Last weekend at the Pope & Young Club’s Annual Convention in Reno, Nevada, the Kansas monster was officially panel scored and confirmed as the second-highest-scoring non-typical whitetail ever taken by a bowhunter. COVID postponed the panel scoring of this crazy buck, which Brian Butcher shot back on October 10, 2019, but now it’s official. Field & Stream has the full story, click here to read it.
Pour a measured charge of Pyrodex down the bore, or drop in the proper number of 50-grain Triple 7 pellets. Insert bullet and start it down the bore with a short starter. With your ramrod, seat the bullet firmly all way down and on top of the powder, but don’t tamp it or beat it hard. You just want a good, firm seat. Once fully loaded, leave the ramrod in the barrel and scratch it with a knife or mark with a Sharpie. Check the reference mark each time you load to make sure you seat the proper amount of powder and a bullet. Never cap a loaded rifle until you are in the timber and ready to hunt. When [...]
From hoof to shoulder, a whitetail deer stands 3 to 3 ½ feet (a muley is only slightly taller). Aim your binocular or spotting scope low in the brush or you’ll look right over a lot of bucks. Glass for a flickering ear or tail, the glint of an antler, a patch of white, a horizontal backbone in vertical timber… Find a piece of a deer and the whole animal will suddenly materialize in your optic. Lay back into a hillside, get comfortable and steady and break big country into quadrants. Raise and anchor your binocular/scope and scan one section slowly and methodically, then move to the next quadrant and the next… Then go back and glass each quadrant again. [...]
An old-timer once told me, “Boy, you can be the best damn hunter in the world, but if you don’t hunt where big deer live, you ain’t never gonna kill one.” The longer I’ve hunted, the more I’ve realized that guy was right. Many damn good hunters make the mistake of hunting year after year on lands that don’t grow and hold mature deer. So all they ever shoot are 6- and 8-pointers. Well, let’s change that. New Ground Now is the time to get out of your rut and find a new spot to hunt this fall. With whitetail populations healthy to stable in most regions, you shouldn’t have to look far. A small woodland or maybe a 300-acre farm [...]
1. In July, velvet antlers grow via a complex system of blood vessels, which causes them to be hot to the touch. Top whitetail scientist Dr. Grant Woods notes, “There is so much blood carrying protein and minerals to a buck’s antlers this time of year that even small antlers are easily detected by thermal imaging devices. Antler tines show up like neon signs when flying over with thermal cameras in summer.” Tiny hairs on the velvet stick out and make velvet antlers look bigger than they are. The hairs act as a radar system so the buck won’t bump into trees, fence posts, etc. and damage his soft antlers. Sebum, a semi-liquid secretion, on the hairs of the velvet give [...]