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BuckMag Features
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Judgment Day
By Bob Humphrey
How to assess bucks on the hoof to manage deer and avoid fines. Boredom, fatigue, lack of sleep from two days of travel and the agonizing cold of northern Saskatchewan were taking a toll. I’d been staring at the same empty spot of woods for several hours with little to show for my mostly mental effort. I lowered my chin and closed my eyes, ju... READ MORE
Is the Rut Overrated?
By David Hart
Is the rut really the slam dunk so many of us assume it is? Just how popular is the rut? Ask any deer hunter and he’ll insist it’s the best time to tag a trophy-class buck. We plan our vacations around it, and we anticipate it the way a child counts down the days to Christmas morning. Even outfitters charge a premium for that mythical p... READ MORE
Home on the Range
By Dennis L. Dahlke
Despite being shot at twice, this mature buck refused to leave his core area. This hunt began three years ago in east-central Kansas. It was late September as I lay on a pond dam glassing an oak ridge. At just about sundown, I spotted a mature buck looking my way. I put out a trail camera but failed to get any shooter bucks on it. The next year, in... READ MORE
Expectations Exceeded
By Amy Wheeler
Who says your first buck has to be little? I had two goals for the 2010 whitetail season: learn to use the crossbow and claim my first buck. I become emotional just thinking about the day those goals became a reality. My boyfriend, Miguel, introduced me to hunting in 2009, and I immediately knew it was for me. As a teenager, I made every excuse I c... READ MORE
Trapline Bucks
By Tracy Breen
How to get aggressive with habitat improvement to attract and hold deer. Mountain men are considered the ultimate outdoorsmen. They hunted for a majority of their food, and they trapped furbearers for clothing and to make money. While it’s difficult to find a hardcore trapper these days, there are a few still out there. Some are better than o... READ MORE
The Right Way to Bait
By David Hart
Love it or hate it, baiting is legal in many states. Here’s how to do it properly. Whether or not you agree with it, baiting deer is legal in all or part of at least 27 states. Some, like Michigan and Wisconsin, have restrictions on the amount of feed hunters can use, while Louisiana allows baiting on private land only and with everything but... READ MORE
Have a Plan
By P.J. Reilly
A well thought out plan of action will increase your chances for a big buck. Ever watch a pro football game and notice the coach on the sidelines carrying a large multicolored card? That’s his game plan. Every team has one for every game, and it covers everything: offense, defense and special teams. It’s what the coach believes is the r... READ MORE
The Anniversary Bucks
By Danielle Hegge
If you’re going hunting on your wedding anniversary, you might as well make it count. My husband is Luke Hegge, an avid bowhunter since the day we met. In addition to hunting the local area for whitetails and in Colorado for elk, he applies yearly for the Camp Ripley hunt in central Minnesota. He’s been going to the same area for 17 yea... READ MORE
Vocal Whitetails
By Bob Humphrey
Sound is a subtle, yet important means of communication for deer. I was slipping along a hardwood ridge in the West Virginia mountains on my way to a treestand when I spied a distant buck. I quickly grabbed my call and grunted, but the buck showed no reaction. I grunted again, this time louder, and it slammed on the brakes, threw up its head and st... READ MORE
15 Days to 15 Minutes
By Ken Piper
When it comes to taking bucks, it’s all about location. They say there are three keys to hitting it big in real estate: location, location, location. That’s often true of deer hunting as well, and it’s why so many articles talk about the importance of being mobile. Let’s face it: Whitetails seldom show up where we want them ... READ MORE
Who’s Patterning Who?
By David Hart
Change your routine to see more bucks. At 4 p.m. on most weekdays in November, Joe Carpenter lays down his tool belt, walks away from the job site and drives to the farm he’s been hunting most of his life. He parks at the same gate, walks down the same logging road and climbs into the same wooden stand he built a decade ago. Joe might stop fo... READ MORE
Expletives Deleted
By Mike Handley
Here’s why leaving your bow in the clouds is not a good idea. Clutching only an arrow in my right hand, my inner predator mulled over the possibility of spearing the panting 11-pointer just 10 yards from me. In some other corner of my addled brain, a soprano voice was pleading for the buck to turn around and go away, preferably back into the ... READ MORE
A Place for Crossbows
By Russell Thornberry
Horizontal bows make great tools for recruiting and keeping hunters. It is interesting to observe hunter reaction to crossbows from back in the day when they were demonized by some. I am gratified to see crossbows finally gaining respect and coming into their own. The oldest argument against crossbows was they are too effective and hunters would de... READ MORE
Going Solo
By P.J. Reilly
Hunting with friends is great, but there are benefits to going alone. The forecast was a bowhunter’s dream: clear, cold, high-pressure system firmly settled in, and no wind. I’d recently seen a marked uptick in scrape and rub activity, so there was nothing that was going to keep me out of my Pennsylvania treestand that morning. The nigh... READ MORE
Food Plots with a Purpose
By David Hart
Do you want to grow bigger deer or attract them for hunting? When Ray Scott started the Whitetail Institute in 1988, he sold a single product: white clover. Although Scott, better-known as the founder of BASS at the time, was interested in the nutritional value of clover, few hunters gave it much thought. They just wanted something that would draw ... READ MORE
Rainy Days and Mondays ...
By Rick Balzer
Don’t always have to get you down. My father introduced me to hunting when I was 10. He put an Ithaca single-shot 20 gauge (which I still own) in my hands and showed me the proper way to handle, respect and shoot a gun. He started my brothers and me on rabbits, and it didn’t take long for us to share his love of hunting. I took to the c... READ MORE
The Outside-In Approach
By Steve Bartylla
How to hunt the entire season without burning out your best stands. My bow was still hanging from the pull-up rope when I spotted a 151-inch 12-pointer trotting down the ridge. When the buck paused at a mock scrape I had created for just that purpose, it gave me the few precious extra seconds I needed. I unhooked the rope as fast as I could, draped... READ MORE
Setting Stands
By Bob Humphrey
How and where to place your stands for a variety of conditions. What is a deer stand? It can be as simple as a moss-covered stump overlooking an opening in the forest, or it can be a mechanical contraption engineered to elevate the hunter to whatever height he deems suitable. It might even be an enclosed room, outfitted with all the creature comfor... READ MORE
All in a Day’s Work
By Jim Walls
Awesome buck gives new meaning to the Eastern Shore’s scenic nickname. I’ve been an avid hunter and outdoor enthusiast for as long as I can remember. Now in my 50s with a full-time job, I don’t have as much time afield as I would like. When I do get the opportunity to hunt, I try to make the most of the experience. Through the yea... READ MORE
They Call it Buck Fever
By Carla Schartz
It’s one thing to see this malady on TV. It’s quite another to feel it first-hand. "Yes! Yes!” These two words, followed by a fist pump and a high five, have bounced around in my head for the past two years, ever since the day my husband introduced me to what is now a passion, bowhunting. Lance is a mailman and I’m a teacher... READ MORE