Special thanks to South Dakota hunter Kelly Kirsch for this awesome picture (click picture to enlarge it). Kelly had told me earlier that he’d come up with an idea for his shed collection, and his tree blew me away. Fantastic, the new official Christmas tree of BIG DEER! And thanks to all you bloggers for making 2013 our biggest traffic year yet for BIG DEER. I truly appreciate your support, and look forward to 2014 (we’re working on some cool new stuff). Merry Christmas and happy New Year. God bless you and your family…and if you’re still hunting a buck, good luck.—M.H.

One of my Canadian friends texted me this photo. The freak was supposedly shot in northern Alberta the last week of November. Next year I might move my western Canada hunts back into late November, to the tail-end of the rut. That seems to be when the old giants move better. Look at those beams and tines and mass and stickers! As if the drop on the right wasn’t enough to get me going, this monster had a drop club on his third beam. I MUST shoot a drop-tine buck someday, though as each season passes I fear I’ll never get one.

We see this in urban/suburban areas every rut: A buck chasing a doe doesn’t quite make it over an ornamental steel fence, becomes impaled and dies. Very sad, what a shame. This occurred recently in Terre Haute. This is a giant, look at that rack and especially those brows.