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You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers (and if we don’t, we’ll make them up). Every day, fellow MeatEaters send us more than 100 emails regarding hunting, fishing, cooking, conservation, and more. So, we decided to publish a series dedicated to our favorite FAQs. This is Ask MeatEater. Decisions...

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is the most common ailment among whitetail deer. It’s transmitted by biting midges and typically kills the host within a week. In the final days of an infected deer’s life, they’ll experience high fever, ulcers, difficulty breathing, loss of awareness, and swelling in...

It’s a moment every father dreams of. My son drew back on the buck, took a deep breath, paused for a moment to settle in, and then released his arrow. It was a perfect shot. “Dadda, I ga ga the deer buck!” My son is two years old and the buck he shot is made of foam. But I kid you not, he anchored...

Can you tell how old a buck is by observing him from afar or studying a photo? Many say they can, but others call BS. From my experience, aging a deer “on the hoof” is an inexact science. With the right knowledge an estimate is possible, but estimates always come with caveats. They’re subjective, up...

The most common question I get from deer hunters related to land management is some version of this: What’s the easiest thing I can do to improve my property? The issue of where to start is a stumbling block that many aspiring land managers run into. With countless websites, podcasts, videos, and...

I’m still waiting for two sticks of summer sausage from a buck that died in my driveway in November 2015. Something tells me the guy down the street forgot all about his promise to bring my reward for finding his bow kill. Funny thing, gratitude: It’s abundant in the moment but fizzles faster than...

Agriculture dominates the landscape of America’s heartland. The same can be said of its influence on the deer and deer hunters that live there. The presence of crops that deer eat dramatically impacts where deer live and travel, as do any changes to those crops. Due to an agricultural practice known...

While scouting a new property in college I noticed every single deer on trail cam was covered in vegetation. The wiry, green plants clung to the thin, orange coats of whitetails and camouflaged them better than any hunting gear could. I had no idea what the foliage was or where it came from. My...