Wired To Hunt

Several years ago, I drew a limited hunt on public ground in my state. Part of that draw required hunters to harvest a doe before filling their buck tags. I went into that hunt assuming I'd tag a doe on the first day and have three days to find a buck. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn't until my third day that I even saw a doe on that pressured ground. Even then, I lucked out, getting a thirty-yard shot while still-hunting through the timber. I...

For dedicated whitetail hunters, December can feel like a comedown after a killer party. November holds the noise and excitement of the season. Fresh scrapes pop up overnight. Hot rub lines dot the ridge. Antlers clash as big bucks crash through brush on a hot doe. Then December hits, and the woods feel like someone called the cops, shutting the whole party down. Then you spend one cold evening in the woods and catch a buck shadowing a small doe...

The Homochitto River winds through the southwest corner of Mississippi and empties into the river that shares the state's namesake. Other than Natchez, a preserved antebellum town, it's a scarcely populated region, defined by historical markers and the dilapidated mills that stand in perpetual collapse along Highway 98, until it, too, runs out and empties into the backroads of Adams and Wilkinson counties. Insomuch as any southern town is defined...

It took me fourteen years to finally hunt out of state, but when I finally took the plunge, I went hard. I chased whitetails on public land in the big woods of Wisconsin and the badlands of North Dakota, and it was painfully obvious that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. What I thought would be a fun and challenging adventure quickly turned into a therapy session I didn't sign up for. Hunting out of state pushed me out of my comfort zone, highlighted...

The Traditional first week of November rut was foreign to me until I actually hunted the Midwest. As a resident Mississippian, that hallowed week looks a lot like the month of October. Unless we get a cold front, temps might even reach the mid-80s. For me and my southern counterparts, New Year's Day typically aligns with peak rut activity. Of course, the South is a weird place, and that includes deer hunting. Depending on where you're at, you...

Gun seasons have opened throughout most of the country, and down South, that means deer hunting with dogs, too. Roads around hunting camps, public lands, and private leases are patrolled by orange vests and pickups with arched antennas. While it can be deflating to see deer-dog hunters parked near your choice hunting spots, it's hardly the time to throw in the towel. Instead of sulking back home, you can use a little creativity to hunt around the...

Several years ago, I sat down to dinner at a high-end restaurant in Indianapolis while attending the Archery Trade Association Show. Seated next to me was a fellow who has made a name for himself as a hardcore, backcountry western hunter. He has earned his reputation, and then some, so I thought it would be an interesting conversation. It was, until we got on the topic of whitetails. Almost as soon as our chat drifted from the mountains to middle...

I can't run trail cameras in a lot of the places I hunt. I love that, but I also love running a whole bunch of cameras to try to decipher deer movement from year to year on specific properties. This latter tactic was a big part of my fall this year, and I noticed something that has led me to more questions than answers. On the surface, this is not the best reflection on cameras in general. After all, shouldn't they just tell us where and when...

As a Minnesota-based writer, I spent quite a few years covering news related to wolves. In fact, two topics that I really can't stand to discuss anymore are wolves and CWD. It's not that I'm not interested or concerned about either, but at some point, it's like eating the same meal over and over. You just lose your appetite for it. That only gets exacerbated by the feeling that, as an individual, you can't really do anything about either topic...

I'm old enough to remember shooting photos with film. In fact, one of the duties I had for my first editing gig at a bowhunting magazine was to scour slides for perfect cover and lead images. Every photo you took back then had to have some intention behind it, because you knew you had limited film, and every shutter click was going to cost you. Today, it's a different story. It's estimated that 2.1 trillion photos will be taken in 2025, and that...

Think of the piece of public hunting ground closest to your house. You know, that property 15 minutes from town that has multiple trucks in the parking lot every weekend throughout deer season. As you drive by, you probably think to yourself, “How could that property possibly be worth hunting? There's probably a ladder stand chained to every other tree. Surely if I'm willing to drive a little further from town, I'll find a secluded honey hole...

At its core, deer hunting is a numbers game. Stay at it long enough and you're bound to have an encounter. During the rut, buck movement increases, and so do your odds. But a few slow sits, missed opportunities, or unseasonably warm days can mess with your head. If you're not careful, you'll convince yourself to save your vacation days for a trip to Disney World or wherever else you decide to go during the summer. Whether you pack it in early or...

The path to cracking the code on a mature whitetail buck is a convoluted, ever-changing riddle. It's the cat-and-mouse puzzle that stokes our fires and keeps bruiser whitetails on our minds year-round. We can study moon phases, changing food sources, barometric pressure, alternating feed-to-bed patterns, and the effect of differing wind directions on whitetail movement. We have real-time trail camera data and even AI algorithms to aid in our...

I propped my bow against a water oak and unbuckled my pack, letting it drop to the ground. I wasn't worried about spooking deer anymore. The first and only shooter buck I'd seen in nearly two weeks had just rocketed to the next county. The sun beamed overhead, and I wriggled my water bottle free from the side of my pack. I dropped to the ground and leaned my back against the pack. If I were a smoker, I probably would've lit one up about that time...

In mid-September, I saddled up for my first whitetail hunt of the season. I'd yet to shoot a public land animal with my bow, but I was full of piss and vinegar. I live in Kansas—the heart of deer country—and I wanted a big buck. One week later, I was a shell of a woman, begging the universe to send me anything resembling a deer so I could remember what they look like. If you hunt long enough for pretty much any game, you'll eventually find...

When mid-September hits, deer feeding patterns start to shift, and you can take this as one of the few nearly-true blanket statements in the whitetail world. So, no matter where you live, fall brings change. Whether you're hunting deer in ag country or the big woods, once acorns start dropping, the deer will find them. If you want to punch a tag, you need to do the same. The term “feed tree” gets thrown around a lot. Loosely, it refers to a...

This title might seem a little misleading. It probably ruffles a few feathers, but hear me out. There's a whole market of deodorants, detergents, and, yes, even mouth spray that promises to fool a big buck's nose. I'm not saying they don't work in some capacity or that, if compounded, they might not reduce or your scent. Nor am I suggesting that you should disregard a deer's nose. It'd be foolish to do so. However, most hunters have limited time...

The votes are in, and we have a winner! Wisconsin has officially been crowned the “Best Whitetail State” after beating out Minnesota with 54% of the votes. With an estimated deer population of 1.6 million and over 6.6 million acres of public land, it's no wonder The Badger State is a whitetailer's paradise. To see the full rundown of the October Madness, Best Whitetail State bracket, click here. Janis Putelis repped Wisconsin in this bracket and...

I stood up, swearing, as I watched the buck I'd been tracking all morning finally catch my wind and sprint for the private land downslope. The does that were with him scattered, bouncing downhill and out of reach. The buck bounded over the barbed wire and then, as if he understood the meaning of the property line he'd just crossed (he probably did), he stopped and looked back at me, smug and handsome. Eight tines gleaming in the sun. I was...

This probably says more about me than I care to face, but I really want my daughters to be good deer hunters. I don't want them to just love going hunting; I want them to love the process. The anxiety I feel around this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have facilitated pretty much all of their success in the deer woods to date. Yet, I know that if you do everything for kids, they don't learn to do anything for themselves. If you don...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

I have never had more trail cameras out in any given season than I do this year. It's weird. While they are all out on private land, my season is split up pretty evenly between hunting those parcels and setting out on public where I have zero digital intel going. The difference between planning a private land rut hunt where I've had nine cell cameras going since July, and walking into some tract of public land in Wisconsin or North Dakota totally...

We were belly-crawling down a dirt road when Newt paused, raised his binos, and whispered, “I think they're whitetails.” I couldn't see anything, and my hands were too cold to break out the binos. It was a sharp November morning during the beginning of Nebraska's week-long rifle season. A mountain boy from Colorado, I was entirely out of my element in Western Nebraska, where I'd come to spot and stalk rutting whitetails—and hopefully kill my...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

I spent quite a bit of my career as mostly an outdoor writer, before filming hunts and recording podcasts took over. That early role taught me how to use weasel words like a champion. Actually, it was reader responses that taught me to cover my ass with generalizations. What happens when you write hunting articles, even benign hunting articles you assume won't piss people off, is that you end up pissing people off anyway. So, you start to think...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

Whitetail hunters love to argue about which state holds the biggest and baddest bucks. But which one is really the best? Well, a lot of what makes hunting ground “the best” depends on your personal preferences. Do you like big bucks, and you cannot lie? Maybe you just like to hunt around fewer people. Or maybe you like to feel like a kid in a candy shop, surrounded by opportunities for deer of all ages. Do you prefer to travel or are you more of...

Southeast Ohio's deer population is experiencing a serious epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) outbreak, forcing wildlife managers to consider adjusting hunting regulations before the state's rifle season opens. EHD is a virus transmitted by biting flies such as no-see-ums. Deer killed by the disease are typically found near water after experiencing high fever and dehydration. Historically, the virus has been found in parts of the Southeast U.S...

Late last month, I pulled up to a field site at first light to start a long day of turkey habitat surveys. My work as a wildlife research technician takes me to both public and private land, but this site happened to be on one of my favorite wildlife areas: a lakeside section with forested draws and fields of native tallgrass. I slowed my truck to a crawl so I could scan the fields for a reddish-brown back or a tail flicking. I usually spot a doe...

Like most whitetail hunters, I learned to hunt with company. For me, it was my dad, his brothers, and a few of their buddies. Swapping stories around a campfire, ribbing each other about misses, backslapping over notched tags, and arguing about where the deer are moving have always been part of deer-hunting culture, but if you always have someone in the next stand over, you're missing out on a different side of the game. Hunting alone changes the...

Other than the rut, I can't think of a more exciting time of deer season than opening day. Aspirations are high. Weather patterns start to turn. Those bucks you've cleverly nicknamed are still stuck on their patterns and sporting more headgear than your favorite football team. If opening day dreams always unfolded according to plan, there'd be a lot less mature bucks on the landscape. Unless you have a tightly manicured hunting situation, your...

The hunting industry is chock-full of good advice. From bed hunting strategies and how to read mature buck sign, to adopting a mobile mindset to surprise a deer in its core range, there is no shortage of content that can teach you how to get better at the whitetail game. There is also a lot of content designed to get you to buy something, and I know this well, because I've created a ton of it. While buying the latest deer call or decoy can...

Sometimes the biggest hurdles in the woods aren't other hunters or natural predators but ourselves. That's right, the thing keeping you from leveling up in the deer woods is probably yourself. I hate to admit it, but I've screwed up more hunts for myself than other folks or coyotes have. In my earlier years of hunting, a lot of those mistakes stemmed from bad habits like hunting historical spots or trying to outwork the competition, only to run...

Big rubs and community scrapes get all the attention when it comes to deer sign, and I get it. They're cool, and in some way, they're a good indicator that you're on the right scouting path. However, they can be misleading if you misinterpret the surrounding clues or landscape. On the other hand, deer tracks don't quite get the love they deserve. They might not be as exciting as other sign, but they can tell you a lot more than a pawed-out spot...

Most deer hunters aren't living the dream of unlimited time in the woods. Tony Peterson recently pointed out in an earlier article how easy it can be to fall into the "must be nice" crowd. The reality for almost all deer hunters is a full-time job, kids, and obligations that thin our time in the field. Everyday life makes us weekend warriors with hunts squeezed into short vacations and a random day here or there. The simpler question is...

Modern whitetail hunters worship treestands like they're God's gift to deer hunting, but plenty of hunters have killed deer with their boots on the ground. Just because those old-timers who chain-smoked in red plaid decided to hunt at eye level doesn't make it outdated. It can be a great strategy when you need to move fast and stay flexible. Luckily, it doesn't demand much. As long as you understand the wind direction, scent (definitely ditch the...

There's something alluring, almost sacred, about the idea of finding a buck's bed, especially if it's still warm or matted with white hair. It's kind of like the scene in No Country for Old Men when Sheriff Bell finds the still-sweating glass of milk that Chigurh, the ruthless mercenary, drank from just minutes before. It's an indicator that you're on the trail, even if you're a few steps behind. As tantalizing as a fresh buck bed is, do you...

August might as well be "drive around and look at deer" month. The long, warm evenings are the perfect time to hop in the truck, roll the windows down, and start scanning the fields with your hunting buddy or a good dog riding shotgun. Maybe the kids tag along and point out every cow like it might sprout antlers. Either way, you can coast by fields and glass for those velvet antlers in the golden hour. For a lot of folks, driving and...

Saddle hunting has quickly evolved from a niche tactic to a mainstream method of chasing whitetails, especially for mobile-minded hunters seeking stealth and efficiency. The system's lightweight, minimalist nature allows hunters to access hard-to-reach areas with less noise and more versatility than traditional treestands. But success in the saddle hinges not just on the saddle itself, but on the essential gear that completes the system. Now...