I’ve been researching and writing/blogging about whitetail deer for more than 30 years and one thing has remained amazingly constant. If you want to kill a big buck, a really big buck and maybe even a Booner, hunt in one of these 9 states. Wisconsin Illinois Iowa Minnesota Kentucky Ohio Kansas Indiana Check a 2000 version of the Pope & Young or Boone & Crockett record book, and you’ll find those states at or near the top for buck entries. Look into the future and read a 2030 version of a record book and the data will remain similar. The top states have agriculture, edge and cover; rich soils; and well-established buck genetics. Most have a one buck per year [...]

Matt send me this picture and asked, "Mike, what do you think?" I replied, "Not for me, but got to admit it's different and actually pretty cool!" What do you think, like the meat pole mount or not?

If you haven’t tagged out by now it’s gonna be tough. The first and second ruts are history. Other hunters have killed the easy bucks and spooked the survivors into hiding. You’ve got 2 options. Eat tag soup and pack it in until next fall, or bundle up, hang in the woods and try to pull an 8-pointer out of your stocking cap on one of the last days of the season. I reckon you’ll go for the latter, so I pulled together these tips to help you score at the tag-end of the season. Hunt Grains and Greens Thin and weary after weeks of rutting, does and bucks have got to eat, especially when it’s cold and snowy. Corn [...]