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Fearing the Worst
By Lisa Price
Kentucky buck is presumed dead for 11 months before it actually dies. When the 13-pointer stopped mugging for Ashley Bugg’s trail camera in January 2012, the hunter from Corydon, Ky., assumed the deer he’d been watching for two seasons was dead. “In the last photograph I had of the buck, it looked to be in bad shape,” Ashley... READ MORE
Got Rack?
By Lisa Price
You probably do, if you hunt the Mississippi Delta, where big deer are as iconic as cotton, catfish and done-me-wrong songs. Andy Lloyd of Inverness, Miss., owns thousands of acres of some of the most fertile ground in North America. So whenever he has the deer hunting itch, scratching it is as easy as throwing a dart at map. But don’t count ... READ MORE
Success in the Sauna
By Mike Handley
Who wants to hunt deer when it’s 94 degrees in the shade? If you’re going to spend an afternoon in a deer stand when the mercury is pushing 100 degrees, you’d better keep the wind in your sweaty face. Bowhunter Jody Slingo knows this. Even though he could pinpoint — almost to the blade of grass —where an incredible buc... READ MORE
Rethinking the Hold-low Rule
By Ed Waite
Do today’s whisper-quiet bows and lightning-fast arrows render this bowhunting tenet obsolete? If Ryan Stolz hadn’t anticipated his buck’s ducking the string, a phrase that’s rightfully falling out of favor with the (compound) bowhunters who coined it, he might’ve had his mount a whole lot sooner. And he might’ve... READ MORE
Goddess of Urrpp
By Mike Handley
The cow that wasn’t responded to the grunt that wasn’t. Fifteen-year-old Wayne Navarro and his sister, Brooke, three years his junior, have grown accustomed to their mother’s noises. She does it in the kitchen, in the car, and on the living room sofa. If the urge comes, she tucks her chin and urrpps. And if she doesn’t like ... READ MORE
No Interpreter Needed
By Mike Handley
Whenever a doe becomes a bobble-head and closes sesame, you’d better be ready to shoot. When Jason Erb saw the bobble-headed doe tuck her tail and move off, he suspected the gesture wasn’t aimed at him or her two yearlings. It was Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013, too early in the year for her to shoo away her fawns and become a hussy, but not too ... READ MORE
Hello, Stranger!
By Rusty Johnson & Mike Handley
Okie sends son off to shoot the ‘big one,’ and comes home with a giant of his own. For all he knew, when Brooks Malone put on his orange cap and struck out with his rifle on Nov. 17, 2012, he might’ve been walking into a place as barren as the local high school’s football field. He’d given his visiting son, Tucker, dib... READ MORE
Take Two
By Rob Meade
Deer hunters almost never get a second chance at a world-class buck. Here’s why we say ALMOST. Stoked by trail cam photographs of an enormous buck he’d pulled in early October, Lear McCoy spent a lot of time aloft in 2012, hoping to put his sight pin on the whitetail with sweeping main beams, gnarly bases and backward kicker. In Novembe... READ MORE
Roving Whitetail Chooses Wrong Zip Code
By Ed Waite
Late-season bowhunt ends with a world record and a good cry. Long after most of Ohio’s deer hunters had either tagged out or quit because of the bone-chilling cold, 33-year-old Jim Cogar of Powell was still climbing into stands, hoping to see the rambling buck he’d been after since October. It was almost as if he couldn’t live wit... READ MORE
For Mississippians, Pike Still Peaking
By Jill J. Easton
If your heart’s set on steak, would you go to a fast-food drive-through? Finding a good place to hunt trophy whitetails can be difficult. For Matt Moore and his dad, Jimmy, the search for the perfect property spanned years. They traveled to several states and tried many outfitters without much success. But that was before they happened upon S... READ MORE
Who Needs Fanfare?
By Tom Hough
Here’s the buck nobody saw at the Iowa Deer Classic. When I first heard about Jason Chase’s buck, I was ogling several other world-class whitetails being measured behind the curtain at the 2013 Iowa Deer Classic. It seemed inconceivable that another deer of that caliber wasn’t even at the show (that it was hanging inside the Schee... READ MORE
Twice Aloft
By Dale Weddle
You’re either a deer hunter or a Soprano if your brother-in-law calls to say he killed Dave, and all you can say is “Woohoo!” It’s a good thing Nathaniel Yoder was sitting down when he viewed the images captured by his trail camera in August 2012. The Kentucky native had strapped the camera to a tree near a new mineral lick ... READ MORE
Term of EnDEERment
By Rusty Johnson
In a perfect world, we’d all have plenty of time to evaluate antlers. But is there such a place? Alberta deer guide Aaron Franklin will never forget the week he spent trying to make an Oklahoma hunter’s dream come true. The moment Devin Moore told Aaron, “Let’s go find a big ol’ buck,” the pace for the next six d... READ MORE
Trip Wire
By Ed Waite
If the llama’s looking, you’d better have more than a hammer in hand. After three years of playing cat and mouse with a warhorse of a buck, ’twas Gary Hornbeck who wore the Cheshire grin in 2012. Had it not been for an old wire fence, however, the normally surefooted whitetail might have won the day. At the very least, the deer hu... READ MORE
From the Land of She-Deer …
By Ed Waite
Unlike the monsters under beds and in closets, this Ohio buck is the real deal. When the McGuires go hunting, it’s more like grocery shopping. Ohio might be home to the country’s most prosperous taxidermists, and Mahoning might be one of the few counties even nonresident hunters are able to cite. But the public and neighboring ground th... READ MORE