I went back and thought about 10 random bucks I’ve shot in recent years: Sask.            30 yards OK                90 IA                  70 Sask.           130 WY              150 AL                80 MS                90 VA                60 WY             140 TX               120 Average kill distance: 96 yards. I love shots inside 100 yards (and set a lot of my blinds where I think I might get an easy shot on my TV show) because you can dispatch a deer cleanly and confidently, but there [...]

Don’t get so wrapped up in shooting and practicing with your bow this spring and summer that you put off sighting-in and shooting your rifle and muzzleloader. A few random thoughts on that: I think the old-school way is still the best way. Sight your .270, 6.5, .30-06 or whatever to print the target’s bulls-eye two inches high at 100 yards, which will put you dead-on or thereabouts out to 200 to 250 yards, depending on caliber and load. You’ll shoot 95% of your bucks inside that range anyhow. Sight-in your rifle/scope/load for the tightest 3-shot groups you can get, but if you get 2-inch groups, that is fine for deer hunting. Most modern rifles and factory loads will ground [...]

If you’re lucky you’ll fire one bullet at a mature buck this fall. Sight-in and fine-tune your rifle/scope/load this summer, and practice until you are efficient and confident out to 250 yards. Then remember these tips that will help you make that one shot count in the woods. Think out a shot before it happens. Say you’re climbing a hillside or stalking on a ridge. What if a buck jumps out of that draw? Which way will he run? Is it 100 or 200 yards across that canyon? Anticipate and be ready for a quick shot as best you can. One November day I crawled up on a buck browsing in the shade, zapped him at 173 yards with my [...]