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Tar Heel Haunting
By Tyson Williamson
Trophy dream comes true in a ghostly way for this North Carolina deer hunter. My amazing story started when I got to hunt a friend’s land in central North Carolina. It’s a large block of woods surrounded by housing developments just outside the city limits. Surprisingly, there is very little hunting pressure. In early August of 2010, I ... READ MORE
Why Food Plots Fail
By David Hart
Food plots take time, effort and money to do them right. You spent hundreds of dollars on chemicals, fertilizer and seed, not to mention countless hours turning dirt on your ATV. But there you are, staring at a mess that was supposed to be your deer hunting honey hole. It might be a few skimpy clumps of clover swallowed by a sea of weeds, or it cou... READ MORE
Thank You, Dad
By Anthony R. Knight
Timely invite salvages dream hunt for new father. My love of hunting began when I was 10 years old when I went rabbit hunting with my dad near our home in Tennessee. I got my first rabbit that year with a 20-gauge single-shot H&R shotgun my parents got me for Christmas. Although I didn’t get a deer that year, I was hooked on hunting. I wa... READ MORE
Be Realistic
By P.J. Reilly
Passing up small bucks is great, if there are bigger bucks in the area. My outfitter buddy loves to tell the same story at camp every year. It’s about a group of guys who signed up to hunt with him during Illinois’ late muzzleloader season. My buddy had e-mailed the guys to tell them what to expect, what gear they should bring, etc. He ... READ MORE
Game Changers
By Collected By Tim H. Martin
Buckmasters’ staffers share tips that have helped fill their tags. THE TARSAL HOARDER (Jackie Bushman) We can thank the good folks at Scent-Lok and Tink’s for developing scent-absorbing clothing, scent attractants and odor eliminators that fool a deer’s nose pretty doggone well. Today’s technology and improvements in hunting... READ MORE
Who Needs Shuteye?
By Russell Davis
Good things come to those who skip naps. I arose at 5 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2010 and was in my treestand by 6. Shortly after sunrise, a 30 mph south wind kicked up, making it impossible to hear. I was halfway up a 200-yard hill that faced a cornfield. I hunt that stand the first day of shotgun season every year and have pretty good luck. By 10 a.m. that... READ MORE
Feed Your Herd
By Bob Humphrey
Reducing deer numbers is not the only way to balance deer with their habitat. Biologists use the letter K to denote carrying capacity — the number of animals, in this case deer, that existing habitat can support. Think of the food resources available on the land as a pie. Biologists love to use the pie analogy. No matter how you slice it, the... READ MORE
When Opportunity Knocks
By P.J. Reilly
It’s good to have a game plan, but better to hunt a hot stand. There it was again, the deep, amorous grunt of a whitetail. The morning had not lightened enough to show me the buck I knew was close, but the eastern sky was becoming alive with color, so I tightened the grip on my 60-pound longbow and waited impatiently. I knew where the buck wa... READ MORE
Back In the Day
By David Hart
Are whitetail hunting’s glory days a thing of the past? It’s been nearly more than 25 years since an unassuming farmer from Biggar, Saskatchewan set the deer hunting world on fire. Milo Hansen had no idea he was looking at the new world record when he pulled the trigger, but he set in motion what turned out to be a decades long obsessio... READ MORE
Smart Scouting
By Steve Bartylla
Have a plan when heading to the woods in the off season. I was frustrated. I’d seen a great buck during the early fall while scouting. Setting up on him, I came close twice, but not close enough. Then, he vanished. With the rut approaching quickly, I was worried. Knowing I needed to make a change, I began to scour the 60-acre woodlot. If the ... READ MORE
Picking Pockets
By Bob Robb
Small isolated cover areas can produce big results. I am not sure who coined the phrase “bigger is always better,” but it certainly applies to whitetail hunters. We’re always trying to shoot the biggest buck. What many hunters overlook is the fact that the biggest buck does not necessarily come from the largest tract of huntable l... READ MORE
A Perfect Match
By Dave Henderson
There’s an accurate load for YOUR slug shooter. When it comes to our slug-shooting setups, many of us think we have a Top Fuel dragster when we’re really shooting station wagons. But that’s okay, since real-life shotgun success depends largely on short-range slug performance. Occasionally you can stretch it past 150 yards under th... READ MORE
Two Shots, One Record
By Denver Crouch
The Story of Kentucky’s top crossbow buck. I’ve been a diehard bowhunter for 29 years, but shoulder replacement surgery on July 26, 2010, almost broke my bowhunting streak. My surgeon suggested I use a crossbow, and after a lot of thought, I decided to give it a try. I purchased a crossbow and obtained the proper paperwork to hunt with ... READ MORE
The Next Level
By Steve Bartylla
Stand efficiency makes the difference between a close encounter and a filled tag. As the buck approached the water hole, I could barely move my head. With the stand facing uphill, I had a doe and two fawns at eye level at just 30 yards. The doe had picked out my outline earlier and hadn’t cared for it one bit. She eventually calmed down, but ... READ MORE
Lords of the Night
By Bob Humphrey
Five tips for hunting nocturnal bucks. It had been a particularly frustrating fall. Pre-rut deer activity was unusually slow, likely in part because of an abundant acorn crop. The deer didn’t have to travel far to find food. Just about the time buck movement should have been heating up, a warm front moved in. For four days, the mercury never ... READ MORE