Gear

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...

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...

Deer hunters love to debate. We argue over broadhead styles. We fight over who makes the best bow. We will nearly come to blows over baiting versus food plots versus hunting natural movement. What we don’t get overly passionate about is choosing the best hunting arrows. I talk to a pile of whitetail...

Between the biblical rain and plague-level ticks, I called it quits on the run-and-gun mission an hour before sunset. The late season Wisconsin birds weren’t gobbling, and it was clear the public land I was hunting had plenty of other turkey hunters. As I hiked out, I tried to salvage the day by...

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...

Trail cameras are some of the greatest modern tools that hunters have at their disposal. If you hunt in an area that allows them, then you need to take advantage of it. Here’s what you need to know about setting up a camera to get pictures of whitetails.

It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that trail cameras have led to a lot of whitetail bucks ending up in freezers. But the inverse is true too: Cameras have saved a lot of deer lives as well. Mostly this is because well-intentioned hunters place their cameras in the wrong locations and check...

At the risk of igniting “another classic ethics debate fueled by none other than MeatEater,” as one social media commenter recently lamented, I’d like to talk about the fair chase ramifications of wireless trail cameras. What is ethical? What is moral? What is fair chase? This is a set of questions...

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...

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...

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...

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...