Last October, I had the opportunity to hunt and harvest my second melanistic white-tailed deer on our family ranch in Central Texas.
Our tracking and census process on the ranch is a meticulous one. We run trail cameras year-round and study every image in August and September to conduct an accurate census count. We also record stand counts and incidental observations during that time and forward the data to our county’s wild game biologist.
In...
I recently mentioned to a hunting buddy of mine that I already have some cameras out, along with one really good rut setup ready to go. He was a little surprised since our conversation happened before turkey season was fully played out.
His mindset is a common one, and there’s nothing wrong with it. After all, the earliest bow seasons are still months away. There is plenty of time to get the work accomplished, but there’s also an argument to be...
Manicured food plots and tractor work still have their place in the deer hunting community. But clear-cuts are a mecca for concentrated deer populations in the big woods. These areas can be the strategic hunting locations you've been searching for.
Clear-cuts can accommodate any hunting style, whether you prefer firearms or archery tackle, ambush hunting, or spot-and-stalk. Scouting a cut may seem daunting, especially if it's large, but you can...
Some folks enjoy the journey—the small towns that don’t show up on maps and the dives they hold—more than the location they’re headed. Others just want a one-way flight to their destination. They’re more of a product than a process person.
Hunters tend to fall into these categories, too, though exceptions abound. Do the long treks in the dark, uneventful sits, and countless early mornings make it that much sweeter when you kill a buck? Or could...
A week ago, a buddy of mine sent me a picture of twin fawns lying on the forest floor. While scouring the woods for morels, he stumbled onto the pair. They couldn’t have been more than a few days old.
These encounters are happening all over the whitetail’s range right now. If you’re lucky enough to walk up on a newborn, it might seem like it would be impossible for enough of them to survive the first few weeks of their lives to the point where we...
Long before the first rays from the October sunrise slanted their way through the forest, I knew there were turkeys roosted all around me. That was exciting, because in addition to a couple of deer tags, I had a fall turkey license in my wallet.
It wasn’t too deep into legal shooting light before I realized I had a problem. With a whole flock roosted in the surrounding trees, getting away with any type of movement was going to be tricky.
As soon...
Christopher “CJ” Alexander, whose name graced headlines in December after photos of him posing with an 18-point buck he harvested drew skepticism, has officially been indicted on 23 total charges, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, announced today.
Three others, including Alexander’s sister Kristina M. Alexander, and brothers Corey P. Haunert and Zachary R. Haunert, also face charges.
The...
Hunters tend to view deer as we think of them now, which is understandable. It’s also a mostly distilled and distorted look at the most popular game animal. We can’t really help it since we live about 75 years, and have a hard time comprehending time scales much longer than that.
We aren’t comfortable with big numbers, and our brains aren’t great at understanding them. The distances between objects in the universe don’t make sense to us. We speak...
I hate talking about the first time I experimented with a tree saddle. It reminds me that I'm not exactly young anymore.
The first time I dove into the world of saddle hunting was when reading John Eberhart's book Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails. The classic was the first mention of a hunting saddle I'd seen, and the book was released in 2003. For those who didn't major in math, that's more than two decades ago.
At the time, saddle options were...
There are two times in my life when I expect to find deadheads. Shed hunting is the first, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has dedicated some time to scooping up antlers in the winter and spring.
The second is while trout fishing. I don’t know how many times I’ve been slipping along the bank of some stream tucked deep into a valley when I’ve noticed a rack poking up out of the grass. The biggest was a 182-inch typical. That...
Within the next couple months bucks will start growing their new antlers. By mid-summer, social media feeds will fill up with trail camera images of velvet-antlered hitlisters. Quite a few of these deer will be given names if they don’t have one already.
This will happen with hunters ranging from celebrity power couples to random dudes scattered across the country who spend their whole season on grandma’s 40 acres. The one-buck hunt is all the...
I’m all too familiar with frustrating trail camera experiences. Ending up with poor-quality images or no pictures at all feels like a waste of time. If you're new to using trail cameras, you can avoid this mistake and learn from my experience.
You could be happy just to know there are deer in the area. Or you may be frustrated with camera performance and want to learn more about capturing usable trail cam pictures. However, a blurry image of a...
The Working for Wildlife Tour is back for 2024, and we want you to join us!
If you’re not familiar with the Tour, here’s the deal. The Working for Wildlife Tour launched in 2023 as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the many volunteer events put on across the country by conservation organizations, bringing hunters and anglers together to volunteer their time to improve wildlife habitat, restore ecosystems, and clean up public lands and waters...
Any time spent in the woods is valuable, but let's talk about the target goal of shed antlers. Days filled with work meetings aren't always a lost cause. A few short minutes could be all you need to grab a few antlers this spring.
Shed hunting doesn't always need to take place where you want to hunt. It's beneficial to zero in on areas known for wintering bucks. A little map reading and an evening drive to learn local buck habits will go far...
Fail upward? What kind of corporate jargon is that? How could this possibly help me become a better hunter? Hear me out.
Every hunter that I know with at least a dozen seasons under their belt goes through a natural evolution. That evolutionary path is different for everyone because everyone has a slightly different situation and different personal goals. For example, you might come to a fork in the road after having some success here and there...
I grew up thinking that big bucks were almost unkillable. While I was surrounded by people who hunted, almost no one ever killed a deer that was even 3.5 or older. When someone did, it was a big deal.
Our lived reality was in stark contrast to the hunting videos and magazine articles we consumed. It didn’t make sense, and for years, I struggled with that disconnect. How could some people consistently kill big deer? I couldn’t even find one most...
In the whitetail-sphere, it’s common for hunters to proclaim that their deer are harder to kill than the deer found in other places. It’s kind of like bitching about local weather. We all like to present a life of struggle and, of course, perseverance.
With whitetails, no one region or state can claim its deer are the toughest to kill. The truth is deer that don’t suffer hunter mistakes live all over, and they share a few things in common. The...
It was early October 1992, and I was sitting in a wooden treestand overlooking an oak-lined ridgetop. I wanted my first deer in the worst way, and she was heading in my direction. The young doe was on the hunt for a few acorns, and when she posed up at 10 yards, I drew and shot. What I didn’t do, was aim.
When my arrow passed over her back, my rising panic hit a fever pitch. Another arrow sailed high and buried into the dirt. With a 0 and 2 count...
On a brisk weekend in October, I had an epiphany. After three seasons of shivering, sweating, waiting, watching, and throwing the occasional hissyfit—I was standing over a mature, nine-point deer. Was it a record-breaker? No. Did it come at a high price? Yes and no.
This particular instance worked like perfection. The arrow hit right where I wanted it, from about 25 yards. It was a quick, clean kill. I even had the self-control to resist shooting...
It’s a rare day that I focus my hunting efforts on individual bucks. It’s just not my style, and I don’t have much ground to work with where it’s a feasible strategy. It’s not that I haven’t gone down that road in the past—because I have—it’s just that today, it doesn’t make much sense for me.
What does make sense for me, and probably for you as well, is to learn to identify general mature buck core areas. These locations, provided the habitat...
