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Always Look Down
By Bill Sansom
Maybe they should make cloven boots for hunters, since hooves turn deer into ninjas. On the upside, being surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of public hunting ground teeming with deer, elk, bear, game birds and predators that you can hunt almost year-around is a great place for a hunter to live. On the downside, if you can call it that, decid... READ MORE
Best Halloween Ever
By Chad Carney
Looking for the deeriest zip code in Kansas? If there are trees and a river runs through it, sign the lease. When I received word in November 2014 that my company would be moving me from Cary, North Carolina, to Olathe, Kansas, I immediately starting daydreaming of hunting giant Sunflower State bucks. A colleague had recently purchased some hunting... READ MORE
Treating Himself
By Ed Waite
Yet one more reason Ohio deer hunters should forsake trick-or-treatery for a sit in a deer stand. While tilling a 5-acre cornfield in the spring of 2015, Brian Moore spotted his young neighbor approaching. As the boy drew closer, Brian realized he was carrying a deer antler. Brian stopped the tractor to admire the shed antler, which his neighbor ha... READ MORE
No Surrender, Despite 15 Flags
By John E. Phillips
Quick thinking and topography allow farmer a second chance at dream buck. If you blow a hunt or spook a buck, you might still be able to salvage an opportunity if you know the land you’re hunting and have a good idea of where that whitetail wants to go. Terrain permitting, heading a deer off at the pass could be the second chance for which yo... READ MORE
He Couldn’t NOT Look, Right?
By Mike Handley
Cows on the lam lead man to bull of the woods. Nicholas Johnson of Coleman, Oklahoma, hadn’t planned to hunt the opening day of the 2012 rifle season, a Saturday, because he’d scheduled the next nine days off from the casino where he works. Still, the 34-year-old didn’t gain any sleep that morning. “That Friday night, Nov. ... READ MORE
Oh, Yes, He Did …
By John E. Phillips
Has leg-pulling become a cliché? Sometimes, the joke is no joke at all. A little after dark during the 2014 hunting season in November, Mike Simon of McPherson, Kansas, saw his 15-year-old son, Parker, coming down the road toward their vehicle. When he arrived, Parker said, “Dad, I saw a big buck about noon that had main beams curled a... READ MORE
Former Virginia Record Came off Dairy Farm
By Duncan Dobie
Before-school chores sometimes include collecting meat for the larder and hair-on hatracks.
Many are the stories about huge bucks being seen on or near dairy farms. Maybe it has something to do with all the great feed available. Even though most big bucks usually avoid sharing quarters with cattle, all that fresh corn might be too much to resist.
... READ MORE
Why Pavlov Didn’t Use Deer
By Dale Weddle
This buck’s nose saved its bacon the first time. An errant shot ensured only a headache the next.
Ol’ Two Drop came up out of the creek bed and into the food plot. Tim Hatton hadn’t recognized the distinctive deer before then, even though he’d been watching it mangle a bush on the other side of the creek for nearly half an ... READ MORE
Backyard Bone Yard
By Ed Waite
This is one opening day a father and daughter aren’t likely to forget.
Mike Speaker usually ushers in Pennsylvania’s gun deer season with friends at his buddy John Kelly’s Big K Camp in McKean County.
But not last year.
“My daughter had come home from college, where she is studying to be a pharmacist, for Thanksgiving," h... READ MORE
Because of a Misfire
By Lisa Price
If this Texan’s smokepole had fired the first time, he’d have gone home with a much smaller deer. Logan Wilson of Decatur, Texas, says he’d never have hunted deer in central Kansas without his father Rodney’s influence. He and his three brothers, David, Rick and Randy, learned early on that Texas might have an enviable popul... READ MORE
The Exception
By Lisa Price
This Nebraska couple had agreed not to hang a shoulder mount in their home, but they didn’t chisel it in stone. Some women recovering from surgery try their hand at knitting or crocheting. Others watch TV or read bestseller after bestseller. Lori Moore of Arapahoe, Nebraska, spent a lot of time gazing at a new piece of wall art she thought sh... READ MORE
Michigan Milestone
By Richard P. Smith
The deer gods care not for how many years are under your belt, nor how many notches are in it. In most cases, fathers who are hunters naturally take on the responsibility of getting their sons and daughters involved in the sport by passing on the tradition. The opposite is true for 37-year-old John Tolfree of Milan, Michigan. John’s son, Conn... READ MORE
Nine Days in October
By Mike Handley
A forward shift in season dates makes choosing easier for this Iowa hunter. For the first time since he began hunting in Iowa, Joe Daubner bought a deer permit for the early blackpowder season last year. “I wasn’t keen on getting an early muzzleloader tag, at first,” he said. “I really had to think about it.” For start... READ MORE
More Than Meat
By Duncan Dobie
Somebody’s dog missed out on two really GREAT chew toys.
Being raised on the family farm in west-central Minnesota during the war years of the 1940s, Jim Matter grew strong and resourceful trapping muskrats near the Buffalo River in sub-freezing temperatures and hunting prairie chickens with his dad whenever the two could slip away from thei... READ MORE
Roadside Attraction
By Mike Handley
The road to this Oklahoma behemoth was paved with Rice Krispies. Both whitetails and wapiti were fair game on private lands during Oklahoma’s 2015 rifle season, which spanned Nov. 21 through Dec. 6. While elk roam 30 of the state’s 77 counties, they’re more plentiful in the southwestern counties. Even where they’re thickest,... READ MORE