I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be there. There were manicured food plots. Carefully placed tree stands and ground blinds. Strategically set trail cameras. A jaw-droppingly beautiful Midwest landscape. And, of course, big giant bucks. Who wouldn’t want to be in the middle of that? Me, it turns out...

Snow softly popped beneath my boot like wet popcorn as I eased my heel, then toe, down to the ground. I leaned forward, squinted eyes searching ahead, and thumbed the safety on my rifle. It was there, I was ready. I had to be ready. “He could be right up hee-ya,” Hal whispered back to me in his...

“Let’s get some pho!” “What the hell is pho?” I asked. Pho, which I later discovered is a Vietnamese noodle dish, had never been recommended to me before as a pre-hunt menu item. But, as I’d soon learn, spicy noodles in broth would be just one of many new experiences on my first urban deer hunt...

Once November hits my internal countdown clock begins driving me into a mild panic as each day passes without killing a buck. I know I’m not the only one. A lot of us have been programmed to believe that the first two weeks of November are our absolute best chance to kill a buck all year, and if it...

One of the biggest things we’ve learned about tree saddle hunting is that just because you can pop right up any tree doesn’t mean you’re in a good spot. You may be surrounded by limbs and leaves, or worse, you could be upwind or too far from where the deer will likely show up. In this video, Mark...

The first time I experienced FOMO (the fear of missing out) was at eight years old when I realized the off-key tune of the ice cream truck was fading into the distance. Nothing was more exciting than the arrival of that rusting freezer on wheels and nothing was more demoralizing than racing to the...

Santa Claus, Christmas carols, and candy canes be damned—now is not the time to get distracted from deer hunting if you still have a tag. The late season can be one of your best chances to kill a buck, but only if you play your cards right. That means paying attention to the weather. Why? By the...

Late season can be one of your very best chances at a mature buck all year, but that’s only if several criteria are met. The most important of those criteria is simply having a mature buck on your property that’s moving in daylight. Attracting a big buck to your land can be as simple as having food...

The peak of the whitetail rut is now behind us in most parts of the country. I hate to say that, but it’s true. If you’re still holding on to a buck tag this fact might be causing you some stress, but don’t despair. The post-rut can be just as promising as the peak if you know where to look. Here...

Every whitetail hunter wants a crystal ball for the rut. When will bucks be chasing? When will breeding happen? When will bucks be moving at midday? Unfortunately, these questions are easier asked than answered. The whitetail deer breeding season can be wildly unpredictable—or as regular as reading...