You shot a deer. The first question is how long you should wait before going to look for it.
As a young hunter in the 1990s, I couldn’t help but be impressed by my uncle’s backwoods approach to this issue. Before each hunt, he’d pack a thick cigar inside his jacket. If he shot a buck, he’d smoke it down to the end and only then leave his blind to pick up the blood trail. Despite the simplistic allure of the burn down strategy, I’ve learned that...

Much of the country is now on the other side of the rut, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Although the first couple weeks of November offer the best chance at a rutting buck, the second half of the month is still a great stretch to tag a mature whitetail. In fact, for some big buck killers, this is the preferred time to strike.
At this phase in the rut, most does have been bred and will yet again be distancing themselves from bucks. This can...

I remember my first time like it was yesterday.
It was November 5. The air was crisp and the trees held their leaves by a thread. A doe slipped silently into the green field ahead of me, with a buck of magazine cover proportions trailing behind her. She flicked her tail twice, stood still, and looked over her shoulder as the 10-pointer sauntered up behind. He took a moment to compose himself and then mounted the doe.
It was the first time I’d...

When you hunt elk at elevation, thermals are always on your mind. In the whitetail woods, that’s usually not the case. Thermals in the high country are almost as predictable as ocean tides, creating noticeable updrafts in the morning and downdrafts in the evening. In the whitetail woods, you might not even feel them. But if you hunt bluffy territory, creek drainages, or river bottoms, you should think about them.
Thermals occur when the ambient...

The rut is a bell curve that climaxes in mid-November. Every day you get closer to that date, daylight buck movement increases. Every day you get further away, daylight buck movement decreases. This is an important concept to grasp as we approach what hunters consider the lockdown phase of the rut.
Lockdown is when a buck finds a willing doe that’s in estrus. Many hunters imagine a two to three-day window where buck movement shuts down and that...

Introducing Ask the Eagle, where I’ll be answering your questions about everything from hunting to butchering to marriage. This week, an Instagram follower wants to know if it’s unethical to shoot a deer right after stepping out of the pickup.
Have a question of your own? You can write to me asktheeagle@themeateater.com.