Deer & Deer Hunting

The buck showed up just like that. I mean BAM! There he was, right in front of me, standing within bow-range, head up and strutting like a home run champion. I really didn’t have time to think about how big this buck was. I just snatched my bow off t

@NATELQ: I shot a doe at 63 yards years ago. Lucky shot and she died in sight. Thirty-five seems to be a stretch nowadays with heavier arrow setup. @MVICTORINO: Too many things can happen past 40 yards … so that’s my limit. @STUCZYNSKIBOBBY: Farthest

Humans habitually underestimate other humans. That’s why underdogs can be winners and that’s why people with disabilities often surprise us. Christopher Reichart of Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enthusiastic 26-year-old white-tailed deer hunter.

• Our annual Whitetail Calendar is the perfect gift for the deer hunter on your list (or for yourself!). • The new 2022 Whitetail Calendar®features the incredible photography and rut predictions of Charles Alsheimer. Use it to plan your vacation days

It was Election Day 2004, and as always, I took the day off to do my civic duty and vote. It’s tough giving up a premium rut-phase morning hunt, but I do it every two years because I believe nobody has the right to complain about politics if they don

For a hunter, short of laying your hands on the antlers of the buck you’ve been chasing, few things bring as much joy as an SD card or app update full of photos of deer. Big bucks, bucks with potential, doe groups, it doesn’t matter really. Seeing de

• HOW-TO TACTICS TO HELP IMPROVE THE OUTCOME OF YOUR DEER HUNT • 7 OUT OF 10 READERS DO NOT READ ANY OTHER DEER HUNTING MAGAZINE! • GAIN INSIGHT INTO THE BEHAVIOR AND BIOLOGY OF WHITE-TAILED DEER • CHOOSE THE FORMAT THAT SUITS YOU: PRINT, DIGITAL OR

If nothing else is working, sometimes you gotta give something else a try. This happened a long time ago. But the chance taken and lesson learned have been used to the demise of many an Upper Midwestern whitetail ever since. It was the third or fourt

Every species has a dispersal phase in its life cycle, wherein the young tend to leave their birth range and establish a new adult home range. Among whitetails, yearling bucks are more likely to disperse, and travel greater distances, as compared to

Do you like frozen fingers and drippy noses? Wearing so many layers you look like a Packers nose tackle? Driving on roads slicker than a greased pig? Me, either. And yet, I often consciously put myself into that position for one simple reason – deer

Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, hunters have been flocking to Midwestern states in pursuit of giant-bodied and antlered deer. Some people hunt with outfitters, own or lease land, knock on doors, and even hunt public lands. Regardless, everyone

I don’t have to close my eyes. Or hold my breath. I know everything is going to be downright gorgeous any time my flight touches down in Rapid City or, in this case, the rental car’s tires roll onto the U.S. Hwy 14 exit in Beulah, Wyoming, just over

My father, a man of good sense and few words, was the first one to relay to me long ago the importance of a sharp knife to the deer hunter’s and home butcher’s kit. “It gets the job done better and easier,” he told me as we would work on our knives t

Recently, I polled hundreds of people on reasons adults hang up their hunting gear. After receiving responses from hundreds of past and present hunters, and dozens of unique responses, it became apparent just how many reasons and excuses there are fo

When the breeding phase of the rut winds down, most bucks are physical wrecks. This is especially true in a deer herd where does outnumber bucks or in a herd where competition to breed is intense. Fortunately for bucks, nature comes to their rescue.

Brandon Wikman began hunting at the age of 12, which at the time, was the legal age limit in Wisconsin. The older he got, the more he enjoyed hunting. Like many whitetail enthusiasts, he quickly warmed to bowhunting, and that became his true passion.

When Jim Kempf of Scorpyd Crossbows filed his patent application for the reverse-draw crossbow back in September, 2004, I wonder if he knew just how this design would revolutionize crossbow hunting? His may not have been the first – there are some un

Many hunting rifles have a few upgrades that make them better for long-range shooting without radically new styling, and one of those is the new Browning X-Bolt Hunter Long Range, a turn-bolt rifle that includes a wood stock with an adjustable comb a

When it comes to managing the standing stock of whitetails in one’s area, hunting in a low-impact, high-odds manner is highly advised. That sounds great and all, but how does one do that? What follows is why and how to identify them. Right out the ga

The season had grown so long I had trained a mouse to follow a bread trail right into my blind. I’m not kidding. During opening morning, I had heard the slightest scratching sound and glanced down, where immediately outside my blind I caught a fleeti