“pre-rut”

The next 10 days are prime time for scouting big bucks transitioning between summertime bachelor groups and fall breeding patterns.

This is the deer hunter’s calculation. You ask yourself if there are low-impact entry and exit routes that will take you to and from a stand. Can you get a true wind in/near the buck’s likely bedding area? If you’re bowhunting, will you have to cut shooting lanes? Can you afford to risk making this buck even more nocturnal in October?

Opening day has come and gone. What now? Frank Miniter offers a few pointers.

Searching for a place to hunt this fall? Here are some suggestions.

Whitetail rubs are signposts of our rut dreams. They are alluring, confusing and can even be deceiving. Here are seven questions you should ask when you stop to look at a sapling rubbed raw by a whitetail’s antlers. In the answers is how to kill the buck that made it.

Good whitetail hunters will tell you to find entry and exit routes to stands that are low-impact. That’s wonderful advice, but adhering to it takes a lot of great stands off the table. Look for stands to burn in the pre-rut.

The word “superstand” refers to a rare stand location that consistently produces bucks regardless of the season or conditions. Most times hunters luck into them. But you can find your own superstand, or even make one, if you know what to look for.

There are basically two types of bleats we can utilize when hunting: a fawn-in-distress bleat and a doe-in-estrous bleat. Here's when you should deploy each.

Getting the most use out of your trail cams is all about maximizing their usefulness while minimizing their intrusion. Follow these rules and you should see success.