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Nicholas Co. Buck Among Kentucky's Upper Echelon
By Mike Handley
Kentucky's record book entries saw a major reshuffling following the 2021 deer season. Among the several categories' new top-10 whitetails was a Nicholas County buck taken by Mark Wade of Carlisle. The 55-year-old homebuilder and farm worker's Sept. 20 harvest, the veteran hunter's best-ever, is the new No. 9 among the Bluegrass State's irregular-r... READ MORE
Scott County, Indiana’s Best Typical by Shotgun
By Mike Handley
Gary Cole isn’t exactly a trophy hunter, but neither is he a meat hunter. There’s no point in striving for the latter when your floor freezer is on the fritz. Going into the 2021 deer season, the 66-year-old Pepsi Cola machine operator from Lexington, Indiana, had eaten tag soup for two years, and prospects for anything more substantive... READ MORE
Cow-free Zone Yields Bruiser
By Mike Handley
The property Nate Boeckman hunts in Kansas holds more cattle than deer, and there's one less whitetail following the 2021 season. His friend's 174 acres is mostly pasture, but a timbered draw serves as a major travel corridor for deer that are more comfortable in the shadows. With the landowner's blessing, Nate fenced off the draw to keep cows out ... READ MORE
If You Pass Them, They Will Grow
By Mike Handley
Brian Lay must possess more self control than your average deer hunter, and the same could be said for antlers. As the man from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, suspected, the 160-inch whitetail he allowed to keep on trucking in 2019 was much bigger the following year. Even so, he gave the animal's core area a wide berth because he thought it had the potenti... READ MORE
It's Official: Huff Buck is a World Record
By Mike Handley
This will come as no surprise to deer hunters who browse social media, but the state of Indiana yielded a new world-record whitetail last fall. Greensburg's Dustin Huff, 27, put a crossbow bolt through the impressive 13-pointer in Decatur County on Nov. 4. He'd been in his treestand on a family friend's property for three and a half hours, and the ... READ MORE
West Virginia Buck Shuffles Records
By Mike Handley
The best thing Jesse Truman has ever done, as a deer hunter, was forgetting about a trail camera on the 200 acres he hunts in Clay County, West Virginia, about 35 miles from where he lives. He’s hunted that piece of ground for a very long time. Despite the difficult terrain, which is more deer-friendly than hunter-friendly, there’s no p... READ MORE
South Dakota Monster
By Mike Handley
Mike Beadle's South Dakota buck was one of the first to come across my radar in 2021. I had the pleasure of speaking with the 45-year-old from Aberdeen within days of the Sept. 12 harvest. He was still dancing on the moon, every detail still fresh. Mike was amazed that his hunt for this buck had ended so soon, that he'd sealed the deal while it was... READ MORE
The Third Hail Mary
By Mike Handley
A city ordinance almost prevented Randy Kukral from scoring his career-best whitetail last month. The desperate - and now smiling - man's Hail Marys involved talking to a police chief and knocking on two doors. Where Randy lives and hunts in Portage County, Ohio, a hunter isn't allowed to shoot a deer off any property with fewer than 8 acres. While... READ MORE
Cardio, Oklahoma-style
By Mike Handley
Does an explosive covey rise provide as much cardio as staring down a world-class whitetail with only a bow in hand? Perkins, Oklahoma, gym owner Justin Kimmel says no, and he should know. The 32-year-old fitness wiz with six-pack abs didn't always feel this way. He was a devout bird hunter until he was lured into the bowhunting fold five years ago... READ MORE
Shades of Gray
By Mike Handley
Because most measuring systems do not differentiate between bucks and does, keeping only records of the racks they wear, declaring a state- or world-record antlered doe often comes down to what scorers and administrators can remember. To make things easier, at least for the sake of quick reference, Buckmasters' scoresheet now has a BUCK-or-DOE box.... READ MORE
On Top of the World, at Age 10
By Mike Handley
How many 10-year-olds manage to tick off two bucket-list items in a span of one second? Ella Perkins did it — taking her first buck AND breaking the 200-inch mark — while hunting with her dad, Cody, last September. Cody says the whitetail they’d nicknamed Big Boy was bedding on the adjacent property, near a lake that serves as the... READ MORE
Kansas Yields 235-incher
By Mike Handley
Big-woods bowhunters would drive past the land Jon Landwehr hunts near Russell, Kansas. The agricultural tracts are mostly treeless, which might be ok if you’re packing a rifle, but a bit like throwing a dart at a board if you’re hoping to pick a bow-friendly vantage point. Deer rarely wander willy-nilly through a sea of milo. They trav... READ MORE
The Canoe Buck
By Mike Handley
An awful lot of big buck photos have been shared on social media in the last couple of weeks, and a surprising number of them have been monstrous Typicals. Among those pushing or exceeding the 200-inch mark was a Wisconsin buck taken by Kevin Christorf. Several photos of the outstanding 6x7 have been shared, but one taken by a neighbor who helped K... READ MORE
Friends with Benefits, Kentucky-style
By Mike Handley
Brian Owens’ head was nodding up and down even before he could say yes to a coworker’s invitation to hunt in 2020. Three-hour drive? No problem. Brian and Justin Garland work at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange, Kentucky. For them, Whitley County represented proverbial greener pastures. The guys began scouting the ne... READ MORE
Long Poke
By Mike Handley
Only minutes before shooting one of the most impressive whitetails to come out of Kansas in 2019, 11-year-old Cayden Harris was fast asleep. The road-weary kid from Bonifay, Florida, was hunting with his father, Corky, on Dec. 4, the day they arrived. The Harrises, along with a friend, had driven 19 hours straight to reach the Land of Giants. A fri... READ MORE