Each issue of North American Whitetail brings you effective techniques for outsmarting monster bucks. You'll learn the success secrets of North America's most accomplished, most knowledgeable whitetail hunters - riflemen and bowhunters alike.
Tune in every Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET on Sportsman Channel and Thursday at 8:00 AM ET on Outdoor Channel to catch episodes of NAW TV presented by Wild Tree Nursery. This month, we’re excited to present the following programs: WEEK OF AUG. 2-8 “Stan Strikes Again”: Stan Potts continues his dream season in Illinois, bowhunting a bruiser 8-pointer during the rut. Dr. James Kroll reveals why breeding timing impacts fawn survival. Laden Force explains why modern bows provide greater efficiency for less draw weight in “On Target.” Haynes Shelton profiles the incredible Frank Pleskac buck from Hill County, Montana. WEEK OF AUG. 9-15 “From the Ground”: Laden Force enjoys a thrilling spot and stalk bowhunt for big whitetails and mule deer in South Dakota. We introduce a new “Build…
Where I’m from, it’s pretty common for buddies to rag on each other about all sorts of things — all in good fun, of course. Eventually, most tailgate chats or fireside conversations will lead to Ford vs. Chevy jokes, or jabs about which sports teams are worth their salt. Who can relate? When it comes to hunting buddies, this rule applies tenfold. In fact, way before a driver’s license was printed with my name on it (i.e. before truck brands mattered), my bowhunting friends and I traded blows on the archery range about who was a better shot, which compound bow was the best, or who was going to notch all of their deer tags that season. In retrospect, those rivalries made each of us better archers and friends. And…
Today, the amount of information available to the average hunter or manager through print, television and social media is staggering! Yet, much of this flood of information leads one to believe that deer management can be reduced to a handful of steps. The basics you always hear about are as follows: 1. Plant food plots, 2. Provide supplemental feed (where legal), 3. Shoot does, and 4. Protect yearling bucks. In reality, whitetails are complex animals that live and survive under a host of highly variable climatic and habitat conditions. As such, there is no such thing as a “cookbook” management plan. Rather, deer management is site-specific, and the successful management plan must account for the needs and deficiencies for that particular location. This month’s column deals with just one of…
Americans have a can-do attitude. Sensis, a marketing agency focused on cross-cultural integration, presented a challenge to develop a live animal test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. The challenge ended in April, and teams are reviewing ideas from innovators, researchers and scientists for up to $170,000 in awarded prizes. This novel outreach expands on the thinking groups across the nation currently working on CWD detection in live animals before they visually show signs of infection. According to Cyril Gay, the national program leader for the Animal Health National Program and lead for the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies research programs at USDA-Agricultural Research Service, a test indicating early detection is needed. “Today, two official diagnostic tests for CWD are…
The dog days of summer are in full swing, and you’re kicked back in the recliner, toying with the idea of buying a new compound bow. You’ve thumbed through a few magazines and read plenty of ink on the websites of your favorite bow builders. You took things a step further and watched some marketing videos and commercials, but you still have questions. Compound bows have a vocabulary all their own, and if you don’t savvy the lingo, making an informed buying decision won’t be easy. Don’t panic. We’ve put together a quick lesson in compound bow terminology for you! AXLE-TO-AXLE Commonly misunderstood, axle-to-axle length is not the length from the top of the top cam to the bottom of the bottom cam. This measurement is the bow’s overall length.…
Over 25 years ago, back in the summer of 1996, North American Whitetail editor Gordon Whittington made a simple country boy’s dream come true when he published my first article in the August issue of this magazine. I’ve had articles published in these pages every year since and recently reflected back on my experiences over the last quarter century as both a deer hunter and as an outdoor writer. As I think back to my early articles, I have to cringe. Some of my ideas at that time have undergone a total transformation, as I have matured as a deer hunter and become much more proficient at my craft. Here is an interesting figure that I think clearly shines a light on this. As of 2020, I’ve hunted whitetails for…
