I once laid over in London while traveling to Morocco and spent the night in a lovely cottage that had an amazing pub downstairs. It was something you have seen in the movies. A dark room with stone clad walls and a crackling fireplace. I am pretty sure it was lit only by candle and oil lamp. I grabbed a fresh pint of beer and sat at a table next to the fire. I squinted in the firelight as I read each menu item line by line. The one item that caught my attention was a beef and ale pie, aka pot pie or meat pie.

Late-season scouting can be a valuable tool to evaluate your deer season. The snow that covers much of the state offers some of the best scouting of the year. Make it to the woods before rain eliminates weeks worth of sign.

 Think it’s all over and still can’t believe how quickly the deer season came and went? Well, for the determined, the show still goes on in a few select places and while it may be too late to cash in on a road trip to one of these late spots this season, it’s never too late to begin planning an extended deer season for next year.

It was 4:00 AM and we were already heading out to hunt. The air was cold and the sky was clear. The stars and the moon were the only light around. The moon bathed the rolling hills in an eerie blue light and the yellow prairie grass sparkled in the moonlight. In the distance the jagged lines of the snow-covered mountains glistened. We were headed into the lower slopes of the mountains in hopes of harvesting a mid-season Wyoming mule deer buck. We had been hunting now for three days but had been unsuccessful at filling our tag. We were hunting public land just on the outskirts of the Bighorn Mountain range.

I like every kind of hunting season but for me, the December muzzleloader season for deer is perhaps the most special.

It all started years ago when I purchased a secondhand Kentucky Rifle replica that couldn't shoot straight and ended up blowing a piece of percussion cap into my eyelid. As I drove myself to the doctor’s office on that memorable fall morning a couple of decades ago, I realized three important things: 1. always wear safety glasses while shooting 2. Cheap used firearms are being sold for a reason, and 3. I love muzzleloaders.

We asked, and you delivered! To celebrate the 2022 deer season, we wanted to feature your stories. This collection of personal encounters proves that though we all come from different walks of life, it's the great outdoors that brings us all together. Learn about success, patience, adaptation and overcoming obstacles from this video collection of reader-submitted experiences.  

Over the years I have started to get a little bored with deer hunting. It really comes as no surprise, yet I hated to admit that, even to myself… Why? Because I consider myself a deer hunter, and a deer hunter should not be bored with deer hunting right? Wrong! Of course a deer hunter can get bored with deer hunting. If you sit in the same stands, on the same property every single year for 16 years of course hunting can become monotonous. You have to get out and try new things, see new places, and have new struggles. That’s how you grow and evolve as a hunter. This is the story of a new beginning, and rekindling the excitement I had as a 12 year old boy going out with my dad on my first hunt with bow in hand!

Check out these top five critical terrain features common to virtually anywhere in whitetail country and setup for the ultimate rut-time ambush.

The whitetail deer rut is upon us. Bucks are running ridges and field edges in search of receptive does. This is the highlight of deer season for most. It’s the time of year we deer hunters dream about during the other 11 months.

Accessing a likely big buck hot spot must be done with stealth and oftentimes, must be done on the fly to adjust for changing deer patterns during the peak of rut activity and even as it begins to taper off. Remember the following so you don’t blow a monster out of the area before you even climb into your stand.