From Stevan Louch, thanks for sharing: My brother David killed this buck November 7 in Oscalossa. It's a main-frame 8-point. Biggest antlers I've ever held. I don't know what the record is for an 8-point; let me know what you think and if there's a possible record here. He shot it with a Bowtech and Grim Reaper broadhead. This is obviously a huge and beautiful buck, and to me the kickers and stickers give it more character. But my research of the 5 top 8-point bucks in the world shows that all of them, scoring 180 to 183 net B&C, have amazingly typical antlers with fewer deductions than David’s awesome buck. But the Louch Buck has a frame and beams [...]

I posted Friday that with the weekend beginning on October 21, the best hunting of the year was about to heat up: Historical “rut curves” assembled by biologists over decades show that bucks really begin to rev up their scraping around October 20…the data show that 5 to 7 percent of a herd’s does are bred by bucks around October 21… With the cooler weather…that will occur in the Eastern U.S. (last) weekend, I predict the buck movement and hunting will get better… after (last) week of 80-plus Indian Summer days here in Virginia, a cold front will blow through later this afternoon, and the low tomorrow morning will be 44. …the next couple of days should be good. Virginia [...]

Today’s guest blog from fellow Virginia hunter Chris Davis. These are the stories I like the best, hard-working, hard-hunting Americans doing their thing, grateful for the opportunities we have, thankful for the chance to one day shoot a big deer:     Opening day of bow season in Virginia, I went behind my house in the morning because I only had a few hours to hunt. I saw a fawn come by, but not much else. I noticed rubs on big cedar trees that were fresh. I decided to come back in the afternoon when I had more time. When I returned later that day I saw squirrels, birds and a few hawks flying around. Daylight was starting to fade when [...]