Deer

DEER SEASON, DONE RIGHT.

Before you head into the whitetail woods, browse our extensive collection of deer hunting videos and articles. For beginners and experts alike. From thrilling hunts to helpful hints, there’s always something to learn from watching the country’s top whitetail hunters ply their craft — and whole a lot to enjoy.

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North Dakota’s Velvet Antlered Whitetail Bucks

One of the big advantages we have in North Dakota is: because our deer season opens the first day of Labor Day weekend, we have an opportunity to take velvet-antlered bucks. Once I had set-up three or four stand sites. On opening day, I went out to hunt my primary stand site, and the wind was wrong. So, I went to a tree stand I had set up where two sunflower fields and a corn

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak, Bow

Baling Up North Dakota’s Big Whitetail Bucks

North Dakota’s whitetail season begins on Labor Day weekend, and I like to hunt open prairie croplands. North Dakota’s not exactly famous for having large trees. So, I build some portable ground blinds and permanent ground blinds where I can hide to hunt. My favorite way to hunt is to hunt from hay bale blinds that I build, because the hay bale blinds are much more forgiving than commercially-built blinds. We build a rigid frame,

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak, Bow

Do Trail Cameras Spook Deer?

If you believe the deer are spooking from the infrared flash start placing your cameras high (6 to 7 feet). Leave a bit of slack in the strap and place a stick behind the top to angle the camera down at your BioRock, corn pile or wherever you believe your subjects will pass through at the proper focal length. Whitetails aren’t accustomed to looking up and seldom react to an infrared flash coming from that

Big Game, Deer

Taking Mature Bucks Deer Each Season

I rely heavily on my trail camera pictures and the information I analyze from them and also have analyzed at www.myspypoint.com. There’s also a third factor that goes into my hunting plan- especially during the rut. On the properties I own and the places I have exclusive rights on to hunt, I don’t harvest does until after the rut.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak Bottomland, Mossy Oak

Productive Deer Stand Site Placement

I’ll already have some of my stand sites set-up in places where I know I can take an older-age- class buck, as we all know that deer have four legs and walk around a lot. Also they may change their feeding, bedding and watering sites during deer season. Although I’ve picked several tree stand sites before opening day, if the buck I want to take changes his movement patterns, I’ll move my tree stands.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak

Take a Deer on Opening Day

On my property, I want to pull in older- age- class bucks from surrounding properties. I want to have enough food, water and does to hold those deer on my property all year long. I also use a feeder to hold deer on my land. In Missouri, we can feed deer up until 10 days before the opening of deer season. Too, I’ll improve the stand sites on my hunting area. Once I know the

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak Bottomland, Mossy Oak

Why Hunt Deer on Cattle Farms

There are several reasons why I prefer to hunt cattle farms. Cattle ranchers know that they have to have highly-nutritious soils to produce grasses and hay on which the cattle can feed. On a cattle farm, the rancher understands that he has to feed his cattle all year long. A cattle man also realizes that cattle have to have water and also pastures with some type of thickets and shade trees. All the same needs

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak Bottomland, Mossy Oak

Alex Rutledge’s Successful System for Hunting Deer

At this writing in late July, we’re about 6 weeks out from the beginning of Missouri’s bow season. My first hunt will be in southern Missouri. I don’t go jump in a tree stand because I think I’m going to take a buck. I have a system I use that dictates when and where I hunt, and that system is primarily based on trail-camera information and visual observation.

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Mossy Oak Bottomland, Mossy Oak

Deer Backup Plan

If I don’t have a chance to take one of the bucks I've identified before archery season, I still go hunting and hope that luck will be on my side. Usually if I don’t get a buck, I’ll wrap up my season by taking one or two does. I'm often asked, “I'm thinking about coming to Maryland to bowhunt or hunt with a blackpowder rifle. What should I do to put the odds in my

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak

Hunting Maryland’s Bow and Blackpowder Seasons

I like to start bowhunting the first day of bowhunting season on September 1 each year. I'm very conscious of scent control. When I'm hunting or just scouting, I wear my ScentLok suit (http://www.scentlok.com), and I spray down with some type of odor killer. Then when blackpowder deer season comes in, I’ll hunt with my blackpowder rifle.

Big Game, Deer, Firearm

Funnel Areas and Pinch Points

Usually, I don’t hunt the edges of fields for deer until late in the season. When bow season arrives on September 1 and often even into muzzleloader season, many of the crops still will be standing in the fields. The best places to see the most deer and to have your best chance at taking a buck are pinch points in the woods between the bedding areas and the agricultural fields. We use fixed-position tree

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak, Firearm

Planting No-Till Food Plots

It is possible to plant a food plot without working/turning the soil; however, if you’re going to skip this very important action, some of the remaining steps become more essential and must be completed correctly.

Deer, Land Management, How-To, Mossy Oak Gamekeepers, BioLogic

Big Bucks on Maryland's Eastern Shore

Where I hunt, we rarely if ever take a big buck, because there's just so many deer living here. During gun season, the deer have quite a bit of hunting pressure. A good buck in our area will be a buck with a rack that scores between 120 and 130 inches on Boone & Crockett. Some really-big bucks are often harvested in counties closer to the eastern shore, since the deer there have less hunting

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak

Out of State Bowhunting: Maryland

We have a really-liberal deer season here in Maryland. Our archery season starts September 1 and ends January 31. There are deer everywhere here in the State of Maryland, and these deer have adapted to people. They’ve learned to live in small woodlots and on the edges of agriculture. Here in Maryland, we raise plenty of corn and soybeans. The habitat is broken up by farms, woodlots and urban areas that create a lot of

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak, Bow

Learning to Bowhunt on 6 Acres

I’ll hunt anywhere I can get permission to hunt, but I really prefer to hunt small properties. I like to hunt little woodlots that most hunters will drive by and say, “There's not enough woods there to hold a mature buck.” I've found that I consistently take my biggest bucks from these small sections of land that most people think are too small to hunt. Since most hunters won’t hunt these type properties, a big

Big Game, Deer, Mossy Oak Obsession, Mossy Oak, Bow