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Wake-Up Call
By Mike Handley
Missouri girl’s first deer will require a load-bearing wall. Had it not been for her older brother Chase’s coaxing, 12-year-old Brit Looney would’ve gladly let the curtain drop on Missouri’s late-October youth season without firing a shot. Now the sixth-grader from Higginsville, Missouri, has one less bullet for her .243. &l... READ MORE
Deer... Buck... SHOOTER!
By Mike Handley
Arkansas man didn’t need to look at this buck’s chest, back or belly before squeezing the trigger. The seven members of Ryan Keeter’s hunting club decided a long time ago to pass up young bucks. As a result, they not only see more deer, but they have also become adept at spotting the differences between juvenile and mature whiteta... READ MORE
Deer in the Drink
By Ed Waite
Don’t listen to people who say scrape hunting is overrated. Even if you have to build it, they will come. Three days into his state’s 2016 archery season, Arthur Zerbe of Denver, Pennsylvania, refused to let the thermometer keep him from deer hunting. He’d decided to spend the afternoon of Sept. 20 on a 500-acre estate in deer-ric... READ MORE
Building a Better Deer Trap
By Dale Weddle
Don’t listen to people who say scrape hunting is overrated. Even if you have to build it, they will come. Just when Hunter Jones was convinced his mock scrape would never yield a photo of a decent buck, the 19-year-old got the surprise of his life. Hunter created the scrape and left a trail camera pointing at it around Oct. 1, 2016. He never ... READ MORE
Making Do
By John E. Phillips
When one door closes, another one opens. William Hedges’ hastily arranged trip north of the border in 2016 got off to a rocky start, but sitting on his heels for an hour inside a chair-less box blind was a small price to pay for the biggest whitetail he’d ever seen. The hunter from Pine Plains, New York, hadn’t planned to go to Sa... READ MORE
Making the Neighbors Cry
By Duncan Dobie
This Mississippi buck ran out of lives when it crossed paths with a lady wearing an ugly hat. Susie Taylor set her sights on an incredible 6-pointer during Mississippi’s 2015 season, but things didn’t turn out the way she’d hoped. Susie had hunted the unusual buck for several years. And she was ready to cross the 3x3 off her wish ... READ MORE
The Best and Worst of Times
By Ed Waite
No Ohio deer hunter worth his salt stays indoors when the mercury falls in October. Cheyenne Elliott of Frankfort, Ohio, regards Oct. 21, 2016, as possibly the worst day he’s ever set out to shoot a deer, but he has no regrets. “I had to get out there,” he said. “The weather was changing in a major way, and I just knew the d... READ MORE
Happy Ending
By Louis Locke
The perfect salve for losing a deer is to get another, even bigger one. My 2015 deer season got off to a rough start. My first — and what should’ve been my last — time in a stand that year was the evening of Oct. 1, earlier than I usually hunt. Trail camera photographs prompted me to jump-start the season. I’d planted a food... READ MORE
Getting the Drop
By Dale Weddle
Didn’t get a shot at your most-wanted whitetail this season? Wait ’til next year. Patrick Shemwell became aware that a world-class buck lived near his hunting grounds while driving around a piece of public land with his cousin, Shane Avery, in 2014. They saw the wide-racked whitetail in late August, not long before Kentucky’s bow ... READ MORE
Furnace Stoked
By Ed Waite
You know it’s cold when the thought of field-dressing the first deer you see clouds all other notions. Dalton Hunter’s mind was consumed with football in the fall of 2015. He was a junior and part of the first-string defense for the Corydon High School Panthers. With the football season soon coming to an end and the stress of it pretty ... READ MORE
Dream Season
By Dale Weddle
After two strikes, Kentucky bowhunter hits a home run during his third time at bat. Brian Strunk’s favorite hunting spot is a hollow in Pulaski County, Kentucky, a gateway through which deer enter an overgrown field. He has two options: a permanent treestand tucked in a cedar about 35 yards from where deer usually emerge, and a portable blind... READ MORE
Donnie Doesn’t Lie
By Rob Meade
Land of the Giants is everything this nonresident was led to believe. Kevin Solomon of Ridgeway, Virginia, was introduced to hunting during his teenage years by some friends whose father graciously allowed him to tag along. Kevin learned the great outdoors during these ventures and became quite content with chasing the wild game that roamed the hil... READ MORE
A Deer Runs Through It
By Jill J. Easton
Neither rain, sleet, snow nor an icy river can keep this deer hunter from pursuing what’s his. Johnny Whitfield of Calico Rock, Arkansas, chased a Kansas buck across a frozen river three times before finally collecting his career-best whitetail. The Sunflower State’s 2014 bow season marked the 10th year Johnny and his two sons made the ... READ MORE
Dad’s Gun
By Dale Weddle
Here’s why a Kentucky hunter is glad he walked away from his favorite stand and swapped rifles. Jim Murphy, some of his friends and family members run several trail cameras on Jim’s farm in Wayne County, Kentucky. You’d think a deer couldn’t slip past so many without being photographed. Despite the 24/7 surveillance by numer... READ MORE
928 Inches and Counting
By Mike Handley
Ohio man is one deer away from owning records in every triggered category. Joe Schneider has one less item on his bucket list. The retired railroad engineer from Circleville, Ohio, has now taken a record book whitetail with nearly every triggered weapon that’s legal in the Buckeye State. He’s missing only a deer felled by a rifle chambe... READ MORE
Collision Course
By John E. Phillips
Just when this Ohio man thought he was out of the hunt, he turned to see a giant bearing down on him. While children were preparing to go door to door in search of candy on Oct. 31, 2011, Bob Thomas of Seaman, Ohio, was collecting the mother of all treats. And we’re not talking Snickers bars. “I usually start hunting about the third wee... READ MORE
Runner-up to World Recurve Record
By Ed Waite
Pennsylvania forester Cory Gulvas is as passionate about hunting shed antlers as he is about traipsing across the mountains in search of their former wearers. "I found 102 sheds the year I shot this deer. They've helped me learn about bucks and their core areas," Cory said. He first became aware of his 2020 whitetail through a nighttime trail camer... READ MORE
Check This Out
By Dale Weddle
Forty-six years after checking out library books about deer hunting, this Kentuckian learns the most invaluable tool is perseverance. White-tailed deer sightings were rare in south-central Kentucky in the 1960s. William Branscum’s father didn’t hunt deer because there were none. The elder Branscum taught his son valuable outdoors skills... READ MORE
Charmed
By John E. Phillips
Virginia teen’s self-customized rifle gains its first notch during the 2016 youth season. Thirteen-year-old Tyler Fewell of Esmont, Virginia, will always remember the stories his granddad, Peter Britton, told him about big bucks he’d seen. The man didn’t hunt, but he encouraged his grandson to do it by whetting his appetite with t... READ MORE
Bookends
By John E. Phillips
This bowhunter’s 2015 buck is a quarter-inch bigger than the one he arrowed in 2013. David Wagler never thought he’d top the buck he arrowed in 2013. But it took only two seasons for him to find the bookend to his previous best whitetail. “My heart was broken when the landowner sold the 60-acre tract where I took my big CRP buck (... READ MORE