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Missouri Guy Gets His Groove Back
By Mike Handley
Ever stand in front of a classroom full of little deers, look down, and realize you’re naked (or might as well be)? Being busted by a button buck can wreck a deer hunter’s self-confidence. When this happened to Danny Boyer last season, the bowhunter from DeSoto, Mo., realized he had to change something about his setup, and none too soon... READ MORE
Switch-hitter
By Lisa Price
Sliding a shotgun stock over to your off-shoulder can mean the difference in shooting or not shooting. For more than two decades, the only people who saw Roy Smith’s deer mount were those who happened by his office inside the Perry County, Ill., highway department. It hadn’t been measured by anyone, never appeared in a record book and, ... READ MORE
Why Randy Brown Wants His Stand Back
By Dale Weddle
Kentucky’s early bow season offers grand opportunities at bucks still in velvet. Just ask Nick Brown. Nick Brown thought he’d caught a break when the buck passed behind a tree, which allowed him to draw his Mathews Drenalin. But that was before the animal stopped, forcing the 28-year-old bowhunter to hold both string and breath. Nick wa... READ MORE
No Walk in the Park
By Dale Weddle
The road to the taxidermist is sometimes pocked with potholes. If a relative shoots the buck you’ve been bowhunting, and then a power line crew armed with chainsaws moves in right on top of your hunting spot, would you chalk it up as a busted season? Jeff Osborne thought about it, but he just couldn’t bear spending Kentucky’s 2013... READ MORE
And It Wasn't Even Public Land!
By Mike Handley
Anyone who can remain in his stand after this kind of morning deserves a crack or three at a decent buck. Turning one's last vacation day and shelling out for a nonresident hunting license and deer tag are small prices to pay for a much-needed change of scenery. But when a frustrated Jesse Ferree paid that price in 2012, he got more of the same. Th... READ MORE
Ten-Gallon Rack
By Mike Handley
Eric Minter’s buck wasn’t the smoothest of talkers. Either that, or it was just looking for love in all the wrong places. When the 31-pointer strolled into the white oak flat where several does were snuffling up breakfast on Oct. 19, 2009, when it opened its mouth to perhaps announce its intentions, the long-faced Ya-Yas went berserk. T... READ MORE
What a Difference a Year Makes
By Mike Handley
When this south Georgia whitetail began packing on antler, it didn’t have to start from scratch. Mature bucks’ antlers might grow a half-inch or more a day during the spring and summer months, but that doesn’t mean they’ll double in size from one year to the next. After all, unless they’re on the downswing, whitetails ... READ MORE
Hiding in Plain Sight
By Mike Handley
Riflemen have the advantage in a land of few trees. It might be impossible to determine the extent of one deer’s effect upon the economy in Republic County, Kan., a couple of years ago, but there’s no doubt a substantial amount of cash changed hands when photographs of the animal hit the Internet. An influx of nonresidents hungry to lea... READ MORE
Canada’s King of the Hill
By Gerald Almy
Many years have passed since an Alberta teenager channeled his inner reptile and set a record that hasn’t been toppled. When Neil Morin was a teenager in 1991, there was precious little time for anything outside of school and helping out around the family farm near Whitemud Creek, Alberta. The 17-year-old could go deer hunting, but chores alw... READ MORE
Squirrel’s-Eye View
By Ed Waite
Widow takes late husband’s advice, climbs rungs for chance at photogenic whitetail. Unlike the dinosaurs in the “Jurassic Park” movies, unlike the great white shark in “Jaws,” and unlike the brawls between TV’s professional wrestlers (with apologies to believers), the buck whose photograph appeared on Shawn and N... READ MORE
Facebook Surprise
By Ed Waite
Now you’ll know why Mike McCabe almost kept this story to himself. Mike McCabe had great expectations for the 2013 season. For the first time in several years, there were TWO bucks — not one — on his radar. He’d nicknamed them Stickers and Muley. Muley chased a doe past his stand in 2012. But it had broken off more than half... READ MORE
Much to be Said for Autopilot
By Dale Weddle
From zero to 60 in a matter of seconds describes not only a muscle car’s acceleration, but it also applies to this Kentucky rattler’s 2013 deer season. The huge buck charged out of the honeysuckle with ears laid back, looking for a fight. There was no time for Dustin Shaffer to think, certainly not for him to evaluate antlers. He barely... READ MORE
Have Trail Camera, Will Hunt
By Dale Weddle
Scouting a year in advance gives this Kentuckian plenty of dream fuel. Tim Lauer of California, Ky., might have punched his only 2011 deer tag long before Thanksgiving, but he was unwilling to spend the year’s longest weekend indoors. Curious to see what sort of bucks might be roaming at least one of the two Campbell County farms he hunts, Ti... READ MORE
Hoodwinkle
By Mike Handley
Virginia Buck has 31 4/8-inch Spread! For as long as people have had the ability to post and view photographs over Al Gore’s Internet, deer hunters have tried hoodwinking their buddies. Such pranks have almost become the world’s largest caption contest, in which it’s not uncommon to see the same photo of a giant buck that, accordi... READ MORE
Pushing a Buck’s Buttons
By Lisa Price
Wayne Waldo’s nephew, Robert Bowman, thought he was crazy for trying to squeeze in a deer hunt with only a couple of hours of daylight remaining on Nov. 12, 2012. “By the time you get out there, you’re just going to spook everything,” Robert warned his uncle, not even mentioning the 16-mph wind, 30-mph gusts and mid-30s temp... READ MORE