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Rack Magazine
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Spur of the Moment
By Mike Handley
Had Bill Ullrich stuck to his original plan on Oct. 26, someone else’s deer would be on this page. Had his son, Matt, also been able to leave work early that day, his might be the grin behind this fabulous Illinois buck. But Bill was bowhunting alone that afternoon, and he chose to head to a different spot almost as soon as he parked his truc... READ MORE
Cupid’s Arrow Struck First
By Jill J. Easton
Halloween 2010 was a hug-the-heater kind of day. The wind was blowing at 30 mph, the temperature was 29 degrees, and Bill Elza endured it all in his treestand, hoping to see rib bones. Sort of. That was the fifth year Bill had been gunning (or bowing) for a buck he’d nicknamed Ribcage, which is what came to mind when he first saw the row of t... READ MORE
Peepless in Illinois
By Mike Handley
Seeing Isn’t Always Aiming. As soon as the bowstring’s kisser button hit the corner of Jon Wolf’s mouth, he almost panicked. The 63-year-old hunter from Galva, Ill., was staring at a buck wearing what looked more like an upturned rotary hoe than antlers. But he wasn’t seeing it through a peep sight. The device was there, rig... READ MORE
Why Having Breakfast Aloft is a Good Idea
By Jill J. Easton
So eager to see the buck he’d smoked up close, Tommy Johnson gave no thought to reloading or even grabbing his muzzleloader before descending his ladder and running over to the deer. When he reached it and saw that the animal was definitely not pushing up daisies, however, he did a quick 180. “I knew I’d made a good shot, so I lef... READ MORE
There’s No Place Like Home
By Lisa L. Price
After a quarter-century hiatus from hunting, following a move from his native Kansas to California, Phil Ryan was eager to rediscover the thrill when he moved back home in 2011. And thanks to a church buddy and his brother, Alan, he did just that. Phil might not have climbed any trees while living on the west coast, but he never forgot how much he&... READ MORE
Breaking — In Excellently
By Larry Jones
Before last October, this Arkansas hunter had a never pointed a crossbow at a living, breathing target. Like the frog that refuses to let go and be swallowed by a heron, 41-year-old Mike Miller of Marion, Ark., will not go gently into that abyss. Mike learned in 2002 that he has leukemia. After struggling through treatment and three relapses during... READ MORE
One Million
By Joe Godar
Each year, my longtime friend, Don, and I manage to block off a few days away from work and family to bowhunt together. In 2012, we found three days in November. Our destination was some property in Highland County, Ohio, I’d purchased five or six years earlier, though I’d hunted the place far longer. My family has had several cabins th... READ MORE
One More Time
By Steve Shaw
Never Write Off a Stand Until the Day After You Decide to Do it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the small 40-acre tract I leased in 2011. I signed the dotted line because I’d heard some big deer were seen in that corner of Alamance County, N.C., and it was close to home. I hadn’t seen anything special, but I was hopeful. A frie... READ MORE
Kabobs with 19 Skewers
By Dale Weddle
Even with a forked tree as a rest, it took every ounce of George Morrison’s willpower to steady his .30-06 long enough to bring the crosshairs to rest on the huge whitetail’s neck. With adrenalin coursing through his body, he took one last deep breath, locked in and slowly squeezed the trigger. A lifetime of hunting, much of it with a ... READ MORE
Ordeal in Ohio
By Ed Waite
If Ernest Hemingway had met Donnie Wilson, Spencer Tracey might’ve played the role of a deer hunter instead of a fisherman. He’d have suffered rope burns from dragging a buck, instead of fighting a marlin. Oh, and the ending to Papa’s man-versus-nature tale would’ve been far happier. The only thing easy about Donnie’s ... READ MORE
Trading a Racquet for a Rack
By Mike Handley
Had 14-year-old Sabrina Nisly’s tennis practice not been canceled because of the rain on Sept. 13, 2012, she might have ended her first-ever deer season with a big fat “love.” But rain it did. And because her father, Joe, decided a few raindrops never hurt anybody, Sabrina wound up winning the world cup of deer hunting. Sabrina, a... READ MORE
Better than a Gold Watch
By Jill J. Easton
Prior to 2010, Kenneth Fields thought trail cameras weren’t fair. His words. But that was before serious back pain diminished the Kansas deer hunter’s trips afield. At the suggestion of his nephew, Jerry Smith, Kenneth reluctantly set out a camera over the mineral lick at the front end of his property. And the revelations rocked his wor... READ MORE
In Praise of Point-and-Shoots
By Ed Waite
Greg Deckling, like most bowhunters, realizes the importance of practice. If you can’t launch at least a few arrows prior to opening day, there’s really no point in going. Even if the sights are dead-on, it takes a little conditioning to be able to draw and hold a compound bow. The college junior has no place on campus to shoot his bow.... READ MORE
The Doghouse Buckmasters
By Mike Handley
Don Vinson might have been the happiest deer hunter in Georgia on Nov. 10, 2011, but he hated to share the news with his wife, Paula, who was sure to be the unhappiest. “We found him,” he stammered. “It’s Airplane.” Her buck. Don had shot her buck. He hadn’t set out to shoot that deer, the one Paula had claimed f... READ MORE
King Slayer
By Jill J. Easton
If Kyle Sims were ugly or mean, his might be the name affiliated with the biggest typical whitetail that hit the dirt in Kansas last season. Now he’ll have to marry his girlfriend, Rachelle Karl, if he wants to see that buck hanging on his wall. ‘“Go take a hunter safety course, and then we can go out.’ That’s what Kyl... READ MORE
How to Shush a Grumbling Stomach
By Mike Handley
Not saying anything was the hard part. Greg Murray looked from the buck to his 12-year-old son, Gunnar, and then back to the deer. Last season was only the boy’s third, so Greg wanted to reassure him, to calm him, or maybe to talk him through squeezing the trigger. At the very least, he wanted to point out that there were two bucks, and the o... READ MORE
Scope Full of Brown
By Mike Handley
A Black Belt Oldie Finally Gets Its Due! Old times there are forgotten. What the boll weevil started in this former land of cotton, plummeting corn and soybean prices surely finished. Since 1990, Perry County, Ala., has lost a full third of its job-hungry residents, and vast stretches of land, no longer farmed, are used to grow pine trees, catfish ... READ MORE
Location, Location, Location
By Mike Handley
Where you hunt is often more important than how high. Thirty-eight years of bowhunting whitetails has made James Yelton a bit squirrelly about scent control. So convinced that he’s the orange mist inside a riot cop’s spray can, the lone spud that sours an entire bag of potatoes, or the hapless “before” guy in a deodorant com... READ MORE
Dorothy I’m Not
By Jay Hickey
There’s no place like home and home wasn’t Kansas. Deer hunters with unfilled tags and two days left to fill them aren’t especially eager to see the great state of Kansas in their rearview mirrors. But when I realized southwest Arkansas was about to be hit by a rare southerly breeze, I couldn’t pack for home fast enough. Not... READ MORE
Phoning Ethan
By Mike Handley
Ethan Vinson might forever rue the day he chose not to sit in a ladder stand behind his father’s house in south Georgia. He suspected it the moment the telephone rang — too early on a Sunday morning to be a casual call and hello. He knew it the moment he heard the smile in the voice on the other end of the line. “How’s your ... READ MORE