Innholdsfortegnelse for June - Summer 2023 i North American Whitetail

Every year as I go through massive amounts of trail camera data from the prior deer season, I notice similar trends that happen each fall and activity that isn’t consistent from one year to the next. But the more I have observed trail cam data, the more I have become convinced that it can have a major impact on your success for the upcoming season. EARLY AND LATE SEASONS Two of the best times of year to find a mature buck doing what he did in the past are the early fall and the winter months. These are two periods where bucks can be extremely predictable based on past trail camera intel. At the end of hunting season, I take notes on specific buck movements observed through cameras from September…

Life comes in waves and comes at you fast. For 14-year-old Ian Meredith, he and his family have learned to take life head on and find the positive when tragedy strikes. Despite taking down a Bluegrass State giant whitetail in the fall of 2022, Ian has dealt with his share of loss. In 2020, Ian’s father passed away at the age of 43 from pancreatic cancer. An Army veteran and gun enthusiast, Ian’s father taught the young hunter the ropes of marksmanship and how to develop a skill for shooting. Little did Ian’s father know, his legacy would live on forever and influence his young son to take down a world-class whitetail with archery equipment and re-write the Kentucky whitetail record books. Ian Meredith grew up hunting and fishing in…

My entry to the stand that day was perfect. The southeast wind was coming directly from the bedding area and hitting me in the face. Boredom coupled with low expectations quickly overtook me, and I decided to take a little rest to help pass the time as my day had been full of daunting paperwork. My stand was only 8 feet off the ground, and cover was at a minimum. As I heard the faint crunching of leaves, I slowly opened my eyes to see a doe and a giant whitetail buck. The pair were only 20 yards away and closing the distance quickly. Somehow, I managed to free my bow from the hook it was hanging on and ready myself. The doe bolted a little as I drew my…

In early July 2022, Iowa resident Jake Hasbrouck was shown a photo of a big buck his friend had gotten on trail camera. It wasn’t a great photo, and the buck still had a lot of growing to do, so Jake couldn’t yet tell exactly how big the deer was. But Jake saw enough to know the deer was one he wanted to go after! Knowing the area well and having a hunch where the big buck might be living, Jake’s first mission was to acquire permission to hunt a property somewhere close by. So, the bowhunter got busy knocking on doors to find a place to hunt. Once Jake found his spot, it wasn’t until September 25, less than a week from the beginning of Iowa’s bow season, that…

Midway through the 18th century, France was a hugely powerful nation with colonies and outposts around the globe. Nowhere else was this vast reach as impressively on display as in eastern North America. “New France” stretched all the way south from what’s now Atlantic Canada to New Orleans and west to Saskatchewan. While Britain and Spain likewise controlled plenty of land, as of 1750 neither laid claim to as much of this continent as France did. What a difference even a few years can make. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ceded to Britain all French claims to Canadian soil. Then, with the Louisiana Purchase by the U.S. in 1803, French rule in North America effectively ended. While France’s language and culture still heavily influence Canada and South Louisiana, it’s…

This story starts in 2014 when my buddy Tyson Kuhn and I went to Kansas for our first ever out-of-state hunt. After seeing 13 shooters over 140 inches and harvesting a 160-class 9-pointer, these Virginia boys knew it would be the first of many over-the-border trips. The problem was that we didn’t want to keep flying to our hunt, and Kansas isn’t a guaranteed draw. I called two buddies of mine that knew a thing or two about hunting out of state, and I asked where we should focus. They both said southern Ohio. I started searching the internet for outfitters. I narrowed them down by using two criteria: first they needed to be harvesting bucks consistently, and second, they needed to be big. Real McCoy Outdoors in Adams County,…

Observation stands can be powerful tools. They allow hunters to locate, pinpoint and ambush a target animal and can provide invaluable intelligence. Observation stands have informed me of a buck’s presence that I previously was totally unaware of, and they’ve guided me precisely to a target animal’s final resting place. I’ve used these stands in the early season, late season and off-season, during both mornings and evenings. I’ve even observed in the middle of the day, from a tree 20 feet up, in a floating boat and under an interstate bridge. But some of my best observations did not happen in a tree stand. Of my top 10 best observation sits, about half were spent in a clump of weeds, hunkered down in a sinkhole or a riverbed. The possibilities…

I was at the base of the ridge when I heard the shot, and I knew it was Dad. I immediately started hustling through the thick spruces to get to his location. After a minute, Dad came on the radio and said he shot at a big buck. He said that the deer took one bound downhill and out of sight, and a moment later he heard a tremendous crash. I broke out of the spruces and started wading through the deep leaves toward him. I heard Dad hooting and hollering before I could see him. “I shot Old Mossy,” he had said on the radio. Old Mossy was the mystical big buck he had been hunting for years in the remote Adirondack mountains. As I crested the last rise,…