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Rather Be Lucky
By Robert Young
Just about every big buck story has at least a little element of luck involved. It wasn’t all dumb luck as some of my buddies have teased, but I guess I had at least a little bit of luck that November evening in Indiana. I’ve been hunting whitetails and other big game for 25 years and was making homemade treestands and dragging deer out... READ MORE
Anatomy of a Scrape
By Bob Humphrey
A bare patch of ground can be a valuable piece of deer hunting real estate. Sneaking through the dense conifers of Anticosti Island, I caught flash of brown and a glimpse of movement off to my left. Deer! My guide had dropped me off hours earlier with a map of what would be my exclusive territory for the day. Besides me, the only living thing there... READ MORE
Needle in a Haystack
By Steve Bartylla
Sometimes finding a wounded buck can seem almost impossible. In at instant, I went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. I’d watched the huge 10-pointer for about 10 minutes while the doe he followed stood in my shooting lane. As the monster buck put on an impressive display of sapling trashing and dirt-clod kicking, I knew the odd... READ MORE
Destined To Be a Legend
By Keith Snider
If Ben Knisley had a doe tag, this story might never have happened. If Ben Knisley had drawn a doe tag in 2006, the winner of Buckmasters’ Golden Laurel Citation would not have hailed from Minnesota. But the 23-year-old from Paynesville couldn’t shoot any of the does that came his way on the afternoon of Nov. 4. He was forced to w... READ MORE
For Better or Worse
By Braden Arp
Whitetail hunters should know better than to schedule a wedding during deer season. With this ring,” “‘til death do us part,” “through sickness and in health” are things we remember saying when joining in solemn assembly with the one we vow to spend the rest of our lives with. There is one line that most of us fo... READ MORE
Anatomy of a Buck Rub
By Bob Humphrey
Not all rubs will produce bucks, but they all tell a story about the deer who make them. Over the last 25 years, I’ve been fortunate to find a handful of deer hunting gems — special places with just the right ingredients to make them consistently productive. I discovered one while scouting one day after the season had already begun. A 2... READ MORE
Why QDM Isn’t Working for You
By David Hart
There are plenty of reasons QDM works ... and just as many as to why it can fail. A basket-racked 8-pointer steps into an opening 50 yards from your stand. It’s late in the season and you haven’t tagged a buck. For a fleeting moment, you consider raising your rifle and centering the crosshairs behind the shoulder, but that’s not w... READ MORE
White Smoke and Winter Whitetails
By Chuck Smick
You can still fill your tag with a late-season blackpowder hunt. I was up a ladder stand at the end of an oak-studded finger on opening day of Kentucky’s December blackpowder season. The doe walked cautiously along the bottom of the steep ridge, but I saw her 30 yards from my stand and I clicked off the inline muzzleloader’s safety. At ... READ MORE
Rubbin’ Up the Wrong Tree
By C.J. Winand
Not all rubs are created equal. Here’s how to determine which you should pay attention to. Are rubs the key to hunting the rut? Are there different types of rubs? What behaviors do bucks exhibit at rub sites? Do bucks prefer certain types of trees for making rubs? Most hunters have more questions than answers when it comes to buck rubs. Years... READ MORE
Lessons Learnt
By Steve Bartylla
Following are a few pearls of wisdom from a professional deer manager and hunter. Just that quick, things had gone from bad to perfect. The buck, sporting well over 150 inches of antler that had veered off just before hitting my shooting lane, was now being led back on a string. It was poetic justice in a way, since the doe that led him astray in t... READ MORE
In an Instant
By Bob Humphrey
Sometimes you have only seconds to choose whether or not to shoot. Here’s some help on how to decide. Whoa! Where’d he come from?” I didn’t remember looking away, but I must have because a very large buck now stood where seconds earlier the space was empty. “Shooter.” The word popped into my head. I knew it. I mi... READ MORE
Counting Points
By David Hart
Do state-mandated antler restrictions make a positive impact on herd health? In 1990, Larry Marchinton received a call from a Georgia wildlife biologist who wanted to discuss a novel idea for deer management. At the time, Marchinton was the deer research program leader at the University of Georgia, and the deer-hunting world was starting to look at... READ MORE
No Second Thoughts
By Maurice King III
Some say taking an albino deer is bad luck, but this hunter didn’t even think twice. On Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007, at about 6:30 a.m., I was on the way home from work when my brother called to ask if I wanted to go deer hunting. I was pretty tired and really didn’t want to, but I told him I would go for a short while. I went home, put on my... READ MORE
In Need of an Intervention
By Linda Crosslin
Self-confessed deer hunting addict finally gets the trophy of her dreams. I am the oldest of five girls reared in the country and taught by our father to shoot at an early age. My husband, Joe, has been deer hunting since the first legal Kentucky deer season in 1968. He took our two kids and me with him in 1985, and I’ve been hopelessly addic... READ MORE
No Respect
By P.J. Reilly
Why Indiana is the Midwest’s most overlooked hotspot. When it comes to premiere whitetail destinations, the Midwest is at the top of the heap. Every year, scores of hunters flock there in search of big bucks; and every year, those hunters take home more than a few bragging-size whitetails. Most often, the states these hunters head to are Illi... READ MORE
Arrow Spine Rules
By Jeff Murray
How this little understood arrow factor can make or break your setup. Just the other day, I shot a dozen arrows of an unfamiliar brand to check their performance at 50 yards. That’s a good distance for practicing, because it makes traditional whitetail distances seem like chip shots. When you practice regularly at this distance, you learn a l... READ MORE
Big Woods Bucks
By Steve Bartylla
Whitetails in large timber tracts are harder to pattern, but it’s not impossible. As the buck stood on the ridge, nose held high, it inhaled the alluring odor of the estrous scent I had placed well above its reach. It took several steps forward and began to scan the bedding area below for the hot doe. Within seconds, a blast of scent placed c... READ MORE
Antler Intrigue
By Tom Fegely
Of the recognized big buck factors, which is really most important? Several years ago, in one of my newspaper columns distributed by the Associated Press, I covered the subject of deer antlers and how they grow and are eventually dropped after the hunting season. With more than 25 years of outdoor news writing under my camo cap at the time, I long ... READ MORE
The 5 Ws of Decoying Deer
By Bob Humphrey
Who, What, When, Where, How and Why to use deer decoys It was that gloomy period known as false dawn. I was perched on the edge of a huge cut cornfield in southeast Illinois, and somewhere out in front of me, well within the effective range of my weapon but invisible to me, was a Boss Buck decoy. The anticipation of seeing the sun rise for the firs... READ MORE
When the Wind Blows
By Tom Fegely
Windy days can be miserable in the stand, but wind can help you overcome a deer’s defenses. Michael Haviland wanted to make it clear that he’d be ready whenever I decided to pull the trigger. The then-24-year-old videographer was on the viewfinder end of a pro-model video camera, braced on a limb over my right shoulder a dozen feet up a... READ MORE