Utter the words “cold front” around any group of whitetail hunters and you’re sure to get some combination of toothy grins, racing pulses, and nervous hands. Few things incite more optimism and excitement in a whitetail addict.
While studies on the impact of dropping temperatures on deer movement have been inconclusive, hordes of hunters attest to the cold front’s power. So, why exactly is that and how can you take advantage as a hunter?
How Cold...

Every week this fall, I’ll be providing updates on whitetail buck movement for the entire country. These reports are based on intel from whitetailers in each region and my own observations as a traveling deer hunter. For more info like this, subscribe to the Rut Fresh Radio podcast and Whitetail Weekly newsletter. No one covers the rut like us.
The middle of October is arguably the toughest part of fall to kill a mature buck. A few weeks...

Whitetail hunting is almost synonymous with ag country—where food sources are plentiful and deer movements are predictable. Much hunting media is catered toward those hunters, often at the exclusion of whitetailers in Appalachia, the North Woods, and Rocky Mountains. For those of us who don’t live in the Heartland, good whitetail hunting still exists, just not on oak ridges and the edges of cornfields.
Hunting vast tracts of unbroken timber...

Whitetail hunters often think of food sources in a way that doesn’t do the deer’s adaptability justice. More often than not, this involves a serious focus on agricultural fields or food plots. Everyone knows deer love a picked cornfield or lush food plot full of clover, but what if you don’t have access no-brainer destination food sources?
Or, what if you’re a public land bowhunter and have no-brainer food sources, but every corner of every field...

Iowa. November. Two giant whitetail bucks.

If this video doesn’t get you excited for the rut, then I’m not sure what will. It’s amazing this clip didn’t end with a broken neck—either from one of these deer falling down the bank or the hunter falling out of his stand.

Agriculture dominates the landscape of America’s heartland. The same can be said of its influence on the deer and deer hunters that live there.
The presence of crops that deer eat dramatically impacts where deer live and travel, as do any changes to those crops. Due to an agricultural practice known as “crop rotation,” in which farmers plant fields with different crop types every other year, deer habits change annually in many places.
The...