As the first rays of an approaching sunrise poked through the darkness, I could see a cow elk grazing along the top of a ridge a several hundred yards away. As more light filled the hollows, several other elk were spotted, slowly but certainly making their way to the top...
This fall, I’ll be squirrel hunting. Something else that’s guaranteed is the bag I’ll have slung over my shoulder. For as long as I can remember, my father, Mick, as dedicated a squirrel chaser as ever walked the Earth, carried with him into the autumn woods a light-green military satchel...
Editor's note: This article originally appeared Sept. 30, 2015, on Realtree.com. Even the sharpest wing-shooters don’t go 100 percent in the marsh. But if you want to fling box upon box of steel skyward to kill only one or two ducks , follow these instructions. Don't Prepare Yourself Some folks...
During the 2000s, Earn-a-Buck in Wisconsin (EAB) was about as controversial as a politically charged viral Facebook post in today’s age. To say EAB in Wisconsin was a debated topic is putting it mildly. EAB was a system created to reduce deer numbers. If a hunter wanted to harvest a...
Every season, whitetail enthusiasts engage one another and debate the hottest topics in all of deer hunting. Who can blame them? I can’t. I’m one of them. It’s these very questions a hunter must ask in order to be successful and consistently shoot mature bucks. Due to all of this...
Melissa Bachman isn’t just another pretty face in camouflage, put in front of the video camera to move the TV ratings needle. Yeah, she’s a good-looking lady, but more than that, she’s a hunter, spending 140 days or more afield every year. Bachman was raised in a hard-working, small-town family...
Killing a big buck is easy. You just head out to the stand, crack the horns together a few times, whisper a few lines about the treestand setup to the guy over your shoulder holding the videocamera and then whack the first monster that saunters by. Oh if life actually...
Hunting with Team Realtree seems like the job that every outdoorsman would love to have. You'd get to hunt some of the greatest places in the world, take trophy game and live the big life as a professional hunter. After reading this up-front interview with Michael Waddell, you might just...
Duck boats and pornography came up in conversation the other day but not in the way you’re thinking. I was trying to describe what I thought the perfect duck hunting boat would look like, including the features and equipment it would have, and it boiled down to what U.S. Supreme...
It's deer season. And you've got your hopes and dreams set on a big mature buck. Maybe you've already seen the deer. Maybe it's only come to you in your dreams. Regardless, it's gonna take a little luck, work and know-how to make it a reality. Here's much of what...
Take a drive through the hill country of the top whitetail states and it is easy to see how deer grow old and gnarly. Steep bluffs and elevated hideouts provide bucks the ultimate habitat for survival. The historical Pope and Young harvest map clearly shows some association between big bucks...
I constantly have hunters tell me of a giant buck they have on the property they hunt, yet they can't kill it, or even see in daylight. But get a lot of trail camera pictures and see plenty of sign (rubs, big tracks, etc.). A lot of guys conclude that...
