Go to your hunting woods right now and make a couple of stinky scrapes and hang trail cameras near them. Several studies have shown that whitetail bucks will hit scrapes with fresh scent year-round, and noticeably in the summer months. The fake scrapes are great places to get images of bucks that will roam your area this fall. Here’s how Wisconsin hunter and friend of BIG DEER Kim Redburn, who is a big fan of summer scrapes, makes them. The picture above is good proof from one of Kim’s mock scrapes. A mock scrape is not only scent-based, but also visual. Rake out at least a 2 foot by 3 foot area below an overhanging branch.  As you rake, envision [...]

After the mild winter of 2016 in many regions, some experts are predicting a longer and more severe tick season this summer. Warm winters are easy on mice and deer, the animals that ticks typically infest. A greater number of ticks survived the mild winter, and an early spring awakened dormant insects sooner. There is concern this will trigger an increase in tick-borne illnesses. Researchers are especially worried about an uptick in Lyme disease and the Powassan virus, a rare condition that can cause brain inflammation. While you have heard of Lyme disease—there were more than 28,000 cases in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the Powassan virus is still rare. Only 75 cases have [...]