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Nobody Would Hunt Here
By John E. Phillips
The best stand is sometimes no stand at all, if you can handle long shots. Robbie O’Bryan says he hunts 365 days a year. The 53-year-old hunts 20 small properties, the farthest only 15 miles from his home in Marshall, Missouri. The proximity of these 16- to 200-acre parcels allows him to hunt both before and after work. “I’m eithe... READ MORE
Towering Tines
By Mike Handley
Former Alabama coal hole yields tall-racked whitetail worthy of a long-naked wall. Randy Hayes of Peterson, Alabama, never expected to take another whitetail to a taxidermist, not after a tornado gutted his home and carried 15 irreplaceable mounts to Oz in 2011. The 57-year-old, semi-retired welder now realizes he was too pessimistic. He’s no... READ MORE
First Impression: Too Small
By John E. Philllips
A wild-eyed buck with attitude trips this Iowan’s trigger. For the past 12 years, five friends have burned off-days the first week of November to take advantage of Iowa’s whitetail rut. The group includes Mark Brownfield, Vick Bycroft and three Steves: Johnson, Lastine and Morris. They have 40 stands in two counties – a total of 1... READ MORE
Doubling Down
By Dale Weddle
This carrier of big antlers did not walk softly. James Bishop and his son, Wyatt, knew several nice 8-pointers were roaming their Casey County, Kentucky, farm in 2016. They were not aware that a much bigger whitetail, one James might refer to as a “lottery buck,” walked those same ridges. Their enlightenment came on Nov. 12. James intro... READ MORE
Holy Grail
By Mike Handley
Missouri hunter’s makeshift ‘hillbilly castle’ puts him closer to whitetail Camelot. After 12 years of mainly collecting venison for the freezer, Jared Foster decided in 2016 to hold out for a buck worthy of the wall. It took the 34-year-old teacher and track coach eight weekends to do it. The father of two toddlers passed up a lo... READ MORE
Quality Trumps Quantity
By Mike Handley
Post-Thanksgiving, peak-rut hunt proves father knows best. When Lane Lawrimore of Hartselle, Alabama, told his 17-year-old son, Will, they stood a better chance of shooting a big buck off their land in Lawrence County, he had no idea he would soon be able to say “I told you so.” His youngest son wanted to spend the day after Thanksgivin... READ MORE
Fruition
By Dale Weddle
Typical or non, once an 8-pointer is not always an 8-pointer. Forty-three-year-old Woody Moore, a native of western Kentucky, has an impressive wall of trophies taken with bow and arrow. His best whitetail came in 2016. He first saw the buck and passed it up two years earlier. “The big velvet deer I killed in 2016 was a decent 8-pointer with ... READ MORE
Yahtzee!
By Ed Waite
Ohio hunter trades phone for crossbow when fate throws him five identical dice. Three seasons after his aging grandfather shot his last whitetail, Doug Kisamore connected with his best from the same backyard blind. “No one else ever hunted from my grandpa’s ground box blind,” Doug said. “We never knew when he might be inclin... READ MORE
Poof to Pow
By Mike Handley
Okie hunter gets a second chance to throw smoke at a whitetail on the wane. Blake Whelchel says the nearly 200-inch Oklahoma buck he shot in 2016 was between 20 and 30 inches bigger the previous season, and he has the trail camera photographs to prove it. Understandably, the 25-year-old from Ada, Oklahoma, was obsessed with the whitetail that was a... READ MORE
Making Lemonade
By Ed Waite
When the hunting gods start dropping lemons, grab a pitcher and start squeezing. Managing a veterinary clinic’s office leaves only evenings and weekends for Heather Sweeney to hunt deer. For the past four years, she and her husband Tim have had permission to hunt a former 80-acre nursery in southwestern Ohio. The Sweeneys have devoted many ho... READ MORE
Steve Scissorhands
By John E. Phillips
Multitasking helps Iowa bowhunter to his career-best whitetail.
When Steve Johnson reached into his fanny pack for his pruners, there were no pruners.
Worried some branches might block or affect his arrow’s flight, the bowhunter from Clarinda, Iowa, wanted to trim the new growth that had sprouted since the previous season.
Because he&rsquo... READ MORE
They Call Him King
By Lisa Price
The shortest distance to the taxidermist is the line between points A and B. A deer lease in Houston County, Texas, was the perfect gift for Mark Lee’s newly teenaged son. Two hours from their Crosby home, the tract is mostly pasture. Only 50 of the 1,000 acres are wooded, but Mark thought he and 13-year-old Cullen might have a legitimate sho... READ MORE
Sweet Spot
By Mike Handley
Seeing a buck with double drops is enough to send anyone to a plat book. Drew Miller leases 500 acres in Oklahoma, where the bucks are generally bigger. The land is less than an hour’s drive from his home in Paris, Texas. The 33-year-old owner of an oil change business also holds the deed to property south of Paris, adjacent to a dairy farm w... READ MORE
Thanks, Betsy
By John E. Phillips
Ohio’s January muzzleloader season pays off. As 52-year-old Mike Stanoikovich sat waiting for sunrise in his deer blind, he asked a departed friend for a favor. “Come on, Betsy. Send me a good buck, because I’m having a lousy season,” he asked the landowner’s late wife, who’d died the previous spring. Betsy used ... READ MORE
Skipping Breakfast
By Lisa Price
Driving 25 hours is a small price to pay for a hunt where giant deer can’t control their raging hormones. Ten days into their 12-day Minnesota hunt in 2010, Gary Holland was the only Texan who hadn’t burned his nonresident tag. The group had enjoyed a great time to that point. On the ninth day, Gary’s brother, David, bagged the bi... READ MORE
Counting Eggs
By Mike Handley
Who says there aren’t any sure bets in the deer woods? Counting unhatched chickens isn’t always a bad thing. The moon, wind and the following day’s weather forecast convinced Trent Siegle to take advantage of a temporary south breeze on Oct. 11, 2016, to check his trail cameras. An approaching front promised rain and cooler temper... READ MORE
How’s This for a First?
By Ed Waite
After taking a nearly 20-year hiatus from hunting, this Ohio man returns to the woods and brings home more than sausage. For some reason he can no longer remember, Gary Douglas quit hunting in 1997. Before that, he enjoyed accompanying family members in West Virginia. “We had a two-story cabin built with hewn logs. It was always filled with f... READ MORE
Priorities
By Alex Omid Soltani
Tennessee bowhunter rewarded after fleeing stand to attend his son's birth. I've been enjoying reading Rack magazine for many years, and I finally got a buck of lifetime and would like to share the story. I first saw this deer in 2019 when he was a 130-ish, tall 8-pointer with a unicorn that split. He broke off the unicorn point and another tine th... READ MORE
Deer with Six Names
By Ed Waite
Local legend’s demise sends ripples from Ohio to Maine. Rumors of a gargantuan buck roaming public land began circulating in Ross County, Ohio, in 2013. Next came trail camera photographs of the deer that earned half a dozen nicknames. Marcus Peecher of Frankfort was among many bowhunters who dreamed of arrowing the deer, but he was less opti... READ MORE
Bulletproof ... NOT!
By Dale Weddle
Four misses in three years not enough to send this buck packing. Seventeen-year-old Jacob Murphy made his second shot count, even if he had to wait a year and change weapons to do it. The Kentucky teenager took his first poke at the enormous 6x6 during the 2015 muzzleloading season. His second chance came during the next year’s modern rifle s... READ MORE