting hi...
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Dinging and Coughing Fool 20-pointer | By Josh Spencer
-- On Friday, Nov. 14, 2008, I woke up at 5 a.m. and went outside to see what the weather was like in Mt. Sterling, Ky. It was cold, there was only a slight breeze, and it was pitch black. Conditions couldn’t have been more p...
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Redemption Wore Eight Points | By Bill LeConey
-- Hunting state woods in southern New Jersey isn’t the “ideal” hunting conditions. The whitetails receive a lot of pressure. There aren’t vast corn and soybean fields for them to eat. And without antler restrictions, many young de...
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Driving in the Thick Stuff | By Caleb Lyon
-- During the late muzzleloader season in central Iowa, Pete Lyon took this 141 5/8-inch 11-point buck on a deer drive. We were pushing a small section of timber towards Rob, a stander, when I jumped the buck and a couple of does. The ...
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A Trophy Forgotten | By Robert Gratson
-- We’ve all heard tales of a hunter shooting a deer and then someone taking it from them. This is one of those stories. It happened to me in Fayette County back in the 1992 archery season.
I was hunting with a very close friend ...
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I Wish He Had a Doe With Him | By John Fritz
-- We have a relatively short firearms season here in Indiana (it's 15 days beginning Nov. 15) so the anticipation really starts to build around the first of November. My home and property are adjacent to a heavily wooded coal mine re...
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My Buck of a Lifetime | By Paul Daman
-- It was a cold, crisp November morning in Aberdeen, Ohio, the peak of the rut during the archery season. I had been on the stand for what seemed like all day, but it was only 10:30a.m. A cold front had moved out heavy rain the night ...
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My Unbelievable Dream Season | By Dr. Michael Tveraas
-- It was early October 2006 when my unbelievable dream season began. My 81-year-old friend Walter Senn had helped me build a blind near my clubhouse camp in the remote high peaks of the Adirondack State Forest...
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If You Can’t Beat ’Em ... | By Carey M. Hibbs
-- My husband has been hunting throughout the 10 years we’ve been married, but he really got serious about it over the last four years.
This caused many fights in our house. We own two businesses and have three children, and his ...
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Homework Pays Off With an A+ Trophy | By Steve Lamb
-- August 2006 was slow in arriving, and the September archery elk season was just handful of days away. Haunted by the mental images of the elk herd I stumbled across while bow hunting for mule deer in the fall of 2005, I could think ...
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At the Center of the Action | By Mark Gregor
-- It was Oct. 30, 2008, and the rut was just starting where I hunt in Wisconsin. It was a warm and windy day, so I was not too excited about heading afield. But if I didn’t go, I was guaranteed not to see or shoot anything!
I was in...
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Making Up for Lost Time | By Marty Plunk
-- My 2004 bow season was cut short following a doctor’s visit. A blood clot had settled on my artificial heart valve, requiring immediate surgery. I missed the following year as well.
On Nov. 24, 2006, after not being able to hunt f...
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The Worst of Times, the Best of Bucks | By Bill Hoffman
-- Oct. 26, 2008, was a very blustery day in the middle of the South Dakota archery season. With wind gusts of up to 50 mph, I was very hesitant to go out that evening. My wife commented on how crazy I was, but I justified it by say...
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Setting Goals and Shooting Bucks | By Sue Griffin
-- My father taught me to hunt and fish when I was really young, which cemented the bond between us. Being a girl was never an obstacle.
He passed away when I was 18, but he left me with a spirit of independence.
Twenty years later,...
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Long Wait for His First Buck | By John Everett
-- My grandfather, Hubert Myers, passed away on May 16, 2006.
He was my best friend, hunting partner and mentor – the coolest 89-year-old kid you ever saw. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t try.
I accompanied him in a deer...
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Mosquitoes Stole My Blood Trail | By Darin Wiley
-- Kansas bowhunters got an early start in 2008, but the price was having to deal with the heat and bugs. I was out there on Sept. 25, sweating and swatting mosquitoes.
When I’d finally had enough about 6:50 p.m., I dug out the repel...
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Easter Eggs for Adults | By Jennifer Bilott
-- My husband, Jim, introduced me to hunting shed antlers before we married. When I tell my friends I’m going shed hunting, they look at me in a puzzled way and say, “You have three garages. What do you need a shed for?” So I mu...
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The Lost Shall Be Found | By Trent Ledbetter
-- Two days into the muzzleloader season, I had yet to get a deer and they guys were riding me pretty hard. I had seen more deer than ever during bow season, but they always stayed just out of range.
I didn’t have a muzzlel...
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300 Yards and Not a Drop | By Brandon Walton
-- My story starts on the second day of the Pennsylvania gun season. I hadn’t been able to hunt any of the archery season or for small game due to my daughter being born and taking on the duties of watching my two boys. With ...
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I Bought My Buddy’s Luck | By Carl Temple
-- Twenty-nine years ago, I decided to try bowhunting. I was hooked from day one. I’ve seen a lot of deer in those years, including some real jaw-droppers, but for one reason or another things just never happened the way I neede...
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One Memorable Hunt | By Brad Shelton
-- The sun was beating down on the back of my neck, sweat was rolling off my face and mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds had swarmed me all day. Welcome to opening day of the Kentucky archery season.
It was Sept. 1, 2007, at abou...
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Late for Work, But Who Could Blame Him? | By Jerren Almon
-- I live in a small town in Oklahoma. I have always been an avid hunter and live for opening day.
We recently bought some land down from our house to build on in a couple of years. One day, as we were driving the land and tal...
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A Strong Will to Survive | By Brian Bothum
-- It was Oct. 31, 2007, and the Minnesota Rifle season was only a few days away. That afternoon, I drove to my stand, 40 miles north of Thief River Falls and 9 miles west of Karlstad.
The area I hunt is situated in the middle of a ...
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Maiden Hunt Ends Well for Katie | By Dan Nethers
-- My 14-year-old daughter, Katie, got a late start as a deer hunter, but it wasn't her choice. Prior to November 2008, she had been unable to hunt due to juvenile fibromyalgia. During that year and a half, we had to take her out of s...
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Antelope on My Mind | By Beth Lemke
-- For more than 20 years, I’d dreamed of taking an antelope, posing for the success picture, telling how I’d taken it.
As a loving wife, I never brought that up. Ok, only every chance I got! My husband, Johnny, took up th...
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The Backdoor was Covered | By Justin Vee
I am 22 years old. I grew up in New Ulm, Minn. I absolutely love hunting. I take advantage of both rifle and muzzleloader seasons here in Minnesota, and I also hunt as a nonresident in Wisconsin.
On opening day of Wisconsin's 20...
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That’s No 8-Pointer! | By Woody Bloxom
-- On Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, my friend Larry Patterson called me at home in Arlington, Texas, asking me to meet him the following Sunday at the lease in Grapeland to hunt for a week. It was 90 degrees with a heat index of 95 degrees. ...
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Three for Three | By Jay Stanton
-- In 2006, I was hunting in western Nebraska with my two young sons and two good friends in the Pine Ridge National Forest southeast of Chadron. The previous morning, opening day of rifle season, I'd shot a nice 3x4 muley, so my hunt...
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Can It be This Easy? | By Adam Wies
-- When I decided to try hunting deer for the first time, I was on my own. Nobody in my family, nor any friends hunt. So I surfed the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's website and found a wildlife management area about 20 minutes fr...
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Hunting Through Diversity | By Tim Walker
-- I truly believe in hunting where one has the best chance to bag a trophy. If your state isn’t producing trophy deer, then go to a state that is.
Ohio is known to produce record-size deer each year, not like my home s...
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Never Say Never & Never Give Up! | By Ariel Shead
My dad and I were sitting on a power line, deer hunting as usual. I was into it, but thinking at the same time, "Naw. No big huge buck or doe is gonna walk out there" So while I was half asleep and in a daydream, my dad was ...
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My Best Arrived on Squirrel Paws | By Mike Ransford
-- During the first week of November 2008, 10 of us went to Altoona, Kan., to hunt with Paradise Adventures. We were greeted with 80-degree temperatures, which kept deer movement to a minimum the first couple of days.
On day three,...
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The Haystack Buck | By Jon Bryan
-- At 5 p.m., I had defied logic, was sitting behind a tree and scouting for deer. What’s illogical about that? The tree that I was hiding behind was in the feed lot, not 200 feet from the east side of my house.
By dark, I had se...
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Eastern Shore's Reputation on Target | By Norman L. Wines
-- It was a crisp and breezy, 45-degree Nov. 26 -- three days into Maryland's 2007 season -- and I had not seen a single deer all day. With dusk fast approaching, however, I saw a brute of a buck moving through the thicket.
I w...
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First Buck, Biggest Buck | By Carlton Isaacs
-- Although I was 57 years old at the time and had been hunting for quite a few seasons, it looked like I would never get a buck. Then on Nov. 23, 2007 at 10 a.m., it happened, and I was in a state of shock.
It was the day after...
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Bro Gets the Big One | By Nathan Vlcek
-- On Oct. 6, 2007, I spotted a monstrous buck out in a neighbor’s bean field. It was walking from the river to their wooded hill at about 9:00 in the morning. To my dismay, I also saw the landowner hunting those woods.
Later ...
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“You’d Better Sit in the Ladder Tonight” | By Shannon M. Peters
-- I am a science teacher. And while I come to know many students who adore hunting as much as I do, I am reluctant to invite them to hunt with me on my father-in-law’s farm.
In the late 1990s, I was a coach who loved the...
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In Plain Sight | By Steven Miller
-- Well it was Oct. 30, and it had been a very warm Michigan bow season. I hadn’t had much luck. In fact, I’d missed the only buck I’d seen all year.
It was about 1 p.m. I was sitting at home, watching ...
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Third Meeting's a Charm, for Hunter | By Michael S. Dunn
-- I belong to a hunting lease that has a 6-point-or-better rule. Each club member has his own area. I didn't bag a deer in 2006, but I passed up a very good 8-pointer with a tall rack.
When the 2007 muzzleloader season cam...
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Like Father, Not Like Son | By Robert Lang
-- I harvested this 25 2/8-inch-wide 15-pointer while hunting a 10-acre parcel of private land in Muskegon County, Mich. The land adjoins 180 acres of heavily hunted public land.
My father missed this buck during a...
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