“bucks”

A hunter’s first elk and a bogged-down stalk on a desert mule deer highlight hunts with new versions of Ruger’s M77 Hawkeye bolt actions.

Our Web Managing Editor, Shawn Skipper, recently joined Federal Premium for an early-season muzzleloader hunt in Kansas. Get a closer look at the trip with this gallery.

You see a buck across a field in the soft, late light of a summer evening. You tell yourself he isn’t really that big. The velvet on his rack in the diffused light is giving the buck cartoon proportions. But he is big enough. You next look at the woods beyond the buck and wonder how you can get him in your sights in autumn daylight. To make that happen you have to concede and understand a few things.

Hunters registered more Boone and Crockett Club whitetails during the past 10 years than in any decade before. Some of the hotspots will surprise you.

Contributor Mike Roux gives readers some early-season buck-hunting tips to get on the board fast.

Without standing crops to watch over, late-season deer hunting can be about as fruitless as a white oak in winter. When cold weather and wary deer make you want to give in, bundle up and try these tactics.

There are too many variables with wind and terrain to explore here, but if you apply these general rules to your woods you’ll see the places where, though they might have a lot of sign, the winds aren’t stable enough to hunt.

Edge habitat is not the only place to find a good buck. But hunting pressure and heat, and attractants like mast crops and scrape lines, may keep a buck away from edges longer than you’d like. Here’s how to hunt the woods to your advantage.

The route you choose to and from your stand can make or break a season. Bill Winke has some advice for selecting the best possible routes.