2018 will go down as a tremendous rack year, as some giants are being shot across North America. Will it also be the year the record is broken for the highest-scoring whitetail buck ever killed with a bow? This picture has been all over social media. Here’s a report from a source I trust: This buck was killed in Edgar County, Illinois between Paris and Chrisman by a disabled Veteran Luke Brewster of Virginia. His close friend was hunting the buck and he came down and got a shot on him his first day on the hunt. The deer was 100% free range and legal after being investigated by the IDNR. It has 39 countable points and green scored 311” [...]

Big shout out to Big Daddy, who has stuck with me on the BIG DEER blog since I launched it 10 years ago: Mike: Got this guy October 16 from my place in Potter County. This is my 40th archery buck in 40 years from Pennsylvania, which is a 1 buck per year state. Good hunting, Terry Murphy, a.k.a. Big Daddy. Way to go Big Daddy, one heck of an accomplishment sir!

Some good hunters I know don’t hunt their best stands until around Halloween, and then they hunt them hard for the next 3 weeks. Their strategy is sound: put no pressure on bucks until they start rutting and moving more in daylight hours.   Good in theory, yes, but I don’t believe that approach is practical for most of us. You’re busy…you hunt when you can. If that happens to be in October, great. The woods are beautiful, the weather is nice and there are fewer people in the timber than there will be come November. There are opportunities to get your buck, and here is one thing to keep in mind. Grant Woods, one of the premier whitetail scientists [...]