Smalltown Bucks

A Little Help from His Friends

A Little Help from His Friends

By Craig Pondish

Garden State deer drive results in three deer, including a dandy buck. The New Jersey deer season has an extended permit season that continues from the regular six-day firearm season until January 31. The bag limit is one antlered and unlimited antlerless deer. On Saturday, Jan. 19, on private farmland in Burlington County, seven members of our sma... READ MORE

All in the Family

All in the Family

By Jessica Jenderny

I’ve been hunting with my dad, Eric Jenderny, since I was old enough to walk. He taught me what his dad taught him about hunting. His best friend Bruce Rogers also taught me a lot about hunting, so what I’ve learned about deer and hunting, I owe to them. Now that I’m 16, I’ve become a mighty hunter like my mentors. The we... READ MORE

Never Give Up

Never Give Up

By Ray Thiel

It only takes a second for an entire season of frustration to turn amazing. The 2018 deer season in eastern Connecticut was slower than normal. After two years where gypsy moth caterpillars ate nearly all the leaves off the oak trees, they just didn’t produce acorns. Unfortunately, on property I have permission to hunt on in Griswold, acorns... READ MORE

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

By Amanda Baker

Every miss and close encounter brings you that much closer. I have been deer hunting in Wisconsin for about 15 years. I started with a rifle and took up archery about three years later. I hunt public land and private, and until 2018, the biggest deer I had taken was a small 6-pointer. Some years, I didn’t shoot anything, and there were severa... READ MORE

Lesson Learned

Lesson Learned

By Greg Newburn

If you ever wondered why TV hunters often poke a downed deer... I went bowhunting at my favorite spot on the morning of October 26, 2015. I placed a doe decoy 20 yards from my treestand in hopes of luring a buck in close for a good shot. At about 7:30, I saw a spike buck come out into the field and approach the decoy. We have a 4-point on one sid... READ MORE

Stress Test

Stress Test

By Richard C. West

It’s great to finally see the buck of your dreams, but don’t get too excited. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving in 2015, an Illinois buck tested my heart. It was the second day of the firearms season, and I’d spent my first day – all 12 hours – on the stand with nothing to show for it but a couple of song birds, a re... READ MORE

Study, Hunt, Repeat

Study, Hunt, Repeat

By Ben Englert

College student’s first archery harvest gets a 4.0 in Bowhunting 101. It was Nov. 15, and the 2018 Indiana shotgun season would begin two days later. I was logging as many hours as I could with my bow, hoping to tag out before the gun-toting army arrived on opening morning. I had put in countless hunts since bow season started on Oct. 1, but ... READ MORE

From Sinkhole to Cloud Nine

From Sinkhole to Cloud Nine

By Mat Ritchison

On a cold and frosty Sunday morning, Nov. 3, 2013, I decided to hunt one of my favorite stands about 40 yards from the edge of a half-picked, Indiana cornfield. I was aloft 20 minutes before dawn. Shortly after daybreak, I decided to start things off with an aggressive rattling sequence – to paint the deer a picture. I grunted three times, p... READ MORE

How To End a Season

How To End a Season

By Miranda Cheatham

Every hunting season since I was 2 years old, my dad and I have traveled from our home in Niceville, Fla., to Macon County, Alabama. It had been four years since I was able to take a nice buck worthy of mounting. This year I had a new gun handed down to me, a 1980s Browning BAR .270. I had been letting small bucks walk until the rut hit. Then, on ... READ MORE

Veteran’s Day Dream!

Veteran’s Day Dream!

By Donna Shaver

I was hunting in North Carolina on a very cold Veteran’s Day morning in 2013 with my 73-year-old, handicapped father when the flash of antlers caught our attention. Quickly, as the buck moved through the pines, I lifted my Savage muzzleloader into position and peered through my binoculars as the rack headed toward an opening. “Wow, he h... READ MORE

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Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd