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Thanks, Betsy
By John E. Phillips
Ohio’s January muzzleloader season pays off. As 52-year-old Mike Stanoikovich sat waiting for sunrise in his deer blind, he asked a departed friend for a favor. “Come on, Betsy. Send me a good buck, because I’m having a lousy season,” he asked the landowner’s late wife, who’d died the previous spring. Betsy used ... READ MORE
Skipping Breakfast
By Lisa Price
Driving 25 hours is a small price to pay for a hunt where giant deer can’t control their raging hormones. Ten days into their 12-day Minnesota hunt in 2010, Gary Holland was the only Texan who hadn’t burned his nonresident tag. The group had enjoyed a great time to that point. On the ninth day, Gary’s brother, David, bagged the bi... READ MORE
Counting Eggs
By Mike Handley
Who says there aren’t any sure bets in the deer woods? Counting unhatched chickens isn’t always a bad thing. The moon, wind and the following day’s weather forecast convinced Trent Siegle to take advantage of a temporary south breeze on Oct. 11, 2016, to check his trail cameras. An approaching front promised rain and cooler temper... READ MORE
How’s This for a First?
By Ed Waite
After taking a nearly 20-year hiatus from hunting, this Ohio man returns to the woods and brings home more than sausage. For some reason he can no longer remember, Gary Douglas quit hunting in 1997. Before that, he enjoyed accompanying family members in West Virginia. “We had a two-story cabin built with hewn logs. It was always filled with f... READ MORE
Priorities
By Alex Omid Soltani
Tennessee bowhunter rewarded after fleeing stand to attend his son's birth. I've been enjoying reading Rack magazine for many years, and I finally got a buck of lifetime and would like to share the story. I first saw this deer in 2019 when he was a 130-ish, tall 8-pointer with a unicorn that split. He broke off the unicorn point and another tine th... READ MORE
Deer with Six Names
By Ed Waite
Local legend’s demise sends ripples from Ohio to Maine. Rumors of a gargantuan buck roaming public land began circulating in Ross County, Ohio, in 2013. Next came trail camera photographs of the deer that earned half a dozen nicknames. Marcus Peecher of Frankfort was among many bowhunters who dreamed of arrowing the deer, but he was less opti... READ MORE
Bulletproof ... NOT!
By Dale Weddle
Four misses in three years not enough to send this buck packing. Seventeen-year-old Jacob Murphy made his second shot count, even if he had to wait a year and change weapons to do it. The Kentucky teenager took his first poke at the enormous 6x6 during the 2015 muzzleloading season. His second chance came during the next year’s modern rifle s... READ MORE
Wake-Up Call
By Mike Handley
Missouri girl’s first deer will require a load-bearing wall. Had it not been for her older brother Chase’s coaxing, 12-year-old Brit Looney would’ve gladly let the curtain drop on Missouri’s late-October youth season without firing a shot. Now the sixth-grader from Higginsville, Missouri, has one less bullet for her .243. &l... READ MORE
Deer... Buck... SHOOTER!
By Mike Handley
Arkansas man didn’t need to look at this buck’s chest, back or belly before squeezing the trigger. The seven members of Ryan Keeter’s hunting club decided a long time ago to pass up young bucks. As a result, they not only see more deer, but they have also become adept at spotting the differences between juvenile and mature whiteta... READ MORE
Deer in the Drink
By Ed Waite
Don’t listen to people who say scrape hunting is overrated. Even if you have to build it, they will come. Three days into his state’s 2016 archery season, Arthur Zerbe of Denver, Pennsylvania, refused to let the thermometer keep him from deer hunting. He’d decided to spend the afternoon of Sept. 20 on a 500-acre estate in deer-ric... READ MORE
Building a Better Deer Trap
By Dale Weddle
Don’t listen to people who say scrape hunting is overrated. Even if you have to build it, they will come. Just when Hunter Jones was convinced his mock scrape would never yield a photo of a decent buck, the 19-year-old got the surprise of his life. Hunter created the scrape and left a trail camera pointing at it around Oct. 1, 2016. He never ... READ MORE
Making Do
By John E. Phillips
When one door closes, another one opens. William Hedges’ hastily arranged trip north of the border in 2016 got off to a rocky start, but sitting on his heels for an hour inside a chair-less box blind was a small price to pay for the biggest whitetail he’d ever seen. The hunter from Pine Plains, New York, hadn’t planned to go to Sa... READ MORE
Making the Neighbors Cry
By Duncan Dobie
This Mississippi buck ran out of lives when it crossed paths with a lady wearing an ugly hat. Susie Taylor set her sights on an incredible 6-pointer during Mississippi’s 2015 season, but things didn’t turn out the way she’d hoped. Susie had hunted the unusual buck for several years. And she was ready to cross the 3x3 off her wish ... READ MORE
The Best and Worst of Times
By Ed Waite
No Ohio deer hunter worth his salt stays indoors when the mercury falls in October. Cheyenne Elliott of Frankfort, Ohio, regards Oct. 21, 2016, as possibly the worst day he’s ever set out to shoot a deer, but he has no regrets. “I had to get out there,” he said. “The weather was changing in a major way, and I just knew the d... READ MORE
Happy Ending
By Louis Locke
The perfect salve for losing a deer is to get another, even bigger one. My 2015 deer season got off to a rough start. My first — and what should’ve been my last — time in a stand that year was the evening of Oct. 1, earlier than I usually hunt. Trail camera photographs prompted me to jump-start the season. I’d planted a food... READ MORE