Bowhunting Archives - Page 29 of 65

17 12, 2020

Illinois Bowhunter Bags 302-Pound Buck

Clay Hanback2020-12-08T13:55:18-05:00December 17th, 2020|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Illinois Bowhunter Bags 302-Pound Buck

Today’s guest post (part II) is from Ellie and Zach Atkins, BIG DEER’s favorite hunting couple: Hey Mike, it's Zach, so I'll tell you my story now. I take “rutcation” every year from November 1st-15th from work. Well, this year was amazing! I saw a ton of deer but I was after 2 particular bucks, and by the end of my vacation I only saw them twice. They weren't close enough to shoot. My rutcation ended and I went back to work. The following weekend coming up would be shotgun season here in Illinois, on November 20th. On November 17th, my birthday, Ellie told me, "Hey, go try and buy a buck tag for Mclean County and go out this weekend [...]

16 12, 2020

Illinois Huntress Bags One-Eyed Buck

Clay Hanback2020-12-08T13:48:42-05:00December 16th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

Today’s guest post is from Ellie and Zach Atkins, BIG DEER’s favorite hunting couple: Hey Mike, it's Ellie and Zach here from Illinois. I wanted to submit our hunting photos and stories from the 2020 season. First, I'll start with Ellie’s. Last year Ellie and I bought a house in late September. So pretty much the entire October 2019 season consisted of packing and moving stuff. Almost every evening as we unloaded boxes and put our house together our cellular trail camera kept going off over and over with the same buck walking the same path. Ellie looked at me and said, "Next year we gotta focus on early season and go down and hunt that stand." Well sure enough, [...]

25 11, 2020

Indiana: Trace Koble’s Reduction Zone Giant Buck, 198 1/8!

Clay Hanback2020-11-23T09:34:38-05:00November 25th, 2020|Big Deer Stories, Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

This exclusive guest blog is from BIG DEER field reporter Dean Weimer: Trace Koble began hunting the Reduction Zone area strictly for waterfowl several years ago, but then the landowner switched from corn to soybeans and it was no longer good for ducks and geese. In 2017 Koble decided he’d put out a ground blind on this parcel, which is mostly open fields, to see what he would see. “But I never got serious about it until last year, when every sit in the blind I would see a plethora of deer filter out of a chunk of timber and feed on the other side of the field that I had permission on,” he says. This year, Trace decided to [...]

19 10, 2020

What Symmetry: Southern New York Bow Buck

Clay Hanback2020-10-16T14:02:40-04:00October 19th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|Comments Off on What Symmetry: Southern New York Bow Buck

Instagram post/message from Brendan Whelan, who shot this beauty earlier this month in southern New York: I shot at my biggest buck last year, hitting him in the shoulder and not recovering him, only to see him a week later chasing does. Having a 4-year history with that deer and only 2 encounters total made it that much harder to swallow that I messed up my one opportunity I had worked so hard for. Well, this year he never did show back up, but this guy did! I watched him grow all summer as he transitioned over into my food plot in early September, all the while keeping tabs on his movements with trail cameras. Opening week we had a [...]

7 10, 2020

Indiana: Trace Koble’s Deer Reduction Zone Giant Buck!

Clay Hanback2020-10-07T11:37:33-04:00October 7th, 2020|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|1 Comment

Friend and long-time Big Deer blogger Dean Weimer filed this field report: "Trace Koble started his 2020-21 Indiana deer season within the Allen County Deer Reduction Zone (DRZ) by killing the requisite doe on Sept. 15, which is the traditional beginning of the annual reduction hunts statewide. "Koble was happy to kill his "earn-a-buck” doe so that he could then focus on the mega-buck he’d been patterning in the days leading up to Friday, Oct. 2. This is a first-look at Koble’s big non-typical. The official Big Deer story is coming soon. Stay Tuned!" As Weimer was filing that report, another archery giant hit the ground in Indiana. Dean says: “Mike, check out Bradley Noll’s archery brute below! Man, the [...]