Has your Momma ever given you that look with the lowered eyebrow and clenched jaw that said, "Get yourself in line or else?" Yeah, most everyone has experienced that at some point. It's called non-verbal communication. It can be paired with any given emotion, but we seem to remember the...
Wait for him to stop. Let him turn broadside. Are you steady? Are you on him? Don’t take the shot unless you feel completely comfortable. That was the advice from my mentors when I first got into hunting. And I’ve said the same to people I've mentored myself. Careful shot...
Feral hogs are one of the country’s great ecological disasters. Few pests are more difficult to control, or more immediately detrimental to native ecosystems. In fact, some biologists consider hogs to be the most destructive invasive species on the planet. Though their spread across the United States has been slowed...
When I moved on from squirrels to hunting deer with my dad in the 1970s, there were about 200,000 whitetails in Virginia. Today, we’ve got five times that many. In the 1980s and ’90s, we went from “if it’s brown it’s down” to the “big buck” era. Whitetail management was...
Is there really such a thing as a “tough” game animal? After all, a bullet or arrow through the vitals will do the job on anything, from squirrels to elephants, right? That’s true. But equally true is that some critters, due to the size of their vitals, thickness of hide,...
In my formative deer hunting years, I’d park an extra quarter mile from my hunting area, throw a climbing stand on my back, and hike all the way to my tree. Often as not I’d spook a deer somewhere along the way. Back in those days, too, I’d sometimes listen...
Scott Bestul was looking forward to an evening hunt in southern Minnesota. It was a 25-degree November afternoon with snow on the ground, and Bestul — a 40-year veteran of the deer woods and longtime whitetails columnist for Field & Stream — knew it was likely to be a good...
The Grand Slam Club — later to become Grand Slam Club/Ovis — was founded in 1956 by Bob Housholder. It was a time of rising popularity for conservation, and records preservation was part of that initiative. One of his goals was to document those who bagged all North American trophies...
The best holiday gifts are those that blend right in under the tree, thanks of course to a perfect camouflage pattern. This year we’ve pooled our resources to come up with a wish list of gear that’s sure to please the hunter on your list. And if you want to...
Our third Antler Nation roundup centers on the Midwest region. These big-woods and grain states offer good to great deer hunting, and we’ve updated each state’s page with current hunting regs, license costs, and other vital information. Illinois With advanced planning and in-the-field scouting, it’s possible to find a public-land...
Really old whitetails with undesirable antler traits appear nationwide, but sometimes, these animals exist in higher concentrations. This occurs even in states and regions known for incredible genetics. From unmanaged areas to properly managed tracts, let’s examine this phenomenon. Unmanaged Areas In unmanaged settings, many hunters are satisfied with shooting...
There are promised lands in the elk world where a 300-class bull is just okay, compared to the mammoths roaming around. Multiple elk states have these hidden gems. The difficult part is drawing a tag. Each state handles things a bit differently, and wait times can be up to 20...
