Author: Darron McDougal
Darron McDougal
Darron McDougal, a full-time freelance outdoor writer, has resided in central Wisconsin for his entire life, except for a 2-year jaunt during which he and his wife, Becca, traveled and lived in a fifth-wheel camper. Becca often hunts with Darron and is an integral part of his publishing success, capturing professional-grade photography that often accompanies his articles. The McDougals do minimal deer hunting around their home. Instead, they love to hunt DIY-style, primarily on public lands, out west. Hunting unfamiliar territory has its thrills and challenges, and it truly tests a hunter's prowess. Despite the low success odds of this hunting style, Darron has done very well, and he accredits his success and accomplishments to God. So far, he's hunted whitetails in 11 states and harvested deer in nine. He enjoys hunting all sorts of wild game from turkeys to hogs to elk. He also occasionally mentors youth or beginner hunters. While bowhunting is his preferred method, he doesn't think twice when a rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader hunt fits his schedule. He's been shooting archery for nearly three decades and has 20 years of hunting experience.
Is a guided hunt all that it’s cracked up to be, or should you go the DIY angle? The ice-cold November mist and biting winds sucked the warmth from my body as I watched two well-traveled deer trails along a dry creek bed. The morning had been slow, but a commotion abruptly signaled the approach of a hot doe followed by a mature but broken-racked buck. Both passed by my stand. Suddenly, a larger buck flew onto the scene. I mouth-grunted to stop him at 27 yards, and my arrow zipped perfectly through his ribs. He didn’t make it very…
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MELISSA BACHMAN ‘Memory Chase’ is more than a segment of the Winchester Deadly Passion TV show; it’s also a movement to spur kids to explore hunting and the outdoors. Unless you’re not a hunter or you’ve been living underneath a rock, Melissa Bachman needs no introduction. Perhaps you’ve watched her TV show, Winchester Deadly Passion. If so, you’re probably familiar with the “Memory Chase” segment, but if not, that’s okay. Here’s the scoop. In this segment, kids are encouraged to film their hunts (with help from parents or mentors) and submit the raw footage to Melissa. She…
Some of the best DIY Whitetail hunting can be had by applying for and drawing tags “There he is,” my wife hissed. She was referring to a wide-racked 5×6 buck that suddenly appeared, along with another buck, in a shadowed draw beneath us. I adjusted my posture to see above our thrown-together sagebrush blind. Presented with a 54-yard, quartering-away opportunity, my CVA Paramount Pro muzzleloader soon cracked. Seconds later, the motionless 22-inch-wide buck was all ours. Scores of Whitetail hunters spend years hunting the same places and continually falling short of expectations. If that describes you, perhaps taking a big…
Want to try your hand at bowhunting deer in a unique eco-region of North America? Give Arizona a shot. It was the end of the morning, and I’d encountered 22 mule deer, including one buck that I had to talk myself out of because he was pretty nice. It was a great morning of hunting, particularly because I was hunting on highly accessible public land and with an OTC deer license that I’d bought at Walmart. There also weren’t a bunch of other hunters around. In fact, I saw none that morning and only a couple during the eight-day hunt.…
Introducing kids to hunting is a great move. Here’s why. It was a snowy, cold April morning 15 years ago when two big gobblers approached the decoys. My younger sister—I was mentoring her at the time during Wisconsin’s youth hunt— cocked the hammer back on an old 20-gauge shotgun. She aimed and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, the gun went “click.” The toms left, and I was frustrated that the gun had misfired. I left my sister along with my mother in the blind and drove a short distance to retrieve my grandpa’s newer 20-gauge pump gun. Before long, I reached…
For the time of your bowhunting life, get aggressive with these big-eared deer It was now or never. I charged ahead through the scattered junipers, disregarding the bedded fawn watching me make the maneuver. My focus was on the grunts emitting from an old buck I’d first encountered one year earlier. He’d also been taunting me for the last few days in a wide-open wheat field with a large doe harem. But a wintery onslaught with fierce winds drove the harem down into an adjacent canyon. Based on his behavior and the satellite bucks circling like buzzards, at least one…
A short-notice invitation to hunt in Georgia during the post-rut yields a nice buck during the last hour of the last day My fall 2021 hunting schedule was already lined out when the invitation to hunt Georgia White- tails hit my e-mail inbox. In fact, deer seasons were already running in most states. The invite came from Amanda Popp—previously Arcus Hunting’s marketing manager. The hunt was scheduled for early December during the post-rut. I’ll admit that I was slightly apprehensive. However, fellow North American Deer Hunter contributor Josh Honeycutt had already opted in, which meant I’d be in good company.…
Big Acreage and Big Equipment Aren’t Required for an Effective Plot We’d all love to own hundreds or even housands of acres of land to specifically manage for deer hunting. Just imagine cruising along in that big John Deere tractor and letting the expensive implements do all of the dirty work! And then comes Fall; time to climb into a treestand overlooking a luscious food plot and wait for your target buck to wander by just 18 yards away. For most deer hunters, though, that’s nothing more than a far-fetched fantasy. Maybe you own just five acres in a subdivision,…
Article by Darron McDougal If your go-to strategy is no longer fun or isn’t producing success, make a change! Shellshocked. That’s what I was as I hunkered in shin-high prairie grasses when the buck of my dreams sky-lined himself across the draw. I blinked to make sure I wasn’t fantasizing. Time stood still. He meandered down into the draw, raked a tree, then continued toward me. He veered slightly, and I realized I wasn’t going to get a shot. Panic! He started walking parallel along the draw away from me, heading north. Instinctively, I backtracked uphill to the east, then…
Take advantage of warm weather and early-season patterns Sweating profusely, I headed for the treestand that my brother and I had hung a day prior. The setting was a timbered creek bottom with bedding to my north and a standing cornfield to my south. I climbed into my hang-on stand 50 yards north of the cornfield and endured the swelter-ing 85 °F heat. If not for my ThermaCELL, mosquitoes would’ve carried me away. Still, my optimism soared. Not long after, a fawn ambled by 30 yards away. I felt that the early movement was a sign that opening night would…
