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Ask Wired to Hunt: Mechanical or Fixed Blade Broadheads?
Question: Should I use a mechanical or fixed blade broadhead, and what brands do you recommend?
Answer: If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been asked this question, I could probably start manufacturing my own broadheads. Back when I was more of a fixture on the seminar circuit, I fielded this...
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A Beginner's Guide to Trail Cameras
Trail cameras have become a staple for whitetail hunters, especially over the past decade. Where legal, they can be handy tools for locating and hunting deer or other game animals. They’re especially effective if you’re interested in targeting a specific size or age structure of deer (i.e. a target...
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Gear
Moultrie Edge 4 Solar: First Look
Moultrie’s new Edge 4 Solar looks to mitigate the problem all trail cameras share—battery life. Between the new, larger solar panel and the included rechargeable battery, you can reduce your battery budget and trips to change them out. Moultrie’s newest version of the Edge doesn’t reinvent the wheel...
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Archery
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Why You Should Swap Your Compound for A Trad Bow This Season
For most of my bowhunting career, I've carried a compound bow. But the very first time I toted a bow to the whitetail woods, I carried a borrowed Bear recurve. No deer were harmed on that first day, but I’ll never forget the feeling of walking into the woods with that lightweight recurve at my side...
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Summer Archery Drills Every Bowhunter Should Do
Summer is the perfect time for bowhunters to sharpen their skills and ensure they’re ready when hunting season arrives. While shooting a few arrows at a backyard target is better than nothing, structured drills can dramatically improve accuracy, consistency, and confidence.
This past summer, after...
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Archery Tuning Basics Every Bowhunter Should Know
As bowhunters, we strive to be ethical, lethal, and humane. To accomplish this, our bows need to be tuned to ensure accurate and repeatable arrow flight. Unfortunately, this tends to be an intimidating hurdle for novice bowhunters. When you begin your tuning journey, you may become frustrated, view...
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Everything I Use on DIY, Out-of-State Deer Hunts
I’ve traveled across the country to hunt whitetails everywhere from Ohio to Montana, Idaho to Indiana, and most points in between. Every time I embark on one of these trips, I receive dozens of messages asking about what clothing, gear, or camping equipment I’m taking with me.
About five years ago...
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3 Common Reasons Broadheads Fail
I quit drinking eight years ago. Since then, I’ve discovered a special kind of hell that occurs when someone is hammered and tries to have a deep conversation with me. This only gets worse when that someone is a stranger and the topic is bowhunting.
This past turkey season, while eating a burger in...
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Trail Cameras
Gear
A Beginner's Guide to Trail Cameras
Trail cameras have become a staple for whitetail hunters, especially over the past decade. Where legal, they can be handy tools for locating and hunting deer or other game animals. They’re especially effective if you’re interested in targeting a specific size or age structure of deer (i.e. a target...
Read More
Play Now
Gear
Moultrie Edge 4 Solar: First Look
Moultrie’s new Edge 4 Solar looks to mitigate the problem all trail cameras share—battery life. Between the new, larger solar panel and the included rechargeable battery, you can reduce your battery budget and trips to change them out. Moultrie’s newest version of the Edge doesn’t reinvent the wheel...
Read More
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Scout
What I Learned about Whitetails from Year-Round Trail Camera Use
It wasn’t intentional, but I’m glad I did it. Over the last couple of seasons, I put out my usual summer trail cameras to gather pre-season intel. Some, I re-upped on batteries, while others just ran until they couldn’t. A few, built with solar panels, kept a charge through the North Country winter...
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Gear
How to Make Trail Camera Batteries Last Longer
Here’s a controversial statement: Trail cameras can be absolutely worthless.
Here’s a less controversial statement: Trail cameras are worthless when their batteries are dead.
This might seem obvious, but every year hunters stick hundreds of dollars-worth of trail cams in the woods and then return...
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Scout
Are Trail Cameras Making You a Worse Hunter?
Scouting deer used to involve glassing, looking for sign, and getting in where the deer live to suss out their patterns. Now, for a lot of us, it just involves hanging a trail camera. This might be a necessity and the best way to figure out a buck, or it can be a crutch and steer us into poor...
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The Single Best Way to Get Bucks on Trail Cam (Without Bait)
Hang a trail camera in front of a pile of corn or a mineral block and you’re almost guaranteed to get an SD card full of deer photos. It used to be that simple. But with increasing concerns over disease in recent years, more and more states are outlawing the use of bait at trail camera sites. For...
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Video: How to Carry a Deer On Your Back
We all know that once a deer hits the ground the real work begins. Typically, our options for a getting our venison back to the truck are pretty simple—drag it out or quarter it up and haul it out piece by piece. However, there is a third option. You can carry the deer on your back. I learned this...
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The Best Straight-Wall Cartridge for Whitetail Hunting
Straight-wall cartridges are surging in the whitetail world. The best evidence of this is recent legislation.
Several big deer states—including Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana—have passed laws in the last five years allowing straight-wall cartridges in zones previously designated as shotgun- or...
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Video: Which Rattling Call is Loudest?
Mimicking the sound of bucks fighting can be an effective way to draw a buck in during any phase of the rut. In this video, I compare the volume of five different rattle calls to see which is loudest.
Admittedly, volume isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to rattling—realism is equally...
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Gear
Scent Control for Dummies
If there’s any one thing that connects the most consistently successful whitetail hunters I know, it’s a strong focus on scent control. A whitetail’s nose is its best defense mechanism. For that reason, the smart hunter will do everything possible to control the scent he brings into the woods.
Can...
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How to Pick a Good Deer Taxidermist
Taxidermists are like referees. When they do their job well, you hardly notice them. But when the job is done poorly, it commands attention in a bad way.
In many cases, exceptional taxidermy contains details that the average person won’t pick up on. I reached out to some taxidermists to ask what...
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