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Entries for April 2020
Iowa’s Latest Colossus
By Mike Handley
For two years, Jacob Darbyshire invested countless hours hunting a giant whitetail he’d nicknamed Major League. Before Oct. 29, 2019, the closest he came was looking at trail camera images. Their first in-the-flesh meeting did not go well for the deer. Two days before Halloween, Jacob and a friend, Bryan Bockes, went out to hang a new stand a... READ MORE
Detour for Deer
By Mike Handley
Ryan Boyer can thank his wife and the road department for the incredible whitetail he arrowed in 2019. The first two weeks of Ohio’s bow season were scorchers, so hot that Ryan went afield only twice. Hunting when the thermometer reads in the 90s might be fine for Floridians, but Buckeye State deer self-quarantine until after dark. On Oct. 16... READ MORE
Knock, Knock … No Joke
By Mike Handley
When he was a tyke, Tyler Gladu might’ve been told not to talk to strangers. But that was then, obviously. Now 27, he’s fearless when it comes to striking up conversations with people he’s never met, or at least that’s the case when he stands to gain permission to hunt where he’s seen a world-class whitetail. His boldn... READ MORE
Post-op, Ohio-style
By Mike Handley
While many patients about to go under the knife worry about waking up, Ohio’s Jeff Mason was worried about missing his 2019 deer season, and that was the least of it. Jeff underwent lung surgery Aug. 1. “I was very apprehensive about the operation, knowing it might end my hunting forever,” he told Ed Waite, who’s writing the... READ MORE
If you hear dirt hitting leaves ...
By Mike Handley
Clark Campbell doesn’t mind stepping into the shower in the middle of the day, especially if he knows he’ll be in a deer stand 15 or 20 minutes after toweling himself dry. The 23-year-old from Guthrie, Oklahoma, doesn’t hunt where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. He goes to a friend’s acorn-rich 9 acres in the (... READ MORE
Who Bowhunts from the Ground?
By Mike Handley
Minutes before Dillon Boone pushed himself up from the ground in order to get a shot at the monstrous whitetail sauntering into bow range, he’d been stewing over brother Taylor’s suggestion they hunt together, sitting only feet apart. Dillon had reluctantly agreed. In his opinion, they’d be too vulnerable, too easily seen and smel... READ MORE