By David E. Petzal

So, there I was, sitting in a box blind in Maine 10 minutes before last shooting light, looking through my scope at a hillside with a whitetail on it, trying to decide whether the creature had horns or not. This was complicated by the fact that the whitetail was already in deep shadow, and that the hillside was backlighted by the setting sun, and by the fact that it (the deer, not the sun) had its buttocks toward me and its head down in an infernal tangle of branches, weeds, and other annoying plant life.

I was looking at the critter through a Zeiss Conquest rifle scope and, good as the scope is, I was unable to tell if it was time to pull the trigger. Finally, since the light was running out, I said the hell with it and picked up a Zeiss 10x42 Conquest HD binocular (a loaner; sent it back yesterday) and saw at a glance what I could not see through the scope—that the beast was a doe and that the day was over. [ Read Full Post ]

By Jeff Holmes

Overall activity status: Most rifle opportunities out West have closed or are drawing to a close for the season, and in the case of Wyoming, deer hunting just drew to a close altogether, just as the rut peaked.
 
Mike Reinhart of Wind River Whitetails near Riverton, Wyoming, has been a key source for Western rut info this year, and he reports that bucks were still going at it in Wyoming as deer seasons drew to a close on December 1. They ended a highly successful 2012 season on November 30 with this crooked-antlered buck, culled from Rinehart's growing whitetail herd by Justin Sheehan of Riverton. [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

Seasoned bowhunters know that picking the right tree in which to hang a stand can mean the difference between putting an arrow through a buck and just standing there with your thumb up your nose, watching him lollygag, broadside and without a care, just out of range. The problem is that the perfect tree in terms of location is not always perfect in terms of cover. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

I hear a lot of deer hunting stories from fellow bowhunters. Inevitably, a small but notable percentage of them start like this: “I thought I hit him perfectly, right behind the shoulder….” Yet it turns out that the hunter couldn’t have hit the deer perfectly because he either failed to recover the animal or only found it after an arduous tracking job.

I think bowhunters need to redefine the “perfect” shot, which has likely been influenced by the 3-D targets we use for practice. Most full-body deer targets sport a neat little 10-ring immediately behind the “animal’s” front elbow, over an area that would result in a heart-shot deer. Naturally, putting an arrow in a real buck here will kill him within seconds and probably within sight. 
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By David Draper

Overall Activity Status: The very presence of this blog (and the entire Field & Stream Rut Reporter site) is proof positive that one of the most powerful tools for predicting the rut is social media. Earlier this week, my inboxes blew up with excited reports and probing questions from hunters who so far this season have been quiet. Now that we’re on the verge of things breaking wide open, it seems like every hunter I know is either in the woods or itching to find out what day they should call in sick. My suggestion: right now!
 
Why? From the Dakotas to Kansas, my contacts are checking in with reports of major deer activity, which is heartening since many of these same contacts were lamenting the lack of deer spotted even just a week or so ago. While EHD obviously took a pretty good hit from localized deer populations (Nebraska hunter Kurt Kaiser estimates he’s lost 40-60 percent of the deer in his area), bucks are showing up on camera and in person. It’s the peak of the pre-rut, and with a cold front coming on this weekend, I say we should all go hunting today. [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

“The only time I ever got my s**t together, I couldn’t pick it up.”—Roger Miller

Packing successfully for a hunting trip is far more important than making out a will which will hold up. If you die and your will is successfully contested, what do you care? You’re dead. If, however, you bring only longjohn bottoms on a hunt and leave the tops at home, you’ll regret it bitterly for a week or more.

Because I’m at the age when I have trouble remembering who I am, much less all the stuff that I have to take along, I’ve developed a system that’s worked pretty well. First, take out all the hunting gear you own. I mean everything, even if it has no place where you’re going.

Second, assemble what you need, and don’t do this by simply slinging it into a duffle bag. Don’t assume that you have patches and gun oil in your cleaning kit. You may have taken them out on the last trip because the TSA doesn’t allow gun oil. Are all your batteries fresh? Have you gained so much weight since last season that, when you button your heavy pants, little purple veins erupt on your nose?
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