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Entries for 'Gray Loon'
Elusive Buck Lets Down His Guard
By Mike Handley | June 01, 2014
Chad McCoy was not surprised when a buck wearing at least 160 inches of antler activated his trail camera's shutter in October 2011. He'd just acquired the property in Ohio, and the photograph merely confirmed his hunch that the piece of ground held potential.
He saw the same buck trailing a doe a month later, but that was the first and last time ... READ MORE
Why Tony Ran into the Rain
By Mike Handley | May 25, 2014
The moment Tony Losey looked out of his popup blind's window and saw something other than the raindrops he'd been watching all morning, he forgot he was holding a bag of pistachios. Or maybe he just lost his grip.
One moment, the Belleville, Mich., hunter was sitting in his dry dome, enjoying his snack. The next, nuts were flying everywhere while ... READ MORE
When a Buck Loves a Doe
By Mike Handley | May 18, 2014
The soundtrack to David Howard's successful 2013 season would have to include Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman."
David had a three-day window to bowhunt his lease in Todd County, Ky., last October – usually not the best time to catch whitetails on their feet when the sun's shining.
He arrived a day early, which gave him a few hours ... READ MORE
Hello, Stranger!
By Mike Handley | May 11, 2014
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, dibs on the farm that had yielded trail camera photographs of the best buck he'd seen all year.
When father and son... READ MORE
What are the Odds?
By Mike Handley | May 04, 2014
Jenna Gregg's first-buck story will be hard to top, in print and on screen.
While hunting with her husband, Floyd, on Dec. 14, she fulfilled her longtime goal of shooting her first buck, and he filmed her doing it. And, somehow, considering both were vibrating like the noisy end of a rattlesnake, her aim was true and the footage isn't "Blair Witch... READ MORE
Under the Cover of Snowness
By Mike Handley | April 27, 2014
Ten days into Michigan's 2013 firearms season, Jeff Toy was beginning to feel like the world's unluckiest deer hunter. The empty spot in his freezer seemed cavernous, which is why he went out every morning and evening.
He wanted very badly to be more hunter than gatherer, to have red meat unadorned with a "sell-by"date, but the deer weren't cooper... READ MORE
From Burger to Bone
By Mike Handley | April 20, 2014
When Larry Mangin decides to go deer hunting, which is almost every day the sun rises (in season), it's a matter of choosing which of his 17 setups to visit.
The retiree (except for the little antiques store he runs) has access to lots of land in Meade County, Ky. He's planted several food plots, and he has both permanent stands and ground blinds ... READ MORE
Ditch Runner
By Mike Handley | April 13, 2014
Tony Royal of Pleasant Garden, N.C., fell in love with Indiana while visiting his wife's relatives there two decades ago. He's made the long drive to hunt his in-laws' farms ever since, usually with friends he's eager to introduce to a landscape completely foreign to most Southerners.
Going into the 2013 season, Tony and his friends had tagged 15 ... READ MORE
Crossing Guard
By Mike Handley | April 06, 2014
Despite a few outings with his stepfather when James Irvine was a little boy, he didn't become interested in hunting deer until about eight years ago, when he bought his first shotgun. Five years later, when he missed a deer with it, he decided an upgrade was in order and bought a rifle and second-hand muzzleloader.
He finally shot his first deer,... READ MORE
Buck Got Your Tongue?
By Mike Handley | March 30, 2014
Shawn Evangelista almost forgot how to form words last year. Even his three-word sentences, repeated for emphasis, were more a series of emitted vowel sounds, punctuated by gulps of air.
You'd think that seeing - and indeed arrowing - a deer he'd seen hundreds of times in trail camera photographs would've been easy-breezy. But looking at jpegs isn... READ MORE
This Figment’s for Real
By Mike Handley | March 23, 2014
It took only one night for Brad Southwood to substantiate the existence of a bodacious buck with towering brow tines in his corner of Wayne County, Ky. He'd heard reports from three people. Fueled by curiosity, even though he'd tagged out for the 2012 season, Brad obtained permission to set out a trail camera on a friend's property. He checked it t... READ MORE
When It’s Okay to be Late for Work
By Mike Handley | March 16, 2014
Because Darren Schrock of Elkhart, Ind., had one clear weekend to hunt his state's 15-day firearms season in 2013, he was devastated to learn that rain was in the forecast. Determined not to miss his chance altogether - even though he bowhunts, too, and the bow season extends into January - he arranged with his employer to hunt Thursday morning, No... READ MORE
A Series of Fortunate Events
By Mike Handley | March 09, 2014
Imagine the patience required NOT to go to the very place you believe the buck of your dreams, the one you've skewered, has taken its last breath. Imagine setting an arbitrary 24-hour, chill-out period on the off-chance your chip shot wasn't as lethal as it should've been. Then imagine logging into Facebook and seeing someone else's smiling face be... READ MORE
Pleasantly Surprised
By Mike Handley | March 02, 2014
It's a pretty safe bet that he wasn't thinking about deer hunters when George Will, the Pulitzer-winning newspaper and magazine columnist, once said "The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised."
Dave Shedron, a 61-year-old volunteer firefighter and bowyer in Walton, Ind., won'... READ MORE
Déjà vu
By Mike Handley | February 23, 2014
Stoked by trail camera photographs of an enormous Ohio buck, Lear McCoy spent a lot of time in a treestand in 2012, hoping to put his sight pin on the whitetail with sweeping main beams and gnarly bases.
He got his wish in November of that year.
Right at dusk one evening, the very buck he'd been hoping to see strolled to within 20 yards. A second... READ MORE