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Deer experts have documented that some foods are highly attractive to whitetails, some not so attractive, and some they just don’t like. They also know that deer food preferences vary from deer to deer and region to region. See if you agree.
 | An Early Rut?The fall buck shuffle is heating up! Check out this activity around one scrape last... |
 | Rut Myth BustersWhat you don't know about the rut. |
 | Best Trail Cam PixTrail cameras catch the darndest things sometimes. Check out Moultrie's trail cam... |
 | The Freak Show!Why have giant non-typicals become the norm for big bucks? Four types of non-typicals... |
 | First Strike SpotsWhitetail deer hunting season is six weeks away (or less) in many parts of the nation.... |
 | Road HazardLate winter is prime time for wildlife/vehicle collisions |
Word just in on this awesome muley deer...Taken during the Idaho muzzleloader season (Unit 45), it is said to be the new state record. [ Read Full Post ]
I’m heading off to Canada next week for a Saskatchewan whitetail hunt and pretty quickly settled on bringing a lever gun with me. Took my Marlin 336C in .35 Remington out yesterday to get my new scope dialed in (and an interesting little scope it is too…more on that later) and after I got it on paper I cranked off this 5-shot group. [ Read Full Post ]
New York turkey camp was pretty much history. Handshakes, photos, and good wishes all around; many of the guys were heading off to hunt Ohio turkeys; problem is, we still had a little gas left in our tanks, Daryl and I did. And a couple New York tags to spare. A plan was hatched. [ Read Full Post ]
With the quality deer management philosophy so solidly ingrained in today’s hunter’s mind, the old “if it’s brown, it’s down” approach for more and more hunters is becoming a thing of the past. I make no judgment on whichever approach you choose to pursue or to what degree you make those decisions on your own land or lease. As for myself, I suppose I have shot enough deer and see enough in a season that I am more than content to let the “little ones walk” with the rightful hope that they will grow into bigger deer—the tagging of which is always a thrill to any hunter. A big set of antlers is truly one of nature’s most awe-inspiring works of art.
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CANDOR, NY—New York’s first modern wild turkey hunting season commenced back in the fall of 1959. Spring hunts didn’t begin until 1968. Pete Clare of Turkey Trot Acres wanted to honor that inaugural hunt 50 years later.
No blinds, decoys or as Clare says, “supersonic-hearing enhancers,” would be permitted. Vintage shotguns were highly approved of. While Realtree and Mossy Oak camouflage could be found on vests, boots, seat cushions and even guns, nostalgic retro garb was strongly encouraged. [ Read Full Post ]
Proving that you’re never too old to hunt, 90-year-old Delores Wilhelms got her buck for the second straight year. The Wisconsin granny connected on a 9-point buck earlier this month using a crossbow. Last year, after sitting out hunting for years after her husband passed away, Wilhelms’ neighbor, Ron Haessly, helped the woman return to the woods. She was successful in her initial return to the woods taking a buck with her crossbow then as well. The feat earned Wilhelms a write-up in the pages of Outdoor Life.
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These photos have just come in—two giant bucks reportedly from Nebraska. Can't hardly believe the size of the buck's rack in the back of that pickup truck! It looks more like a moose. Details as they come in.
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In a story from: www.spinner.com
A teenage folk singer was attacked and killed by two coyotes in a national park in eastern Canada.
Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked while she was hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands Park, Nova Scotia, when she was attacked by two of the animals on Tuesday. She died of her wounds on Wednesday. [ Read Full Post ]
Way back in 1962, when the world of trophy deer hunting was a far more innocent place, a Nebraska bowhunter by the name of Del Austin arrowed a buck that today still stands as the biggest non-typical ever taken with bow and arrow. Many giant non-typicals have come along over the years, but this huge whitetail just might give the Del Austin buck a run for its money.
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Reports of giant bucks are streaming in to the Big Buck Zone. We promise to post photos and stories at any hour of the day or night as we receive them. Here's a great story out of Kentucky.
Anyone who has ever picked up a bow or climbed into a treestand has dreamed about running into an absolute monster during deer season. All of us have envisioned a bruiser with heavy mass and super long tines. Unfortunately, for many hunters this type of buck only shows up during an occasional dream or distracting thought. However, sometimes things just magically fall into place and a distant dream suddenly becomes a reality. This is exactly what happened to a young hunter named Michaella Monroe during Kentucky’s 2009 youth season. Monroe was able to come face to face with a buck that would make any veteran deer hunter’s heart skip a few beats. This young lady kept her cool and was able to drop the hammer on a jaw-dropping... [ Read Full Post ]
A cool story from former OL contributor Chris Niskanen on the Pioneer Press’ twincities.com, but after finding a set of huge shed antlers early in 2007, Minnesota hunter Michael Versland became obsessed with hunting the deer.
The high school biology teacher set out to take the buck with bow and arrow, spotting it twice in 07 and then again the following year. Unfortunately, none of those encounters panned out. In that time, he managed to find the buck’s increasingly large sheds and even captured the monster a few times on his trail camera. [ Read Full Post ]
Trick or treat? Saturday October 31 marks the start of Pennsylvania's 2009 fall turkey season. I hunted its rolling north-central ridges and hardwood hollows as a teen, and as a road-tripping adult from my New England home base. Good memories.
So what's in store for this season? The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) is expecting hunters to encounter a sizeable wild turkey population when they head afield on Halloween's opening day. According to sources, this autumn's abundant acorn crop may make finding flocks more difficult than last year, as widespread food souces tend to disperse turkeys. Most acorns are of the red oak group, as white oaks tend to be scarce in some areas of the state.
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I’m in the Sooner State this week going after a big Oklahoma whitetail with a Thompson/Center muzzleloader and so far while I’ve had some close calls, I’ve yet to seal the deal. It’s my first muzzleloader hunt in a couple of years and I have to admit to being excited about getting to trade out my bow for a few days here in October. [ Read Full Post ]
I'm sure some of you have heard of hunting Indian reservations and maybe a few of you have tried it for turkeys or possibly prairie dogs. Have you thought about hunting them for big game? I just returned from a big game hunt in South Dakota where we hunted whitetails on tribal lands. The hunting was great and South Dakota, like several Great Plains states, has several reservations within its borders to choose from for deer action.
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These photos are flying across the Internet this week and if they haven’t landed on your screen yet your friends are holding out. This monster whitetail buck was bowkilled last week in central Minnesota, more specifically on the Camp Ripley military facility (www.minnesotanationalguard.org). Information is sketchy, but the buck supposedly has 32 points (all may not be scoreable) and weighed 192 pounds.
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You get 25 points just for taking the time to read this post when you could be out setting trail cams for whitetails.
You know there’s a difference between a hen yelp and a gobbler yelp. Add 5 points. You regard opportunities for all the other upland birds as secondary when compared to running your canine hunting partner on fall flocks where legal. Add 10 bonus points. Five more if you own more than one dog and hunt multiple fall turkey states. [ Read Full Post ]
The day I was to leave for Alaska to tape the last episode of the season for my show, The Best and Worst of Tred Barta on Versus, I woke up with a gimpy left leg. My toes had no power, and I could lift my leg only halfway up. I went to my doctor who immediately ordered an MRI.
Shortly thereafter, my problem worsened, prompting me to drive straight to the emergency room.
Approximately six hours later, I lay on a gurney, paralyzed from the waist down.
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There may be some argument among National Football League faithful, but probably no pro football fan base includes more hunters and shooters than the Green Bay Packers. Where else but Lambeau Field can as much camouflage and blaze orange garb be seen in the stadium on a Sunday afternoon? [ Read Full Post ]
Last season, my son James Travis Faulkner, almost shot the biggest buck he had ever encountered in the woods during our state’s two day youth season. However, the sneaky old veteran was able to slip through the thick cover without offering my boy an ethical shot. For the next few months, this particular buck was the main topic of discussion at my house. James stuck with that deer for the remainder of the season, but the buck went into stealth mode and was not seen again. [ Read Full Post ]
Over the past few months, I’ve been suffering from withdrawal as a diehard deer hunter. The spring turkey season was great, but there is still nothing that gets my heart pumping more than the sight of a heavy-racked buck during the fall of the year. Recently, I hit the road for an early-season bowhunt in Illinois with an admittedly itchy trigger finger. During the first evening of my hunt, the wind just about blew my cameraman and me out of the tree. However, before dark the wind died off enough to make the deer start moving a little. I was hunting a patch of white oaks that bordered the edge of a soybean field surrounded by a lot of thick cover. The area was hot with fresh sign, which really made my heart rate jump up a few notches.
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Few gun fanciers would argue that the Remington Model 870 pump shotgun is worthy of the moniker, “America’s Shotgun.” The fact is, one would be hard-pressed to find a devotee of upland bird hunting, gunning diabolical doves or chasing bunnies with beagles who doesn’t have a favorite Model 870 for such sporting pastimes. [ Read Full Post ]
Ohio’s fall turkey season opened Saturday, October 10, Columbus Day weekend. According to one source though, the turkey hatch is down for the state.
“Summer brood observations suggest a below average wild turkey hatch this year,” reports Mike Reynolds, state biologist. “In addition, acorn crops were highly variable across Ohio this fall. In areas with poor acorn production, hunters may have more success locating turkeys around agricultural fields rather than hardwood ridges.”
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The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s veterinary consultant this week recommended the statewide prohibition of scents and attractants utilizing deer urine in an effort to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease into The Keystone State. [ Read Full Post ]
Four days in the stand last week in northern Missouri turned out to be more of a clinic on how to manage land, control human scent and grow amazingly big deer than on how to actually kill one of those big deer. Though that was no fault of my host, David Forbes, of Hunter’s Specialties.
He sprayed me down with bottles of Scent-Away and delivered me via silent-running golf cart to a number of well-placed stands on his Show-Me-State property. In those four days of hunting, I saw no less than five bucks that were clearly the biggest I had ever seen from a stand and well over a dozen, any of which had I been lucky enough to tag, would have been counted among my best deer with a bow or a gun! And in the spirit of full disclosure, I had at least a half dozen bucks that I could have arrowed (and one that I should have), all of which would have... [ Read Full Post ]
A Fort St. John, British Colombia bowhunter saved his bacon last week by plunging one of his hunting arrows into the neck of an attacking grizzly bear at his Kechika River hunting camp.
The action began when Rory Chapple, 39, heard the telltale huffing sounds of an agitated grizzly bear coming toward him. Though he was armed with his hunting bow, there was no time to nock an arrow, much less draw, aim and fire. [ Read Full Post ]
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