Big Deer Blog

To monitor the upcoming rut in your area and to keep tabs on what your fellow hunters are seeing and shooting, go to the BIG DEER Rut Report, click on your region and join the conversation. Be sure to post pictures of any big rubs or scrapes or other interesting stuff you find in the woods, and for sure post pictures of the deer you shoot. Good luck! For now while you’re here, tell me what’s going on in your woods. Are they starting to rub and scrape heavy yet? What are you seeing? Is the deer movement good? Are you hunting this weekend?

A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to a story about Brad Duke, a North Carolina hunter who killed a big velvet deer one year after he fell from his tree stand while hunting that same buck. It was cool little story, but this expanded and personal version from Brad himself is way better: It all started in 2011 when, I believe, “Stickers” was a 2 1/2 year-old. He was a small 9-point, and had not earned the name Stickers quite yet. The summer of 2012 rolled around, and he was now maybe a 125ish 9-point. I had tons of history with this buck already, but by no means was he on my hit list. Then came the summer [...]

  Zeke Pipher posted this on his Facebook the other day. Zeke is a writer and it shows, what more needs saying? I had one of my best moments outdoors a couple nights ago - my 11-year-old son shot his first buck. We spent the afternoon taking photos and processing the deer together. Fatherhood rocks.