Big Deer Blog

My best hunts of the year are the ones I take with wounded veterans like Ken (left) and Calvin. Ken served in both the U.S. Marines and Army, and was injured during one of his tours in Iraq. Young Calvin lost a foot and lower leg in Afghanistan. It was an honor for me to hunt deer with these heroes in my Virginia homeland last November. Thanks to the Outdoor Recreation Heritage Fund for helping to make that happen. You will see the episode on #BIG DEER TV on the Sportsman Channel later this fall. We talked long into the nights on our hunt, and both Ken and Cal told me intense and inspiring war stories...they said that in spite of their injuries, they'd do it again [...]

A few years ago, Boone and Crockett compiled data from their record book entries and found that hunters are shooting more big animals with the .300 Mag. than with any other caliber. Would you have guessed that? Because I have 200-pound whitetail deer on my mind most of the time, I would not have imagined the .300, until I started thinking about it. Many of the “book animals” are big and heavy—brown bears, moose, elk, muskox--and so some version of the .300 Mag. makes sense. Plus, the .300 is very popular out West among mule deer hunters. In their data B&C did not distinguish among specific variations of the .300 Mag.; trophies killed with the .300 Win. Mag, .300 WSM, .300 [...]