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He Couldn’t NOT Look, Right?
By Mike Handley
Cows on the lam lead man to bull of the woods. Nicholas Johnson of Coleman, Oklahoma, hadn’t planned to hunt the opening day of the 2012 rifle season, a Saturday, because he’d scheduled the next nine days off from the casino where he works. Still, the 34-year-old didn’t gain any sleep that morning. “That Friday night, Nov. ... READ MORE
Oh, Yes, He Did …
By John E. Phillips
Has leg-pulling become a cliché? Sometimes, the joke is no joke at all. A little after dark during the 2014 hunting season in November, Mike Simon of McPherson, Kansas, saw his 15-year-old son, Parker, coming down the road toward their vehicle. When he arrived, Parker said, “Dad, I saw a big buck about noon that had main beams curled a... READ MORE
Former Virginia Record Came off Dairy Farm
By Duncan Dobie
Before-school chores sometimes include collecting meat for the larder and hair-on hatracks.
Many are the stories about huge bucks being seen on or near dairy farms. Maybe it has something to do with all the great feed available. Even though most big bucks usually avoid sharing quarters with cattle, all that fresh corn might be too much to resist.
... READ MORE
Why Pavlov Didn’t Use Deer
By Dale Weddle
This buck’s nose saved its bacon the first time. An errant shot ensured only a headache the next.
Ol’ Two Drop came up out of the creek bed and into the food plot. Tim Hatton hadn’t recognized the distinctive deer before then, even though he’d been watching it mangle a bush on the other side of the creek for nearly half an ... READ MORE
Backyard Bone Yard
By Ed Waite
This is one opening day a father and daughter aren’t likely to forget.
Mike Speaker usually ushers in Pennsylvania’s gun deer season with friends at his buddy John Kelly’s Big K Camp in McKean County.
But not last year.
“My daughter had come home from college, where she is studying to be a pharmacist, for Thanksgiving," h... READ MORE
Because of a Misfire
By Lisa Price
If this Texan’s smokepole had fired the first time, he’d have gone home with a much smaller deer. Logan Wilson of Decatur, Texas, says he’d never have hunted deer in central Kansas without his father Rodney’s influence. He and his three brothers, David, Rick and Randy, learned early on that Texas might have an enviable popul... READ MORE
The Exception
By Lisa Price
This Nebraska couple had agreed not to hang a shoulder mount in their home, but they didn’t chisel it in stone. Some women recovering from surgery try their hand at knitting or crocheting. Others watch TV or read bestseller after bestseller. Lori Moore of Arapahoe, Nebraska, spent a lot of time gazing at a new piece of wall art she thought sh... READ MORE
Michigan Milestone
By Richard P. Smith
The deer gods care not for how many years are under your belt, nor how many notches are in it. In most cases, fathers who are hunters naturally take on the responsibility of getting their sons and daughters involved in the sport by passing on the tradition. The opposite is true for 37-year-old John Tolfree of Milan, Michigan. John’s son, Conn... READ MORE
Nine Days in October
By Mike Handley
A forward shift in season dates makes choosing easier for this Iowa hunter. For the first time since he began hunting in Iowa, Joe Daubner bought a deer permit for the early blackpowder season last year. “I wasn’t keen on getting an early muzzleloader tag, at first,” he said. “I really had to think about it.” For start... READ MORE
More Than Meat
By Duncan Dobie
Somebody’s dog missed out on two really GREAT chew toys.
Being raised on the family farm in west-central Minnesota during the war years of the 1940s, Jim Matter grew strong and resourceful trapping muskrats near the Buffalo River in sub-freezing temperatures and hunting prairie chickens with his dad whenever the two could slip away from thei... READ MORE
Roadside Attraction
By Mike Handley
The road to this Oklahoma behemoth was paved with Rice Krispies. Both whitetails and wapiti were fair game on private lands during Oklahoma’s 2015 rifle season, which spanned Nov. 21 through Dec. 6. While elk roam 30 of the state’s 77 counties, they’re more plentiful in the southwestern counties. Even where they’re thickest,... READ MORE
Where the Tractors Don’t Go
By John E. Phillips
This Kansas deer hunter knows the value of untilled ‘scrap’ land. When looking for deer hunting ground, David Yutzy of Nickerson, Kansas, doesn’t seek out traditional blocks or farms. He’s not interested in leasing land he can’t hunt in order to have a sliver he can. “I hunt the scraps,” he says, “sma... READ MORE
Three Do-overs
By John E. Phillips
It took five bullets in five years for this Mississippian to find a cure for insomnia. Eddie Harrell of Lena, Mississippi, had a five-year history with the whitetail he shot in December 2015. “I called him Phantom, and I dreamed about that deer at night. A day never passed that I didn’t think about him,” Eddie said. “He was ... READ MORE
Sweet Sixteen
By Mike Handley
Bow and early blackpowder seasons aren’t the only yielders of velvet bucks in Kansas. Clayton Brummer’s days of unsheathing his deer rifle in September are finished. Now that he’s 17, he’ll have to wait for December to shoulder his beloved .300 Ultra Mag, which – in his capable hands – can turn out a deer’s... READ MORE
Train Wreck
By Ed Waite
Might take only one hunter to shoot a deer, but a community is sometimes required to recover it. Chad Durfey’s story begins when he took his daughter, Julia, trail riding behind their house in late July 2015. “We were just sharing some father-daughter time,” Chad said. “As we neared the river, we saw a group of deer feeding ... READ MORE
Finally, a Buck with a Name
By John E. Phillips
Mid-November bowhunt in Toto’s Land ends with the slaying of a giant. Allen Shelton has been a fan of trail cameras for years. Even so, he was shocked to see an enormous buck among his photos in 2013. Although he lives in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, which routinely yields giant whitetails, he’d never seen a deer that big on his propert... READ MORE
Sweet Spot
By Dale Weddle
Twenty yards separates the chalk outlines of this Kentuckian’s first and best bucks. If a deer hunter is lucky, he or she has a favorite spot that produces year after year, a place so rich in memories that they sometimes blur into one big never-ending hunt. Luke Carswell was walking along in the morning fog in such a place in 2015 when he sho... READ MORE
Recalculating
By Lisa Price
Contour lines, a wind change and rubs with attitude combine to reprogram this deer hunter’s internal GPS.
If there are big bucks in an area, Ken Courington will exhaust all legal means to put himself within shooting range of one.
The 67-year-old Florida contractor begins by studying topographical maps. And if scouting confirms what a bird&r... READ MORE
There’s Always Next Year
By Dale Weddle
Don’t be too eager to hang up your camo and shove your boots in the closet.
Less than a week after watching helplessly as the buck of his dreams hurried out of his life, Kentucky bowhunter Kasey Alexander got a rare chance to rewrite his story’s ending.
Kasey has a knack for connecting with big farmland bucks in western Kentucky. The ... READ MORE
This is Going to Hurt
By Ed Waite
Tattooee’s change of heart allows Kansan to use a different tool to paint a shoulder red. After an afternoon of glassing deer in fields near their hunting property, Jed States and his brother, Magnus, took a different route home. They’d seen several bucks in the 150s and 160s, so they were already excited about their prospects for the 2... READ MORE