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If It Feels Right ...
By William Sawyer
Trust your instincts when you think you’ve made a great shot. During the 2014 archery season in Guilford County, North Carolina, I had found a large rub while putting out some corn. It looked like a great place to set up, but I didn’t want to hunt it until conditions were perfect. On the second Saturday of the season, I asked my wife to... READ MORE
Cactus Ugly
By Mary Bostwick
When I climbed into my treestand in Screven County, Ga., on Nov. 17, 2012, I couldn’t have predicted my hunt would end by taking a buck with one of the most unusual set of antlers I’ve ever seen. I’d been sitting in my stand about 30 minutes when a young spike appeared. Ten minutes later, I saw what appeared to be a deer disappear... READ MORE
Forged in Fire
By Tim Kamats
Hunting bonds between father and child can never be broken. In life we are allotted just so many opportunities to create bonds that stand the test of time. Hunting with my daughter Xaura proved to be one such opportunity. At the tender age of 10, Xaura and I started talking about her accompanying me through the woods in search of the ever-elusive P... READ MORE
Velvet Surprise
By David M. Cole
I wasn’t a white-tailed deer hunter until I met Donna Shuman at Georgia Southern University. The first time I traveled to her hometown to meet her family, I was instructed to go to their hunting club. I arrived just after dark, just in time to see my future wife dragging a nice buck under a fence.
After we were married, I became an avid deer... READ MORE
How To End a Season
By Miranda Cheatham
Every hunting season since I was 2 years old, my dad and I have traveled from our home in Niceville, Fla., to Macon County, Alabama. It had been four years since I was able to take a nice buck worthy of mounting.
This year I had a new gun handed down to me, a 1980s Browning BAR .270. I had been letting small bucks walk until the rut hit. Then, on ... READ MORE
Kansas Has a New Hunter!
By Derrick Schreiber
Two years ago, my son Bryce wanted to try deer hunting. At age nine, he wasn’t quite strong enough to draw poundage adequate for bowhunting, so we chose a rifle.
During several outings, Bryce endured some very cold and harsh Midwest winter conditions, but he fared much better than I’d expected.
On our first rifle hunt, he passed on a ... READ MORE
Back to Basics
By Christopher Kunkel
Michigan bowhunter can’t resist the call to return to archery’s roots.
My archery journey started about 18 years ago. Like most new archers, I was introduced to bowhunting through other archers, in my case it was coworkers.
My first bow was a used Browning compound with 60 percent letoff. The draw length was 3 inches longer than it sh... READ MORE
From Sinkhole to Cloud Nine
By Mat Ritchison
On a cold and frosty Sunday morning, Nov. 3, 2013, I decided to hunt one of my favorite stands about 40 yards from the edge of a half-picked, Indiana cornfield. I was aloft 20 minutes before dawn.
Shortly after daybreak, I decided to start things off with an aggressive rattling sequence – to paint the deer a picture. I grunted three times, p... READ MORE
No Limits
By Bonnie Olson King
New hunter overcomes challenges to claim her first buck. The 2015 hunting season turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I was 64 at the time and had only taken up hunting in 2012, when I retired from my nursing career due to significant health issues. That fall, I received a crossbow for my birthday, and that was when h... READ MORE
It’s Not Just a Buck, It’s an Adventure
By Jessica R. Cain | LaFollette, Tenn.
The hunting bug bit late, but awfully hard for this Tennessee huntress. Even though I grew up in a hunting family, I didn’t get bit by the bug until 2015. That year on Thanksgiving day, I tagged my very first deer, an 8-pointer. But it wasn’t until the next hunting season when I tagged a 10-pointer that it really hit me. The day after T... READ MORE