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Hunting Naked, Unintentionally
By Mike Handley
While some people might have nightmares about addressing a full classroom or coworkers while butt-naked, Tony Brown is more apt to dream about facing a distant buck without a grunt call in his possession. Only Tony’s dream actually happened last season.
While eyeballing what very well could’ve been the biggest whitetail known to exis... READ MORE
Why Mom-in-law’s Christmas Party Started Late
By Mike Handley
Brandy Nedolast got her Christmas present three days early in 2024, and it wasn’t even wrapped.
Until afterward, for the freezer.
On Sunday, Dec. 22, the last day of Ohio’s rifle season, the 31-year-old maintenance clerk and her husband, Nathan, decided to spend the remains of the day in a deer stand before taking their three children... READ MORE
Fake News
By Mike Handley
Word travels fast among deer hunters, but the news, while plausible, isn’t always reliable.
When Carson Heskett and his childhood friend Reid Hopson heard that a bodacious buck had been hit by a car close to where Reid hunts, they assumed the deer two years at the top of his wish list was no longer in the offing. Death by Ford would certai... READ MORE
Never a Dull Moment
By Mike Handley
Basketball legend Michael Jordan once said, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, (and) others make it happen.”
A group of deer hunters in Crawford County, Ohio, has adopted the latter as their mantra, and they gained a new convert in 2024.
Kendall Adkinson joined his girlfriend’s father’s group of fri... READ MORE
Making Hay While School’s Out
By Mike Handley
Fourteen-year-old Hunter Windsor needs an eighth day of the week whenever he’s aching to trade football and baseball gear for camouflage. The high school freshman from West Portsmouth, Ohio, otherwise finds little time to indulge his love of deer hunting.
“I don’t get to hunt as much as other people do,” he laments.
Th... READ MORE
Impromptu Hunt Yields More Than Jerky
By Mike Handley
Prior to Nov. 23, Josh Edwards’ sons regarded deer hunting as little more than a very slim chance to shoot something bigger than the small game inhabiting the five acres surrounding their home in Fairland, Indiana.
Now, every time the family passes a copse of trees, the youngest pleads for his father to stop and ask the landowner for permi... READ MORE
The Not-Squirrel That Didn’t Get Away
By Mike Handley
Chase Aldridge spent more time looking at deer he couldn’t shoot than the one that wound up taking his arrow on Nov. 2.
The professional dirt mover from New Albany, Indiana, was with his father, Chad, that Saturday. Their stands were a half-mile apart, and they were in place maybe 30 minutes before the sun rose over Clark County.
Chase ... READ MORE
The Proper Way to Christen New Hunting Ground
By Mike Handley
Impatience rarely rewards deer hunters, but Toby Biehler’s antsiness saved him $200 last month.
The 53-year-old contractor from Herington, Kansas, shot the buck at the top of his Most Wanted list on the morning of Nov. 16, only to watch it rocket away for at least 70 yards as if it had been launched by the bowstring instead of an arrow.
... READ MORE
Priorities, Priorities, Priorities
By Mike Handley
Soon after Jesse Watson settled into his ground blind on Wednesday, Nov. 20, his wife sent him a text, reminding him they were supposed to drive to Kansas City to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday that weekend. Unwilling to commit, he fired off a reply:
“Look, I’m not a father, a husband or a basketball coach until this deer... READ MORE
Near-State-Record Buck Causes Whiplash In Kentucky
By Mike Handley
David Whitaker might be responsible for a man’s wearing a neck brace in Jackson County, Kentucky, but it’s doubtful an insurance claim will be filed.
True, the 60-year-old deer hunter from Berea could’ve used a WIDE LOAD banner across the back of his four-wheeler on Nov. 12, but with or without that designation, nobody would&rs... READ MORE
Little Mossy Horns Sets County Record in Ohio
By Mike Handley
Alex Wright wasn’t surprised when his uncle said he couldn’t hunt where a trail camera had photographed the obscenely huge buck the man had reluctantly passed up twice.
The 35-year-old tire builder from Stryker, Ohio, had been monitoring the deer for three years. Trail cam images revealed it was a 12-pointer with matching kickers in ... READ MORE
A World-Record Crown Without Jewels
By Mike Handley
The Indiana buck Seth Hernandez shot with his crossbow on Oct. 29 had antlers to spare, but no change in its purse. Not that the deer hunter nor the three dozen friends who ogled it at his home spent much time looking underneath the new world record.
The first clue this was no ordinary buck was its 284-inch rack. The second indicator was the ant... READ MORE
Coffey County Buck Reshuffles Kansas Records
By Mike Handley
Had Dallas Birk kept walking instead of responding to a friend’s cry about finding blood on Oct. 18, the coyotes in his corner of Coffey County might have gone hungry that night.
The 32-year-old trackhoe operator from Burlington, Kansas, was walking along a pond dam, scouring the earth for any sign of the buck he’d arrowed a few hour... READ MORE
Rare as a Unicorn
By Buckmasters
Headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., Buckmasters has a perceived reputation as being a Southeastern company. Truth is, if you take a map of the United States and overlap it with where whitetails roam and where Buckmasters fans reside, it’s almost a perfect match — we’re just as popular in the Northeast and Mid-West as we are in the ... READ MORE
Bank Error In Your Favor
By Buckmasters
As you can imagine, with all the measuring, fractions and addition that go into scoring a buck, we sometimes make mistakes. That’s why we built multiple levels of checks into the process of recording a deer into the record book. While the scorers perform all the math for adding up the inches, as well as determining the percentage of irregular... READ MORE