“If you build it, they will come.” As true as this is in the movie “Field of Dreams”, it also applies to our pursuit of deer hunting. Certainly much of the challenge of chasing whitetails is in finding big bucks and chasing them down, but, there is also significant advantage in finding ways to bring bucks to you. In some cases these can be the best ways to stealthily lay ambush to a weary old whitetail. And while most of these strategies require hard work and lots of preparation – they undoubtedly can payoff big come hunting season. So with that in mind, here are 4 ways to start bringing the deer to you!

1. Limit The Options: While not easy, getting within sight of a big buck during hunting season is slightly more attainable a goal than having one actually come within bow range. Getting those bucks to actually come to you isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to come down to luck. You can achieve this kind of outcome by limiting the options a buck has when traveling through your general area, and by forcing these options to funnel deer within range of your stand. For example, if you’re hunting a field edge – create brush piles along most of the woodline with a few strategic openings near your stand. Or try downing a tree across a popular out of range deer trail and clearing a new detour that comes towards your location. Most deer will take the option of least resistance, and if that option just so happens to be within 40 yards of you – it’s game on.

2. Set The Table: This one may be obvious, but deer love food. Their lives really revolve around eating and if you can provide a nutritious and attractive food source in the form of a food plot, you’ll have deer coming to you.  Now that being said, there are many details that go into creating and hunting a food plot successfully, but that all has been covered in other articles or will be down the road. For now keep this in mind, if you haven’t tried a food plot yet, give it a serious second thought. Even a super small, woodland food plot created by hand can help bring a deer into range. Food plots can help your deer reach their full potential AND increase your chances of harvesting one – I don’t see a lot of downside there.

3. Quench Their Thirst: In addition to eating, deer obviously need water and this is a great need to capatilize on when you want deer coming to you. Especially in areas of limited water or on extra hot days, hunting over a water source can be dynamite. Creating a man made watering hole, or even burying a kiddy pool and filling it occasionally with water can be easily done and is often enough to bring the bucks right to you on those tough hunting hot days.

4. Clear The Path: Not only can you bring deer to you by blocking their alternate routes, but you can also do this by opening up a pathway straight to you. As mentioned before, deer are naturally somewhat lazy – meaning they will take path of least resistance when possible (and safe). There are a number of ways you can create “paths of least resistance” that bring deer right to you. An example of this comes straight from my own experience a couple seasons ago. I was hunting an old pipeline overgrown with cat-tails that connected an open field to a deep swamp. Up to this point deer crossed this pipeline willy nilly or picked their way through the adjoining woods as they headed into the swamp. But I decided to clear a narrow path way through the cattails with a sickle, and within a couple months that small path through the cattails became a deer highway and a heavy rub line that led every deer within 20 yards of my stand.

Have any other good ways of bringing deer to you or do you have additional thoughts on these 4 ideas? Share what you think in the comments section!

Southeast Nebraska is home to the chosen buck today for our “Shoot or Don’t Shoot” series. The question is simple – if this buck (the one on the left) was in front of you during the season would you shoot? For some it’s just a matter of antler size, for others it’s age and some folks it’s simply whether or not it’s a legal deer in shooting range. No matter the reasoning – we want to know what your call would be.

Shoot or Don’t Shoot? That’s the question.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Fill us in on the reason behind your choice in the comments section as well!

Today at 12:00 CST Deer & Deer Hunting will premiere their first episode of “Deer Talk Now”, a one hour interactive online talk show hosted by Dan Schmidt and Brad Rucks of D&DH Magazine.

According to D&DH’s website,  ”Deer Talk Now will feature special guests, questions from viewers and discussions about new hunting gear, habitat, hunting tactics, deer biology, hunter ethics, issues and more”. All that being said, to kick things off today, Deer Talk Now will feature one heck of a special guest – Ted Nugent!

As we all know, a conversation with Ted Nugent always has the potential to get “interesting” – so I’ll definitely be tuning in to hear what The Nuge has to say. Also keep in mind, that this is interactive and all viewers have the opportunity to submit questions for the hosts and Ted! I’ve been told that viewers that submit questions will be put into a drawing for a number of different prizes as well, including this week – an autographed photo of Nugent.

To watch Deer Talk Now, follow the link below at 12:00 CST. Enjoy!

Watch Deer Talk Now

 With antlers quickly sprouting, it’s getting to be that time of year that most people haul their trail cameras out of the closet and back into the woods. I’m certainly going to be deploying my full array of trail cams soon, and my goal this year (as is every year) is to have more big buck pictures and less empty frames, blacked out photos or broken cameras! So with that in mind I reached out to my friends at Moultrie to get a better idea of how I can avoid making the mistakes that lead to these problems. Lucky for us, I was sent some great pointers – so read on for the 7 most common trail camera mistakes that you don’t want to make!

I’ve been a PSE guy for many years – and while I am branching out this year and trying out some other brands, I couldn’t NOT try the premier PSE model for 2012 – the Dream Season EVO. Ever since the original Dream Season EVO was released last year I’ve been dying to get my hands on it – and after hearing a years worth of great things I’m stoked to finally have one to fling some carbon with.

From all accounts I’ve heard, this is the smoothest and most shootable of PSE’s speed bows yet – and based on my very earliest impressions it seems like that could very well be true. While I haven’t got a sight on it or shot it yet, I can attest to that very smooth draw cycle – which is significantly smoother than my older PSEs.

Without a doubt the DS feels good in the hand, and has a bit more heft than my old PSE Bow Madness, as this bow comes in at a solid 4.4 lbs. I wouldn’t say it’s a negative yet, but it is over a half pound heavier than my Bear Anarchy that I’ll be reviewing as well. We’ll see how that factors in when shooting.

This bow also has a 6″ brace height, which is on the short end of things – so I’m very interested to see how forgiving and accurate it can be. Lord knows I need all the forgiveness I can get! haha. That being said, while 6″ is a short brace height typically associated with a fast/unforgiving bow – I’ve heard much to the contrary in the case of the DS EVO, so I’ll be sure to pay close attention to this and share my thoughts.

Last, as you can see from the pics – this is one “bad” looking bow. As in bad $$$. I’ve always been a fan of the aggressive look of the PSE’s and the Dream Season continues that trend. The black and red color scheme is pretty killer in my opinion as well.

We’ll have more pictures and thoughts once I’m able to get all the bows out and shooting!

Visit the PSE website for more details.

As you may have read already, my turkey season ended with less arrows in my quiver than I started with – but still no dead turkey to show for it. Not how I wanted to season to go, but that’s hunting – right? But now that the thunder chickens are out of the way my attention is squarely turned to food plots, other habitat management and prepping properties for the fall. I imagine that many of you are in a similar boat, so head on out to your properties this weekend, enjoy the weather and start preparing now for a great fall hunting season.

In the interim though, we’ve got some great reads for you today on the Friday Morning Mashup. Read on and have a great weekend!

Quality Deer Management On 6 Acres? – QDMA.com: Quality Whitetails Editor Lindsay Thomas Jr. responds to a readers question on whether or not it is possible to practice quality deer management on a tract as small as 6 acres. Lindsay’s response is well worth a read.

Hunt Your Way To Health – Venison vs. Beef – Sole Adventure: Mark from Sole Adventure shares some great thoughts and information on how venison stacks up to beef in the health department!

Top 5 Ways To Hunt Pressured Deer – Dan Schmidt’s Whitetail Wisdom: Dan Schmidt of Deer & Deer Hunting shares his top 5 tactics for hunting pressured deer. A great read for anyone who hunts in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania or the like!

Climbing Stand or Hang On – Brow Tines & Backstraps: My friend Will Brantley of Realtree shares his experience with a climbing treestand and weighs the possible benefits of a climber versus a hang on stand.

A Leg Up: Judging Buck Age From Body Proportions – QDMA.com: Another great piece from the QDMA in which two pictures of different aged bucks in nearly the same stance and location are analyzed. Interesting lessons to be learned on how things how legs and torso length can help you better age bucks on the hoof.

Shoot or don’t shoot? That is the question.

Today’s buck was photographed in West Central Illinois towards the middle of August last year in a great section of property down there. I can personally attest that there are bigger bucks living on this farm – but at the same time, this deer would certainly catch people’s attention in many other states and areas. So…if this buck came cruising by last fall – what would you have done?

Shoot or don’t shoot? (Make sure to share the reasoning behind your decision in the comments section!)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This hillarious plaque adorns the wall in our hunting camp – and I just had to share it with you guys. Every time I pass by it on our porch, I just have to stop and read a bit. It gets me laughing every time.

Can anyone relate to a day like this? haha

(PS – if it’s too small for you to read, just click the picture and it will show a larger version!)

The digital revolution has slowly been taking the hunting world by storm – and today that wave of change has taken a big step forward with Realtree’s first release of a digital download in their Monster Bucks series of hunting videos!

Monster Bucks XX Volume 3 is now available instantly as a digital download to be viewed on your desktop, laptop or mobile device of choice. No DVD, VHS or rabbit ears required! As a tech geek myself, I’m pretty excited about this and I’ve actually already downloaded my own copy . I’ll be kicking back on an airplane soon with my iPad to watch some giant whitetails  and I’m really looking forward to it.

Included in this volume are kills by Lee & Tiffany Lakosky, Heartland Bowhunter, a 210″ buck knocked down by Rusty Jackson and many more. That all being said, for $4.99 and with a full hour of hunts – I’d say this is a pretty good deal and a great step into the digital world for the hunting industry. Way to go Realtree!

Follow the link  to download your own copy of Monster Bucks XX Volume 3!

It’s an interesting thing – failure. It can sting. It can poison your thoughts. It can slowly crush your confidence.

But at the same time it can push you to new heights. Force you to look yourself in the mirror. And in the end – make you better.

What’s the difference between these two outcomes? It’s simple really – it’s attitude.

This past Sunday night, I slowly trekked across a freshly planted bean field with a big bag full of turkey decoys over my shoulder and an unpunched tag at the end of my season. Some would say this was a failure – but I am not willing to let that be the case. I may have failed in my ultimate pursuit – the harvest of a turkey. But the successes that occurred along the way to that point were too important to disregard so quickly. I may not have a 10 inch beard and full fan to show off, but I’ve got some damn good stories and a few life long lessons to put in my back pocket to boot.

I won’t lie and say that I don’t get down on myself when I fail – but with a forced attitude adjustment or a refreshed perspective on the situation, I can usually find plenty of silver linings on the cloud. Falling into failure is easy – but taking the effort to examine your attitude – that takes work. I’d be willing to bet you my best slate call though that it’s worth it.

Now how about my past two whitetail hunting seasons? I put in nearly 200 sits, across 5 states – with no antlers on the wall to show for it. But did I really fail? Can you call my first encounter with a 160 class buck in my life a failure? Or how about the fact that I had more close calls with mature bucks this year than ever before. Isn’t that worth something?

Yes – failure can hurt. A mature whitetail flagging away, a poorly hit buck, or an unfilled tag can all leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth and a squelch in your gut. But don’t let that take away from the experiences along the road that led you to where you are today. Failure is a reality – but it isn’t a finality. With the right attitude, any “failure” can be turned into an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, to grow, to face your fears and challenges.  And ultimately to overcome.

So next time when you “fail” in your hunting pursuits, don’t let it keep you down for too long. Pick yourself up, brush the autumn leaves off your shoulder and get back in the proverbial deer stand. Cause life is actually pretty good in the woods and you never know what might be coming down the next trail.