From our good friend Zane Keen: Mike: Thought I'd drop a line and say hello. I retired from the Army last year after 28 years of service. Still living here near Ft. Bragg, NC.  Last few years I haven't been able to get into the woods much, but I've been able to hunt a few times this season and have a cool story for you.  I was lucky enough to harvest one of the oldest deer the Ft. Bragg biologists can remember recording. They aged him at 8 1/2 years old. His rack was in significant decline: 19-inch inside spread with only 3 score-able points. His back molars were completely ground to the gums, and he had no lower teeth. His ears were that of a [...]

I’ve frozen my fanny off way too many days in a tree stand over the years.  Nowadays when I’m desperately trying to fill my last tag in December or January I generally hunt on the ground. It’s warmer down there, and if you set up right, you have better hiding cover. No. 1 thing to remember: Do not set up where deer will walk straight at you through the bare winter woods. If an old doe catches you move or simply sees your blind as some strange blob that wasn’t there yesterday or last month, she’ll either spook r back off and skirt you. Any buck behind her will probably do the same. Instead, set up where a buck will [...]

If you’ve still got a buck tag in your pocket, read on. One recent winter in North Dakota was atypical, as it has been in many parts of the county these last few years.  “We had almost no snow and record high temperatures,” said local bowhunter and BIG DEER blogger Derek Plautz. “Needless to say it made the hunting difficult.” Derek hunted hard, and the first week of December he started getting trail cam pictures of a shooter 10-point. “He only showed up on cam one time in shooting hours,” he said, “but at least we knew he was there. We hunted him for several weeks.” With only 2 nights left in the season, Derek decided to change it up. [...]