mature bucks

Deer Report: Doe Harvest Jumps, Mature Buck Harvest Sets Another Record

Jan 9, 2026 NDA Staff

U.S. deer hunters gave the antlerless deer harvest a much-needed boost in the 2024-25 season, putting the total back above 3 million for only the third time in 11 years and ahead of the antlered…

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Don’t Be Afraid to Call an Audible When Hunting Mature Bucks

Nov 12, 2025 Cole Gander

For many hunters across the whitetail’s range, the rut represents the best time to be in the deer woods and provides the best opportunity all season to fill a tag on a mature buck. Buck…

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3 Habitat Strategies That Produced 3 Mature Bucks in One Season

Sep 24, 2025 Kip Adams

The number 16 conjures positive images and memories for nearly everyone. However, in this case I’m not referring to a special birthday party or select round of hoops during March Madness. Rather, 16 is a…

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The 10 Best States for Mature Buck Harvest Have a New Leader

Aug 27, 2025 Kip Adams

Deer hunters are taking historically high numbers of bucks in recent years, but amazingly the age structure of those bucks just keeps getting older. In the 2023 season, the most recent with complete harvest data…

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The Most Important Building Blocks of Big Whitetail Bucks

Aug 20, 2025 Matt Ross

Despite the fact today’s hunters pursue some of the highest densities of mature bucks in history, big whitetail bucks are still an uncommon sight. Specimens of male deer with above-average antlers are not the norm, which is just…

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4 Reasons Mature Bucks Are Critical to Deer Herd Health and Hunting

Jan 8, 2025 Kip Adams

Mature bucks can take your breath away. Whether it’s a frosty fall morning in the woods or a summer evening in an alfalfa field, the mere glimpse of a mature buck will make your heart…

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Why Bucks “Vanish” When They Are Tending Does, and How to Find Them

Nov 6, 2024 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

I’ve been hunting deer for 40 years, and I’ve never seen it. Only a few of the veteran deer hunters I know have seen it, and even those encounters were fleeting glimpses. Many wildlife biologists…

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6 Facts You Really Need to Know About Buck Home Ranges, and 1 You Don’t

Oct 16, 2024 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

We know a lot about whitetail buck home ranges, those phantom zones on the landscape where bucks spend most of their lives. We may even know too much about them. In a review of the…

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15 Trail-Camera Lessons Learned From Thousands of Unique Bucks

Aug 14, 2024 Josh Honeycutt

Trail-cameras have been a big part of my life, even longer than my wife. You might say I’ve been married to the former for 20 years and the latter for nearly 10. And I love…

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Bucks With Broken Antlers: Shoot or Pass?

Jul 31, 2024 Cole Gander

Hunters have long been intrigued by deer antlers, and rightfully so. From the countless hours spent sifting through trail-camera photographs to observing bachelor groups of bucks basking in the summer heat and gorging on lush…

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