Author: Josh Honeycutt

Check out these important ways to identify bucks and does you shouldn’t shoot Seeing a deer and knowing what category it goes in is a vital part of deer hunting. Properly identifying your target is part of a safe, effective hunting effort, after all. This makes it important to identify deer you do want to shoot, and those that you don’t. Some deer that might fall into the latter category include button bucks, young bucks, shed bucks, illegal bucks, pregnant does, and more. Here are things to know. Button Bucks A button buck can be difficult to identify. Later in…

Check out these innovative and proven deer feeders available this season. Deer feeders are a major part of many hunters’ and land managers’ management plans. This isn’t a new technology, but it is a significant part of modern hunting and wildlife management efforts. Fortunately, even though these have been around for decades, brands continue to bring innovation to the forefront. I went to the ATA Trade show and spent a day perusing all the best deer feeders coming out in 2024.  As such, here are my 15 picks for the best deer feeders and feeder accessories for 2024. Best Deer…

No, these aren’t ugly deer. These are diamonds of the whitetail world. Ever had that weird-looking buck on camera? Sure you have. It’s an oddball buck that doesn’t fit the typical mold. But don’t look at those bucks as inferior. Rather, look at them as rare trophies you might not see again. Here are 15 that I’ve encountered. 1. Loppy This Kentucky buck is one that has a great left side, and then a lot of craziness on the right. While you can’t see it in this photo, it even has a bunch of points around the bases. Incredibly,…

A list of calling and decoying screw-ups to avoid this deer season. Watching a buck bristle up and go stiff-legged as it bears down on a decoy (https://www.primos.com/accessories-and-gear/deer-decoys/scar-deer-decoy/PO-62601.html) is one of the surrealist moments in deer hunting. Seeing that testosterone-raged deer try to wreck the deke’s day is the ultimate experience for a calling- and decoy-centric deer hunter. But there are many mistakes that hunters can make. Here are calling blunders and decoying debacles to avoid this deer season. Calling Blunders There are a lot of mistakes a hunter can make when calling to whitetails. (More mistakes than we can…

Donnie Monroe shot a huge early season buck on a bed-to-feed pattern Hunter: Donnie Monroe Buck Score: 230 4/8 inches Date of Harvest: September 14, 2022 Location of Harvest: Kansas Weapon of Harvest: Muzzleloader Few whitetails grow to be larger than 200 inches. Even fewer hunters see or kill such deer. But last season, Donnie Monroe—who films for Team 200 TV on the Pursuit Channel and WayPoint TV app—tagged a 4 ½-year-old buck that did just that. “He was a 6×7 3 ½-year-old last year, and I knew he had great potential,” Monroe said. “A mature 8-pointer ran him and…

Davey Stuckey made good on his opportunity when this old deer finally stepped out Buck Score: 228 4/8 inches (Buckmasters) Date of Harvest: October 30, 2022 Location of Harvest: Fayette County, Ohio Weapon of Harvest: Ravin crossbow Davey Stuckey deer hunts in Fayette County, Ohio, which is a hotbed for big, mature whitetails. He shot a monster buck in 2018 that score 232 2/8-inch buck. It was a wide deer with heavy mass and lots of points. In 2018, after shooting his big deer, he learned of another. “I didn’t know about the deer until 2018,” Stuckey said. “I received…

Branden Michel shot the Iowa whitetail he’d always dreamed of tagging Hunter: Branden Michel Buck Score: 215 6/8 inches Date of Harvest: October 26, 2022 Location of Harvest: Iowa Weapon of Harvest: Matthews DXT Iowa whitetail extraordinaire Branden Michel tagged a 6 ½-year-old deer that scored well over 200 inches. He had trail camera photos of the deer in 2021. It appeared in mid-October, and he hunted the deer without success. On Halloween morning of 2021, him and his father hunted the buck, but both chose the wrong stand locations. A trail cam check revealed the deer appeared on another…

Jake Thornbury made good on his chance at the buck of a lifetime Hunter: Jacob “Jake” Thornbury Buck Score: 196 5/8 inches Date of Harvest: September 5, 2022 Location of Harvest: Shelby County, Kentucky Weapon of Harvest: Hoyt Ventum Pro 33 Few hunters ever see a near-200-inch whitetail, let alone shoot one. Last season, Kentucky deer hunter Jacob “Jake” Thornbury did just that, though. He believed the deer to be about 5 ½ years old. “When I found this deer after tagging out early in the 2021 season, he appeared to be a mature buck,” Thornbury said. “In recent years,…

David Heinemann’s big Illinois deer is the stuff of legends Hunter: David Heinemann Buck: 250 7/8 inches Date of Harvest: November 19, 2022 Location of Harvest: Will County, Illinois Weapon of Harvest: Mossberg 500 12-gauge David Heinemann has been deer hunting since he was 12. A few seasons ago, he shot a buck scoring 210 6/8 inches. He thought he’d never shoot a deer bigger than that, but he was wrong. During the 2022 deer season, he killed a whitetail beyond what any hunter could hope for. The deer showed up on November 14, 2022, while Heinemann was at work.…

Jess Nehl Kansas buck is a big, unique whitetail Hunter: Jess Nehl Buck: 188 1/8 inches Date of Harvest: November 7, 2022 Location of Harvest: Kansas Weapon of Harvest: Hoyt Ventum 33 Kansas deer hunter Jess Nehl first learned of this freaky non-typical whitetail in 2021. He had multiple encounters with the deer but ultimately passed in hopes of it growing another year. “He blew up so much from the year before,” Nehl said. “I guess he put on 50 inches. I never thought I would get a chance to hunt a deer like this. We see a lot of big typical bucks, but it’s…