Early Season Whitetail Handbook

With deer season approaching, wildlife officials in southwest Washington say hunters will have a better shot if they find out where the bucks are heading for water.

A decade-long dream hunt with a good friend and fantastic guide pays off with a Safari Club Columbian whitetail buck.

If you can’t hunt early-season deer over food, trying hunting them over water. No water source? No problem — make one.

Unbroken, mature forests offer little in the way of food or cover for whitetails. But a power line slicing through such sterile environments provides miles of prime edge habitat with both abundant shelter and food such as tender forbs, berries, shrubs, and saplings.

At any time, one oak species or another may be dropping the most acorns on different areas of your hunting property. The key to knowing where to hunt is realizing that different oak species thrive in different habitats and they shed their nuts at different times.

Out in America’s heartland, the bucks grow big. Here’s how and where to hunt whitetails on the wide-open prairies, where trees are scarce and the sky never ends.

If you’ve ever wondered if deer really learn to avoid your treestand, here’s some evidence that confirms it and gives you a clue how to minimize your impact.

Whitetail guru Jeremy Flinn puts his public-land whitetail skills to the test and tags a great "city" buck.

Local public land may offer whitetail-hunting heaven in your own backyard.

If you live and hunt in the real world, on public land, you can still nail down some big bucks if you put in the work.