Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i North American Whitetail

The Great White North. The original land of giant whitetails. The place you’ve read about in deer hunting magazines and watched on television shows since you were just a pup… Saskatchewan, Canada. These were just a few of my first thoughts when I realized in summer of 2022 that, in just a couple months, I would be headed there for the first time in my life. My destination: legendary Northway Outfitters. The trip was set for the week of November 4th. I’d be joined by my good buddy and NAW TV cameraman Brad Biddle, and another very special guest: my No. 1 hunting partner, my dad, Con Shelton. DREAM. HUNT. COME. TRUE! When I was packing my bags for the hunt, anticipation already was building to monumental levels. What gear…

Protecting your hearing is critical, but large, cumbersome headphones that simultaneously protect and restrict your hearing are hard to justify in the deer woods. Don’t fret. Get a pair of hearing protection/enhancement earbuds, and you’ll protect your eardrums and hear Mr. Big coming long before you ever see him. If you get a bad tooth, you go to the dentist. If you get strep throat, you head to the doctor. When your eyesight starts to wane, it’s time for a trip to the optometrist. Why am I bringing this up, you ask? Each of these problems can get fixed to some degree. Hearing loss is different. When your hearing gets damaged, it can’t be repaired. Yes, hearing aids and other devices are an option, but there is no medical or…

In the early to mid 1900s, deer hunting was a far different experience from what most of us know now. Hunters wore clothing and used transportation and gear which seems very primitive compared to what we have today. Lever-action rifles, Winchester 94s and Savage 99s, chambered in calibers long gone and without scopes were very popular. There were no manufactured tree stands, and individual still-hunts or group man drives were the tactics most often used. The tremendous population of whitetail deer we enjoy would have been something they could not have imagined. Whitetails were only where you could find them. You might walk miles in pursuit, and then have a hefty drag back to camp. It was sport, for sure! But getting venison to sustain a family was also real…

Killing your way across the continent sounds like some fictional Hollywood script. Yet shooting a respectable whitetail buck in each state of a chain from the Pacific to the Atlantic is not only possible, it’s been done. I know because I did it. How rare is this feat? No one officially tracks such things, so your guess is as good as mine. But I doubt it’s been achieved often, simply because the obscure requirements run counter to how most deer hunters operate. Few whitetailers will hunt another state or province unless they feel there’s a legitimate chance to shoot bigger deer there, and not every state is a hotspot. But there’s something to be said for hunting certain places just to have experienced them. Over time, if you visit enough…

1 This heavy-antlered Wisconsin buck came within 20 yards of Wayne Hartwig on Nov. 1, 2022. Wayne made a great shot on the giant, which net scores 188 4/8 B&C. 2 During a bowhunt on Oct. 28, 2021, Logan Johnson arrowed this massive buck in Central Alberta. Logan calls the buck “Ricky,” and the deer net scores 203 6/8. 3 This mature buck chased a doe by Jason Gibson on Nov. 8, 2022, while he was hunting in Johnson County, Kansas. He shot the deer after it stood nose-to-nose with his decoy at 15 yards. 4 Alex Stout took this old, mainframe 8-pointer on Oct. 14, 2022, in Missouri. This is the first of two big bucks that Alex bagged during the 2022-23 hunting season. 5 On Nov. 13, 2022,…

If one were to search for the definition of “The Moment of Truth,” it would describe a moment in a person’s life where reality sets forth a crucial situation that requires a decision or action. That decision or action can or may cause significant meaning or implications in one’s life. These moments usually test our character and abilities. A moment of truth can happen in many aspects of life, and the same is true for whitetail hunters. We may experience a moment of truth as first-year hunters when the experience of taking, or not taking, our first deer may impact our future afield. We may have experienced another moment of truth when we took our first buck, and possibly another when we killed ou r first mature buck. However, when…

All seasoned whitetail hunters live for November. Whether you are a weekend warrior or a vacation-day hoarder, we all like to get as much time afield during the best month of the calendar year. On Nov. 3, 2019, I was making a hyper-aggressive play on a large non-typical buck that I had been profiling for about 14 months. I had just started my three-week rutcation, and the vacation vibe had me amped as it usually does. After a busted deep-timber hunt the afternoon before, I left the field kicking rocks and scratching my head, feeling snake bit already with nearly a month left to get it done. Before going back to the house with my tail tucked between my legs, I drove to an adjacent property after sunset and pulled…

If I’ve learned anything in my years of whitetail hunting, it’s that you don’t need to own a large farm to kill big whitetails. Would it be awesome to have a huge chunk of ground for deer hunting? Certainly, but for the average deer hunter out there, that’s just not the type of land they hunt. A lot of whitetail hunters rely on public land to chase deer. Public land can provide many great opportunities for deer hunters, but you may have to put a little more work in to make it happen. Recently, I asked three guys I know who have collectively killed many mature buc ks on public land their three best tips for hunting ground open to anyo ne. Here is what they had to say. TYLER…

It was early morning on Nov. 8 and that magical time in the fall when whitetail bucks are on the move in West Virginia had arrived. I first spotted the mature buck about 100 yards away walking directly at me up the steep hillside on an old logging road. Sitting with crossbow in hand on my small, fold-up stool, I knew extreme caution would be necessary in order to receive a shot opportunity. So why am I writing about this particular November morning? It’s because I was implementing my favorite whitetail tactic: old-fashioned hunting. Old-fashioned is a term we hear regularly, and generally it relates to some product or activity that serves as a reminder of the past. Over the last 50 years, an unprecedented number of new products has…