Deer Hunting Articles

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10 Monster Bucks of 2021

December 31, 2021   |  From Articles

For more than a decade, Realtree’s Rack Report has been a go-to stop to get your fill of big buck stories. Our reporters beat the bushes every fall, starting in September and ending in January, to get the scoop on the season’s biggest whitetails and coolest deer hunting stories. There...

20 Winter Deer Hunting Tips for the Last Week of Season

December 20, 2021   |  From Articles

Face it, if you haven’t tagged out by now it’s going to be tough. The first and second ruts are history in most places. Other hunters have killed the easy bucks and spooked the survivors into hiding. You’ve got two options. Eat tag soup and pack it in until next...

Mother and Son Shoot Big Locked-Up Bucks

December 17, 2021   |  From Articles

The Shields family is a hunting family. Bryan and Jamie, along with their son, Brennan, spend as much time as they can every fall chasing big whitetails in the hilly country of Boone County, Kentucky, and they have a history of tagging nice deer. Bryan Shields has been hunting his...

How to Can Deer Meat

December 1, 2021   |  From Articles

For sportsmen across the nation, freezer space comes at a premium. You can walk into the average outdoorsman’s garage and find an ice chest full of big game, waterfowl, and fish. It becomes a game of Jenga when carefully removing a package of elk brats and bag of goose jerky...

Michael Waddell’s Story Started With a Turkey Call

November 12, 2021   |  From Articles

Before Michael Waddell became an outdoor industry icon, he was an air conditioner repairman whose claim to fame was winning local turkey-calling competitions on the weekends. Unbeknownst to Waddell, he’d caught the attention of Bill Jordan, who’d heard about the talented young turkey caller from Realtree pro staffers. In 1994,...

3 Awesome Stands for Gun Hunting the Rut

November 4, 2021   |  From Articles

One morning in Oklahoma, a guide named Jim Bob pointed me to a box blind and whispered, “When the sun comes up, you can see and shoot a country mile, Brother. Watch the tree line out front. Good luck.” I climbed into the box and the sun rose a splendid...

Smack Talk: Aggressive Deer Calling Strategies

October 29, 2021   |  From Articles

Jeff Danker remembers well the first time he ever called up a buck. It was back in the ’90s, when hunting videos were becoming a thing, and the heroes on screen seemed to call up bucks with every click of the rattling antlers. Danker wanted to see a buck come...

Ghost Busters: What to Do When Your Buck Disappears

October 24, 2021   |  From Articles

Ever had a monster buck on your trail cameras that suddenly seemed to disappear? So have most hunters who run cams. Oftentimes we call these bucks ghosts, and give them nicknames in honor of their cunning and ability to evade death. Reality is, though the bucks might be ghosting you,...

Why Deer Hunting on Halloween is Scary Good

October 18, 2021   |  From Articles

Halloween is a time for candies and costumes. But to deer hunters , it’s much more than that. Hunting on Halloween has long been a tradition, and it’s the signature kickoff for the rut. The sun sets on October, and the madness begins. Still, it requires the right approach to...

Austin Riley on Baseball, Deer Hunting, and Respect for the Game

October 13, 2021   |  From Articles

Austin Riley is just like the rest of us — except he’s a lot better at baseball than probably anyone reading this. Everyone around him saw his natural skills early, including his dad, who coached him from Little League right through high school summer ball. Mississippi State offered him a...

Travis “T-Bone” Turner on Archery and Camo

September 5, 2021   |  From Articles

There was a time when Travis “T-Bone” Turner was afraid to pull back a bow. That was long before making a name for himself as a world champion 3D tournament archer and hunting personality on popular Realtree TV shows and videos, of course. But when Turner was 10 years old,...

3 Top States for DIY Big Buck Hunters

September 4, 2021   |  From Articles

For a Do-It-Yourself hunter, nothing beats the simplicity of traveling to another state, buying a deer tag over the counter, and then going to the woods. There are plenty of places for us DIYers to hunt like that and probably get a shot at a deer, too. But not as...

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Velvet Bucks

August 31, 2021   |  From Articles

For some, antler velvet is a holistic medicine and a supplement that’ll treat everything from arthritis to low libido. For others, a big buck in the fuzz is emblematic of the kickoff to fall hunting season. In a few states, you can bowhunt bucks before their velvet is stripped, making...

Bitten: Stories of Diseases From Ticks

August 24, 2021   |  From Articles

As a mom of four very young children, I was used to being tired, but this was something different. I woke up exhausted, achy and feverish. I also noticed swollen lymph nodes under my left arm. I assumed I had the flu, but while showering later that morning, I noticed...

5 Advanced Trail Camera Tactics

August 22, 2021   |  From Articles

I’ll never forget the foggy picture of a dandy buck meandering underneath my treestand. The image was captured at one-something in the morning, but that didn’t sap my innocent, then-13-year-old hopes. My wheels turned for weeks following that capture, and I dreamed of encountering the buck in person. But ultimately,...

The New Hunter’s Guide to Buying Your First Deer Rifle

July 28, 2021   |  From Articles

I’ve longed suspected that a lot of young guys and gals have spent years sitting on the fence about deer hunting. Looks kind of cool on video and social, but is it for me? Then came COVID. Last fall, tired of being cooped up and masked up and intrigued by...

The 2021 Western Region Deer Hunting Forecast

July 23, 2021   |  From Articles

The West has arguably the best scenery in the nation. Hunters dream of seeing it with gun or bow in hand. And if that’s all you care about, it takes the cake. If you want a nice whitetail, it has loads of Pope and Young-class bucks. Boone and Crockett whitetails?...

The 2021 Midwest Deer Hunting Forecast

July 21, 2021   |  From Articles

Summer is here, and deer season isn’t far off. After contacting every wildlife agency and department of natural resources (DNR) in the region, it’s clear that some states are shaping up quite nicely, while others are lagging. Luckily for you, we’ve sifted through the data to produce in-depth reports. If...

The 5 Best Bullet Styles for Deer Hunting

July 20, 2021   |  From Articles

Today’s gun writers can make a decent living writing clickbait. Any story titled “Top 10 Calibers for (Insert Critter Here)” is about guaranteed to pull readers in and make them argue, and website publishers love that. But the truth is, for killing deer inside 200 yards — where the overwhelming...

The 2021 Northeast Deer Hunting Forecast

July 12, 2021   |  From Articles

Deer season is knocking on the door, and it’s time to answer questions people have about the Northeast. Hunters will be pleased to know that things are shaping up quite nicely for the region. Thanks to several consecutive mild winters, solid mast crops, improved management decisions by states, and more,...

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