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. [...]

From our friend Oneil Baillargeon who lives and hunts in central Saskatchewan: Was fortunate to harvest "Clubroot," an ancient old buck who's been living around home for 8 years now. He's never been much of a buck until this year, going from a 5x4 last year to adding a pile of mass and brow tine length this year. Not having any other deer on camera that I was convinced were over 5 years old, I decided this was the deer I would be pursuing. Having a couple sightings the days leading up to the season opener, I was in the right place at the right time for the evening of opening day. Clubroot barely had any teeth left and carried [...]

By late November in most places the rut is winding down and there’s been a lot of pressure in the woods—people stomping around, riding ATVs, shooting guns… A bunch of bucks have been removed from the gene pool, and the survivors are spooky as stray cats. You’ve hunted all day without seeing a rack, right? Well, keep the faith and stay out there. More old deer than you think still cruise your woods into early December, hoping to hook up with one of the hot does of the season. You might score big yet. Hunt Midweek: One good thing about the post-rut is that 75 percent of the “rut hunters” who were in the woods two or three weeks are [...]