|
|
Entries for August 2019
In Praise of Grunt Calls
By Mike Handley
The third-largest whitetail felled during the 2018 season came out of Indiana. At 254 4/8 inches, Adrian Luntzel’s buck is the Hoosier State’s new crossbow record. Among all harvests there, it comes in at No. 6. Adrian – Al for short – knew the deer existed. After he’d heard rumors, one claiming the buck was a 250-inc... READ MORE
Jersey Doe Lives for Another Day
By Mike Handley
Corwin Myers spent a lot of time shivering in a Hunterdon County, New Jersey, deer stand during the first week of January 2018. Trail camera photographs of numerous bucks hardened his resolve and kept his internal furnace stoked. The local whitetails seemed less inclined to walk around in the cold and snow, however, and Corwin’s enthusiasm ev... READ MORE
Mistaken Identity
By Mike Handley
Corey Bacon is usually pretty good at judging bucks by their cover, but he was dead wrong last year. The 28-year-old from Lebo, Kansas, mistakenly thought he’d shot a 160-inch 8-pointer on Dec. 8, 2018, the No. 2 deer on that season’s wish list. He didn’t see the kickers or the little drop tines it wore until he reached the downed... READ MORE
Trading Camo for Orange
By Mike Handley
If I wait more than four days to pull the memory card from my backyard trail camera during the redwing blackbird migration, I’ll have to sift between 3,000 and 4,000 mostly identical images. The numbers are so overwhelming that I wind up trashing far more than I keep. Cameran Derefield is not as easily overwhelmed. The 27-year-old electrical ... READ MORE