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.
WEEK OF OCT. 3–9: “Persistance”: Jeremy Moore chases big whitetails during Wisconsin’s late muzzle-loader season. The NAW TV team talks about summer and winter thermal cover in Build Your Own Deer Factory. In a new Big Buck Profile, Haynes Shelton showcases the incredible James Jordan Buck. WEEK OF OCT. 10–16: “Funky Wunky”: Laden Force hunts a unique whitetail at home in Missouri with a muzzleloader. In Build Your Own Deer Factory, the team talks about existing forage. In this week’s Big Buck Profile, Haynes Shelton profiles the Randy Simonitch buck from Missouri. WEEK OF OCT. 17–23: “New Year’s Party”: Haynes Shelton heads to Pike County, Missouri, for a late season muzzleloader hunt at Indian Hill Outfitters. The team discusses cultivated forage in this week’s Build Your Own Deer Factory. In…
I’m writing this in early August ’22 and let me tell you — the last couple months have been a whirlwind for the North American Whitetail crew. We’ve been balancing tight press deadlines, lots of travel assignments and family obligations, so much so that I didn’t know how on earth we’d get this magazine done on time! But we did, and this issue is filled to the brim with epic hunting stories, historic big buck profiles and loads of expert how-to features that we hope you’ll love. Here’s my synopsis of what all’s inside: First off, I hope you’ll read NAW at 40, Part II, written by Editor Emeritus Gordon Whittington. Previously in our September issue, Gordon kicked off Part I of the series by highlighting pivotal moments from the…
When I was seven years old, I was asked this important question: What do you want to be when you grow up? My answer was quick and simple — a wildlife biologist! The Lord has truly blessed me to have lived that dream for over 50 years, as a deer scientist, manager and hunter. In 1973 I was working at a college in West Virginia, when I received a call from Dr. Larry Walker, Dean of the School of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University. He explained that he was expanding programs at SFASU to include a degree in Wildlife Management; and, he wanted me to come to Nacogdoches, Texas, and be the person in charge of carrying out that mandate. It was an offer of a lifetime for…
No matter how long anyone has been chasing whitetails, we all can agree that 40 years represents a big chunk of a deer hunter’s life. Or, for that matter, even the life of a successful business enterprise. That includes the one publishing the magazine you’re now reading. A lot can happen in four decades . . . and in the case of North American Whitetail, a lot has. When NAW’s first issue came off the press in October 1982, it faced an uncertain future. Fortunately, much of that uncertainty soon faded. The next two decades saw exponential growth for not only this magazine but also many other brands catering to deer enthusiasts. From the expansion of outfitting and land leasing to innovations in bows, guns, optics, ammunition, calls, scents, decoys,…
The Institute for White-tailed Deer Management & Research figured significantly in the development and applications of trail cameras. Over the last 40 years, I can say with all certainty that we have looked at over a million photographs, both digital and print, of deer and other animals! Our original goal in contributing to trail camera development was mostly for research applications, but later we turned to using them for hunting and patterning whitetails. I say this to document that we have seen just about every mistake a person can make with a trail camera, and we’ve come up with some good ways to avoid making them! SELECTING A TRAIL CAMERA There are literally hundreds of cameras on the market today. They run in price from less than $20 to almost…
The Burns Ranch was established in South Texas in 1898 when it was acquired by my great, great grandfather, Hugh Burns, after he led the construction of the first railroad in Texas. For many years, the Burns Ranch was a working cattle ranch. Sometime around the early 1990s, our family began to shift its focus more towards wildlife management, specifically creating ideal habitat for white-tailed deer and quail. Since then, we have strived to implement strict management practices as well as making sure there are plenty of water and food sources. Our primary focus from a management standpoint has been to let our bucks grow old and try to harvest our recommended number of does based on annual herd survey data. We are and have always been a low…
