Wired To Hunt

Back in 2020, I spent some time in Michigan with Mark Kenyon filming our Back 40 series. At one point during a mid-summer stand hanging mission, he decided to check a few trail cameras. I watched as he swapped out SD cards, and then doused each camera with scent-eliminating spray. At the time I thought he was being just a bit too neurotic. Now, I'm not so sure. As trail cameras become more and more ubiquitous across the whitetail sphere, it seems...

Ever considered your career choice based on hunting seasons? You're likely not the first. In fact, a lot of serious hunters will admit that their career choices revolved around hunting. After all, if you have to work, why not do something that allows you to hit the woods as much as you want? You could brave the content creator waters and try to make a living through YouTube, but that route has become oversaturated and highly predictable. If your...

Trail cameras don't always take pictures of that nice buck that's on your hit list for this fall. In fact, sometimes they can capture strange and downright funny moments in the woods when no one is looking. So we want to see the most hilarious frames your trail camera has snapped. You can upload them right here in the comment section or email them to radio@themeateater.com. To view the official rules of the contest, click here. The winning photo...

I used to give whitetails a lot more credit than they probably deserve. This led me to be a little neurotic, and often, plan my summer stand-hanging missions during rainstorms. The logic was pretty simple, really. I figured that the rain would cover up my intrusion, and more importantly, wash away all of my scent. That may have been true, I don't really know. What I do know is that heading to the woods during summer rain showers kept producing...

Like most rebellious teenagers, I wasn't much for rules. But the Thanksgiving weekend of 2007, I played it by the book. My dad gave me strict instructions not to leave my hunting blind until dark, especially if I shot a deer. And, Buddy, did I keep that bucket seat warm. My ears were still ringing when I peered through the new hole in the blind's shoot-through mesh. The buck I shot dropped in its tracks, and I could see its white underbelly lying...

Deer hunting is simple enough, right? Locate, read, and interpret the sign. Then, you formulate a plan to ambush them while they travel, feed, or some combination of the two. In its simplest form, that is how you would hunt and kill a deer. Of course, harvest rates tell us that it's a little more complicated than that. Hunting pressure, deer populations, and a host of other variables also tip the scales one way or another. As much as hunting...

Now that the spring gobbler season has come and gone and the heat of summer settles in, many hunters stash their gear and count the days until the opening morning of deer season. However, the off-season doesn't mean hunters should take a break. In fact, summer may be the most underrated time to scout, strategize, and prepare for a successful fall. I'll admit it, I start getting excited for fall long before it arrives. While most people spend the...

I typically give my garage a good cleaning every few months. Every time I do, I pick up some of my old antlers, sheds, and dead heads. I'll reminisce on some of my favorite hunts or make false promises to myself about new spots. Then, I put them back in the corner until the next cleaning, where they go on collecting dust. I'm sure most hunters can relate to this hoarding dilemma. While I won't just throw away a set of antlers, there are better...

Prepping for deer season starts long before October. Hanging stands and trimming shooting lanes are important, but that shouldn't be the only preseason work on your schedule this year. While it might not be as sexy, habitat improvements can provide immediate and long-term benefits for private hunting properties. In fact, I'd bet my favorite hunting rifle that habitat management will increase your odds of success more than buying a new tree stand...

On Wednesday, May 7, North Dakota finalized its 2025 season dates and license quotas. The North Dakota Game and Fish (NDGF) agency notably cut licenses down to 42,300. This is 7,800 tags or 16% fewer than 2024. The tag reductions apply to most of the state's deer tags, including both either-species tags and specifically designated whitetail tags. Muzzleloader-only licenses were also slashed. The only tag quotas that weren't significantly impacted...

Summer is the perfect time for bowhunters to sharpen their skills and ensure they're ready when hunting season arrives. While shooting a few arrows at a backyard target is better than nothing, structured drills can dramatically improve accuracy, consistency, and confidence. This past summer, after diving into the saddle-hunting craze, I found myself perched fifteen feet up in one of our backyard trees. The best way to get comfortable with a new...

Every shed hunter knows the feeling: the exhilaration of picking up an antler and the instant curiosity about where the other side might be located. It could be resting a few feet away; it could be hidden in a brushy draw a half mile away, or it could be in the next county. There's no way of knowing for certain—but new research may offer some clues. Researchers at the University of Nebraska Kearney recently finished a 13-year study that aimed to...

It doesn't matter how much post-season scouting I do, I always regret not adding more deer hunting spots to my list. While I think there's merit in compiling historical data and spending time on a few properties, you can never have too many hunting spots for various reasons. Habitat changes from year to year, properties change hands, and hunting pressure heats up. Even drastic weather conditions might alter the way deer use (or don't use) the...

I started my trapping career on the game lands of central North Carolina. By that time, I had already spent a decade hunting public-land deer and thought I had a pretty good grasp on the process. I had no idea that my winter trapping adventures would teach me not only all about furbearers but even more about the whitetails they share the land with. I spent two years learning to trap in my favorite whitetail honey holes but generally viewed...

It's a near-constant drumbeat in many hunting circles. The public land is just too crowded. It's a blanket statement tossed around, at least partially, to blame folks like me for promoting public land whitetail hunting too much. It's also a good statement to use if you want to explain away how you didn't fill a tag last year. It's also, in some areas, true. At least at certain points of the season, it's true. But overcrowding is subjective. The...

Texas game wardens announced yesterday that 22 suspects have been charged with 1,200 violations related to illegal whitetail smuggling and black-market wildlife trade. The smuggling operation encompassed three deer breeding facilities, ten release sites, one deer management pen, and three illegal, unregistered facilities. The smugglers and illegal breeders are accused of poaching wild deer to replace their own, falsifying mandatory CWD tests, and...

Last winter, at least in the Upper Midwest where I live, was dreamy. If you're not passionate about sledding or building snowmen, it was dreamy anyway. We didn't get any real snow to speak of, and for me, that meant I had a lot of time to work on my small deer properties. Every other week, I drove across the river into Wisconsin to work on my ground. I got a lot done, but that opportunity was an outlier and not the rule. This year, real winter...

It doesn't take long to browse YouTube before you find that there's an unlimited amount of hunting content. For better or worse, you don't have to be a pro to upload your hunting adventures. You can watch everything from seasoned hunters, like the Element crew, chase big bucks across the country to weekend warriors shooting their first GoPro hunts. Regardless of content quality, that endless stream of hunting media has conditioned hunters to have...

Like the UFO poster hanging in agent Fox Mulder's office states, I want to believe…that maybe the moon and deer movement are connected. Personally, I've never considered moon phase when hunting, but I know plenty of hunters who live and die by the moon phase and position. The theory that moon phase and position somehow affect buck movement has permeated our modern hunting culture for decades. In fact, hunters of all calibers (old school, newbies...

For most hunters, February marks a definitive end to deer season and likely a welcomed break. Unless you plan to post-season scout, take down trail cams, or join the increasingly popular shed hunting community. February, for me at least, serves as a reminder that the work of deer hunting extends beyond the official seasons. For better or worse, my wife has also come to this realization. As a certified weekend warrior, I already struggle to find...

Post-season reflection isn't just about missed opportunities, but it's a great time to evaluate your hunting setup, too. Improving your hunting skills requires learning from your mistakes and making changes next season so you don't repeat them. This includes your hunting gear. Just like you might drop or add certain hunting techniques and strategies, you'll also know which gear stays and which gear needs to go to eBay or the dump. As someone who...

Hunting hill country or mountainous areas presents its own set of challenges. However, the terrain at least provides a starting point that flatlands don't give up so easily. Saddles, benches, or drainages typically stand out on a map. Subtle terrain features and soft edges don't. The lack of terrain and monotonous habitat, especially in the big woods, can be intimidating when you're e-scouting. Unless you're working with hard edges, you'll have...

Trail cameras can be incredibly handy tools for deer hunters. You can learn more about what deer frequent a specific area, how they use the landscape, and whether or not a booner or a forkie has worked that one scrape. But like all technological advancements in the deer woods, they can serve more as a stumbling block than a resource for many hunters. I like to think of trail camera data as a movie preview. You can infer a lot from a preview, but...

Hunt long enough, and you'll miss. It's just part of hunting. Some misses can be comical. All of them make great stories. Others haunt you for the rest of your days. In fact, I'm positive that whoever came up with the cliché saying that “time heals all wounds” never hunted. I have a few misses that still wake me up in a cold sweat every now and then, including what would have been my biggest buck to date. If there's any consolation in missing, it...

Hunters like easy, or at least easier. That's not a knock, it's just our evolution put into practice. This is evident in whitetail hunting in a variety of ways, not the least of which is the push for crossbow inclusion in various states. While some folks make the argument that crossbows are really no different from vertical bows, anyone who has shot both knows how that's just not true. Anyone who has been busted drawing a bow in close proximity...

At this point in the year, most folks have called it quits, and many states' deer seasons have closed. While many hunters turn their attention to fly tying, ice fishing, or even shed hunting, a lot of hunters, especially down South, are still trying to punch tags. In fact, most of the Gulf Coast states have prime rutting action this time of year. While some of these states might not seem like prime whitetail destinations, they do offer reasonable...

For bowhunters, saddle hunting rules the current mobile hunting trend. Ultralight lock-on stands come in a close second, but we're in the heyday of saddles. While this might be the go-to method for archers, it hasn't gained as much traction with the rifle-hunting crowd. I constantly meet or talk with hunters who are intrigued by saddle hunting, and they always ask the same question: Is it comfortable? The short answer is absolutely. More...

No matter where you hunt, navigating gun hunting pressure presents challenges. In the Midwest, especially straight-wall cartridge states, you might only have to worry about the orange armies for a few weeks every season. In Southern states, gun season might span months. In my home state of Mississippi, gun season basically runs from the week before Thanksgiving to the end of January. On public lands, six of those weeks might be dedicated gun...

For many reasons, the rut can be the best and most exciting time to kill a buck. Even sage bucks let down their guards this time of year, and there's always a chance that one could run through your setup. As hopeful as rut hunting might seem, those same chance encounters can make it unpredictable and frustrating. Even if you blanked during the rut, you should still have high hopes for the late season. By this time of the season the temps, leaves...

Whether you're hunting the early season, rut, post-rut, or late season, finding fresh sign should be your top priority. After all, if you can consistently find deer, you'll have a lot of success—and fun—during hunting season. You'll find that phrase (fresh sign) in almost any article you read on deer hunting, including plenty that I've penned. But, like other vague terms, “fresh sign” only becomes helpful if you understand what it means. For...

One of the big trends in whitetail hunting is box blinds. What was once a Texas anomaly has spread across the whitetail's range in a major way during the last decade. This is a great move if it fits your style and your budget. The other end of the spectrum is the mobile craze, with its saddles and featherweight stands and sticks. I'm a big proponent of embracing as many options as possible, because you never know what you might need to be...

I know a lot of hunters who observe some sort of hunting tradition around Thanksgiving, whether it falls on the actual day or encompasses that weekend. During this time of year, gun seasons are typically underway. From famed ladder stands to annual man drives or deer-dog camps down South, hunting traditions can be some of the most exciting and fun times of deer season. For a lot of hunters, these traditions have sparked a lifetime of hunting...

This is not the rut I was expecting. In fact, my 2024 whitetail rut has been about as far from what most whitetail hunters dream of as it could possibly get. I have not seen a single buck chasing does. I have not witnessed a single buck fight. I have not heard a buck grunt, snort wheeze, or even sneeze! It. Has. Been. Slow. But, with that off my chest, I also recognize that there's no point dwelling on it. The important question is this; What can...

I've never owned a four-wheeler or a side-by-side. I also rarely hunt places where my deer die close to the road. This reality has led me to consider all aspects of getting deer out of the woods without killing myself via a miserable drag. What that has taught me is that a lot of folks just don't understand what the options are, or how to figure out which one is best for individual hunts. That's a shame, because there's nothing better than...

Rifle hunters typically receive unfair generalizations. After all, those fuds make easy scapegoats, tramping through the woods in blaze orange. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of hunters who fit the fud stereotype, but that's hardly an indicator of most rifle hunters. While it's easy for us bowhunters to see rifle hunting as a less refined way of taking game, annual data on man days and successful harvests should tell us that rifle hunting...

They were definitely buck tracks. I was standing on a wide open hillside in the warm afternoon sun, looking down at the tracks and wondering if I even had a chance. We'd had good snow in the early season, but a warm front had come through the day before, pushing a sheet of rain ahead of it that melted every beautiful white inch of accumulation before I had managed to find a track worth following. I was planning to give up on tracking that day and...

When you think about the rut, still-hunting probably doesn't pop into your head. All-day sits, setting up downwind of doe bedding, or hanging in a funnel usually top the list of rut-hunting tactics. If you've done your homework and put the time in, you'll probably have a decent shot at shooting a buck. But what if all-day sits just don't interest you, or you're hunting somewhere new? Those all-day sits won't do you any good if you're hunting a...

When I first started saddle hunting I thought the money I spent on the gear bought me an instant level-up. If you've hung in a saddle for any amount of time, you know this isn't the case. Sometimes too much freedom leads to paralysis or over analyzing, and this is especially true for saddle hunting. Just because you can theoretically hunt any tree, doesn't mean you'll have a sure shot at a big buck—even during the rut. You still have to read the...

The archery opener has come and gone, along with the entire month of October, and you still haven't crossed paths with a mature buck. Turn the page to November, crisp mornings, cold fronts, and the rut brings the promise of crunching leaves and cruising bucks. Unfortunately, almost as quick as the newfound hope arrives, the grind begins, and you find yourself on the back half of the rut, running low on sleep and ideas. You know that time on stand...

This is essentially what my wife told me after I returned, complaining, from a recent hunt. It's not exactly the consolation I was looking for, but it was an honest assessment, albeit frank. While she didn't mean it as a slight or even a passive-aggressive dig, she did help me reevaluate my goals and expectations as a hunter who works multiple jobs, has a family, and pursues other commitments and interests. Now, before you tear me apart in the...

According to my wife, I'm a late bloomer with a lot of things. She's not wrong, but one that she doesn't care about but which bothers me a lot, is that I'm just starting to really incorporate decoys into my deer hunting strategy. I've spent so much time hunting public land and other pressured places, which often lack a good class of mature bucks, that it just never really resonated with me. I did manage to lure in a cruising Nebraska buck several...

Opening day has come and gone. The October Lull is fading in the rearview mirror. And, now, the whitetail rut is staring us right in the hairy eyeball. It's just about here. As you might have guessed by now, my opening day plan did not go as I'd hoped. In fact, the two bucks I've been after in southern Michigan have been complete ghosts. One hasn't shown since October 3rd. The other, which I wrote about last time, has been AWOL since the...