Mike, at our hunt club we gut our deer out in the woods, bring them into the skinning shed and weigh them before processing. We obviously know the dressed weight, but are always guessing the live weight of those deer. Is there a good way to calculate that?—Thanks, John from VA John, to get a good estimate of a buck’s or a doe’s live weight, hoist your gutted deer and weigh it on a scale. Then pull out your Smartphone, open the calculator and multiply the field-dressed weight by 1.28. For example, a gutted buck that goes 140 on a scale would have weighed about 179 on the hoof in the woods. A mature 10-pointer that dressed out at 170 [...]

This from my friend John Fink, who is the director of product management for Remington rifles: Mike, attached is a deer I killed in observance of Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11 with the new Model 700 Ultimate Muzzleloader here in NC.  Pretty sure he is a buck I passed three times last season. Hard to tell from the pic, but his left brow is over 9”.  The buck I passed last year on the same ridge also had a long left brow but no mass last year. The shot distance was approximately 120 yards. I was shooting the Premier 250-grain AccuTip with 200 grains of Triple Seven (4 50-grain pellets).  That load has been accurate for me and dropped this buck in his [...]

Hunt Hidden: Watch the brushy edges and draws of small, out-the-way pine cedar or honeysuckle thickets. Bucks sneak along those edges between bedding and feeding areas, moving in little places where they haven’t been spooked earlier in the season. And look for hidden “buck holes”: A beaver swamp near a gravel road…an old hog lot grown over behind a farmer’s barn…you get the idea. Check for a buck hiding out in a spot you and other hunters missed earlier. Keep Doe Watching: One December in Kansas, my friend Jim Riley spotted a doe being dogged by three bucks, but the brush was too thick for a shot. Jim returned to the tree stand the next morning. The doe came back, followed [...]

Hi Mike: I have followed your website and blog for several years. I wanted to share this buck with you as he is by far the biggest and heaviest thing I have ever killed. He probably will not score well, but I don’t really care. I shot him Friday the 21st in southern Illinois with Golden Triangle Outfitters. He came into a food plot chasing a doe at 7:45 in the morning and I shot him at 55 yards. My old Remington 1187 did the trick one more time! The left side antler measures 9.75 inches at its widest point and if you didn’t notice it also has a 4.5 inch drop tine (first one for me, only second buck I have [...]

Hey Mike: Big fan of yours.  I love reading about your passion for deer hunting. I thought I would share with you a deer my oldest son, Brandon, 13, shot recently.  The majority of our hunting is done in the Texas Panhandle.  You always say that one of the best times to be out in the field hunting whitetails is November 8th.  Well, that held true in this case as well. The rut had not quite kicked in yet, but this buck was checking some does when we saw him right before dark.  My son made a great shot on the animal at about 200 yards.  I couldn’t have been happier for him.  He has wonderful passion for deer hunting [...]