Andrew McKean

Winter Kill

GerryBethge — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:31:54 -0400

Think you had it tough this winter? Think again. Yes, those trailers are full of dead deer.

The Lucky 13th

GerryBethge — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:02:38 -0500

Fifty-three hours. That’s how long I sat on a plastic deck chair inside a 4-by-4-foot ground blind, looking over the same 40 acres of Saskatchewan woods before I finally killed a buck on Friday.

This hunt for a big Canadian buck was the toughest hunting challenge of my life, and I hardly moved a muscle. Mentally straining, psychologically crushing, I sat in the same seat—actually two, since I moved blinds after the first two days in the field—for 12 hours a day straining to see a bruiser buck step out of the poplar forest.

Saskatchewan Giant Down

GerryBethge — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:15:12 -0500

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Finally, we've broken the seal on Saskatchewan bucks. After two days of all-day sits on stand, the four of us hunting together return to camp each evening a little dejected.

We've seen some decent bucks, but no clear-and-present shooters. Until tonight. Check out the photo of the bruiser that Jon LaCorte put down just as legal light faded this evening.

Long Odds in the Land of Lincoln

GerryBethge — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:07:04 -0500

I climbed down from my stand this morning after a 3-hour sit, my tag still intact and still in my pocket.

I had a pretty good buck—a heavy 3x4 with a bladed brow tine—come screaming to my rattling at first light. He ran, then walked directly beneath my stand on the timbered edge of a picked cornfield. I drew my bow, but I just couldn’t let an arrow go.

Bruiser In Sight...And Still Going

GerryBethge — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:52:10 -0500

I am not a patient hunter. I'm successful largely because I cover lots of ground and prepare to hike longer and farther and higher than the other guy. Make me mobile and '‚m going to get game.

So it's a special kind of torture for me to spend all day in a treestand, unable to get on the ground and make my own luck. We were told in our orientation here in Illinois that "walk-abouters" weren't tolerated here. And I understand it. We have so many folks on stand that if someone started meandering around the woods would screw everyone up.

Illinois, Land of the Grunt

outdoorlife-editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:42:04 -0500

I have heard whitetail bucks grunting only once before, and I thought it was pigs coming through the brush. Turned out to be a big Texas bruiser that blew past me so fast I couldn't swing my rifle.

Well, these Illinois bucks grunt like a whole pen full of hungry hogs. I heard three different grunts today during my 12 straight hours on stand. I grunted back to two of them, had them coming in, then they broke and disappeared in heavy brush. But the sound of that guttural, throaty roar will stay with me a long time.

Rut Kicking Off in Illinois

KristenKeys — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:25:21 -0500

It's starting, folks. The whitetail rut, that is.

I spent 12-1/2 hours on stand in some of the best big-buck country in America- Illinois' Brown County- and saw little bucks bird-dogging does, larger bucks intimidated by something I couldn't see up the ridge, and does starting to get good and squirrelly.

Albino Bear

KristenKeys — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:03:07 -0500

Amazing photos of an albino black bear found in Montana!

Illinois, Here I Come!

KristenKeys — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:38:18 -0500

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As I was hastily slicking meat off the second front quarter of a Milk River whitetail, I had a sudden epiphany.

Women want... hunters?

KristenKeys — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:22:34 -0400

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By a new measure of bliss, my wife should be ecstatic. So why does she glare at me so savagely as I pack my hunting bag?