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The Last Bull
By W. Gary Sitton
Veteran hunter cherished his last opportunity to act like a 10-year-old. My wife Judy and daughter Holly threw a big party to celebrate my upcoming 70th birthday, our 48th anniversary and a book I recently had published. More than 250 people attended the bash. One person I’d hoped to see was Michael Labrum, my elk guide for the last 14 years.... READ MORE
One of a Kind from Every Man’s Land
By Dale Weddle
Sometimes a guy just has to wade into the maddening crowd. Could access to 170,000 acres of public hunting ground cause you to move three or four states away? What if one of your first trail camera photographs from the area showed a 30-point buck? Those might not have been the reasons Jack Seppala packed his bags and moved from New Hampshire to Ken... READ MORE
Beast Between the Lakes
By Ed Waite
Sharing parking lots with fishermen and blood with ticks were small prices to pay in the 1970s for access to big deer in western Kentucky. Ask almost any bowhunter in Kentucky to name the country’s best deer hunter, and you’re going to get a slew of votes for David Howard. The proof, they say, is hanging inside the man’s home. Whi... READ MORE
Hunting and Hiding in Plain Sight
By John E. Phillips
When hunting eastern Colorado, you might have to cross your fingers and channel your inner reptile. Bill Lambert of West Monroe, Louisiana, never imagined he’d find himself belly-crawling with a weapon after leaving the military. But the old training came in handy while he was deer hunting in Kiowa County, Colorado, in December 2014. He and h... READ MORE
Between Balogna and 5-Year-Old Granola
By Tim Beck
This Hoosier bruiser ties the BTR’s world shotgun record, at least in composite score. “You shot my deer!” I heard someone exclaim as I sat in my treestand watching the steam rising from the nostrils of my freshly downed buck. I looked to my left and saw a moose of a man in camouflage. He crossed from his cornfield behind me onto ... READ MORE
Fool Me Thrice …
By Rusty Johnson
This Arkansas buck wasn’t the sharpest broadhead in the quiver. Because he has access to a friend’s 40 acres, Aaron Jolliff doesn’t have to travel far from home to hunt. He spotted a tremendous buck working a scrape in mid-October, 2011, well beyond bow range. The next week, he borrowed a friend’s muzzleloader, one he’d actu... READ MORE
Ode to a Little Brown Bottle
By Ed Waite
Still think laying down a scent trail is a waste of time? Mike Mallory has no qualms about stinking up his boots. As far as he’s concerned, drag rags are for wusses. The old trick of dousing his boots with doe-in-heat scent paid off handsomely last year for the bowhunter from Akron, Ohio. Going into the season, he might’ve known the pla... READ MORE
Bossier Behemoth Reshuffles Records
By Mike Handley
Here’s why Jon Black is a staunch believer in trail cameras. Going into Louisiana’s 2013 deer season, Jon Black and his son, Hunter, had a couple of bucks on their wish lists. They’d combed through thousands of trail camera photographs, and those two towered above the rest. Hunter wound up taking one of the 1,200-acre farm’s... READ MORE
Joy in Mudville
By Dale Weddle
Kentucky bowhunter avoids strikeout by whacking a home run on his third and final pitch. David Howard had a small window, the last three days in October, to bowhunt his lease in Todd County. He couldn't have chosen a better time. Not only were bucks chasing does, but they were also fighting for the privilege. It wasn't until David had reluctantly d... READ MORE
Driver’s Seat
By John E. Phillips
If you pay attention to deer tracks on dirt roads, you might see their makers. Bobby Cook’s days of shedding boot leather to look for buck sign are long gone, but that doesn’t seem to have hindered the 66-year-old deer hunter from Carbon Hill, Ala. Ever since he and his motorcycle were struck by a hit-and-run driver in 1974, Bobby - par... READ MORE
Sure Thing
By Dale Weddle
There’s a reason “location-location-location” has become a cliché among deer hunters. Unless they happen to stumble through when the brushed-in pop-up blind is in place, most deer hunters would walk right on past Greg Reinhardt’s honey hole, forfeiting what the man from Alexandria, Ky., says is a sure shot at a deer. ... READ MORE
The I-Can’t-Sing-The-Blues BLUES
By Billy Arnold
How a Tennessee giant stole the cry out of this country singer’s voice … I began putting out minerals and corn and set up a few trail cameras on the small piece of property I hunt in Tennessee in May 2013. In July, I collected images of two very nice bucks, followed by another photo that made me forget them. As soon as I saw that third... READ MORE
From WOW to BLAM in Two Minutes
By Dale Weddle
Kyle Robertson’s rushed quarter-mile hike was a lot faster going than coming. Kyle Robertson now knows what all the fuss is about. His best friend, James Boley, already knew, which is why Kyle took up hunting a couple of years ago. “Before that, I’d hunted a little bit, but nothing serious,” said the 23-year-old. “Jame... READ MORE
Third Time’s the Charm
By Bill Robinson
They say you’re supposed to stay out of a buck’s bedroom, but this tale defies all logic. Back in October 2012, a friend who works for me at the Clay Center, Kan., Police Department (I’m the chief) sent me a text message, saying he’d arrowed a moose of a whitetail. The word moose wasn’t an adjective; it was a nickname,... READ MORE
Under the Cover of Snowness
By Darren Warner
Mother Nature Photoshopped this Michigan hunter’s “doe.” Jeff Toy of Dowagiac, Mich., sat motionless on a red bucket near the edge of a cut cornfield. Snow blew across the field from left to right, not quite a whiteout, but far from snow-globe calm. Spindrift pelted his face, while white powder collected on his snow camouflage jac... READ MORE