When Nick Whitney, who is active duty with the Air Force military police, was transferred to eastern Nebraska a few years ago, he began to research local public hunting spots. Since Nick is an ardent bowhunter, a state area near his new base that permits only archery and muzzleloaders was a good place to start. Nick hunted there awhile and encountered a few small bucks and some other people. Then he was deployed to Afghanistan and couldn’t hunt for a year. Upon returning home, he was determined to make 2017 his year. “I decided to go for it and hike as deep on the 3,000 acres as I could,” said Nick. He started scouting in late summer, making the 90-minute [...]

I’ve been shooting a bow for 50 years—started out with a recurve and traded up to a compound like most people do--so I’ve got the physical technique of drawing, aiming and shooting an arrow down pat. Now it’s all in my head. No doubt in my mind, if you hunt with a bow that is well-tuned you can will an arrow in and through a deer’s vitals if you train your brain to do it. The trouble is, most hunters are too busy worrying about their shooting form or fiddling with a fancy new rest, sight or other piece of gear. They forget about the mental part, and that is a mistake. You can have the best-tuned $1,200 bow, arrows [...]

From Kansas to Virginia and north to Canada, 95 percent of the adult does will come into estrous and be bred from roughly November 5-20, regardless of moon phase, or weather for that matter. Biologists will tell you it’s been that way for years in the Northern two-thirds of the country, and will continue to be that way forever. So take off anytime from Halloween though Thanksgiving, and you’ll hunt rutting deer. And anytime you hunt rutting deer you are going to have a good time, with the potential to shoot a good buck. But I do believe that some days and weeks are better than others to take your bowhunting vacation according to when the various phases of the [...]