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POINTY EARS BOBBED above the sagebrush, and they were closing fast. My rifle was on the shooting sticks, but I instead reached for the shotgun across my lap. I leveled [...]

You won't find a free lunch in the world of Western hunts. In fact, researching and actually understanding the intricacies of Western game units is more grueling than figuring out [...]

IT'S OCTOBER. WE'VE MADE IT. BREAK OUT THE BEER AND BRATS. Carve up the pumpkin and hand out the candy com. Deer season is kicking in across the country. As [...]

Elk country is immense, and finding elk can be more daunting than finding your car in a, multi-level parking structure. What's the secret? If you don't hire an outfitter or [...]

YOU THOUGHT THAT DRAWING A MULE DEER TAG WAS THE HARD PART. BUT TO MAKE THOSE HIGH HOPES TURN INTO SUCCESSFUL REALITY, YOU NEED TO GET TO WORK NOW Despite [...]

Stay low; I whispered to my son Cole. 'If those bucks see any movement, they'll blow out of here.' It didn't help matters that we were hunting public-land pronghorns that [...]

Still scratching your head about why a blabbermouth gobbler didn't make it to your ambush site? Maybe it wasn't your calling after all. Maybe it was a landscape problem. Turkeys [...]

SPRING GOBBLERS NEVER seem to come to your calls quickly enough and always seem to run away from them like a scalded cat. In actuality, they're simply going about their [...]

Standing cornfields. From the outside, these towering vegetative metropolises appear impenetrable, as if guarded by Area 51 razor wire. Hundreds of acres of planted jungle allow whitetails to disappear in [...]

SCENT-CONTROL technology has its merits, but does it eliminate 100 percent of your stink? Rubber boots, scent-trapping clothing and scent-neutralizing products used in combination can help to keep strange odors [...]

Whitetail bowhunters sit in trees and mule deer hunters spot and stalk. If you follow that mindset on your next Western mule deer bowhunt, you might be limiting yourself and [...]

THE FIRST TIME I heard it years ago, I was shocked. I was photographing rutting mule deer along Colorado's front range when a mature buck laid back its ears and [...]

Byline: MARK KAYSER Ready to give up your gun? Try tweaking its firepower to achieve maximum accuracy If you find yourself disappointed and muttering curses to your muzzleloader because of […]

Byline: MARK KAYSER Follow these five steps to hunt what might well be a bowhunter's ultimate challenge Although using decoys is most often associated with feathered game, decoying pronghorns can […]

Byline: MARK KAYSER If you've never dealt with a wounded buck, either you haven't hunted much or your luck is so good you should hop the next flight to Vegas. […]

Byline: Mark Kayser To get more out of your spring turkey hunting, skip the scenery and scan the ground for shed antlers haphazardly left by a passing elk or deer. […]

Byline: Mark Kayser Open-country real estate calls for the flexibility to toss traditional turkey tactics out the window and use the terrain to your advantage. Admittedly, open country dominates the […]

Byline: Mark Kayser In need of a breath, I stopped forcing air through my vintage, hand-me-down predator call and scanned the snow-blanketed plain for signs of movement. My breathing barely [...]

Byline: Mark Kayser America's obsession with the idea that bigger is better pervades every facet of our lives. Even Canada goose hunters have been sucked into the "super size" vortex. […]

Byline: Mark Kayser You've heard of the old saying "one step forward and two steps back." I was living it while hunting mule deer in central South Dakota's gumbo bluffs. […]

Byline: Mark Kayser The prickly-pear thorns were beginning to take their toll on my buddy's Labrador retriever. She was beginning to limp noticeably, but it hadn't slowed her down much, […]

Byline: Mark Kayser According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, elk at the start of the 21st century were a million strong. Like the adaptable whitetail and coyote, elk are […]

Byline: Mark Kayser From the sound of his bugle, he's heading our way," my guide assured me as we hunkered at the edge of an aspen grove in Colorado. "That's […]

Byline: Mark Kayser By end of summer in 1804, the men of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery had reached the undulating hills and game-rich plains of South Dakota. Buffalo, [...]

Byline: Mark Kayser Frank Miniter; Ralph Lermayer; Wayne van Zwoll Native American mythology doesn't call the coyote a 'trickster' for nothing. In areas with substantial hunting pressure, coyotes learn very [...]

Byline: Mark Kayser I had never seen so many pheasants in one place at one time. That's quite a statement for a hunter living in the heart of South Dakota's […]

Byline: Mark Kayser Keeping your hands functional for fast shooting action is a top priority during bird-hunting season, whether it's warm or cold outside. Browning's Insulated Cabretta leather gloves (below, […]

Byline: Mark Kayser I can't keep the crosshairs steady," my hunting partner whispered. "The wind is rocking my rifle. Heck, I can barely see the buck in all this blowing […]

YOU DON'T NEED a committee to choose the best tree for a hunting stand location, but you do need to follow a set of important criteria to have success from [...]

Coyotes have spread across the country like cell-phone towers, providing more hunting time for you nearly everywhere, even in places close to civilization. Their abundance and wide distribution means calling [...]

YOUR GAME IS DOWN. NOW YOU'VE GOT TO GET IT ALL OUT BEFORE IT SPOILS. If you have ever lost game meat to spoilage, you know the pain--it's agonizing and [...]

Coyotes are not so different from you and me. They like a comfortable home, favorite foods, and a don't-tread-on-me existence. Look for these qualities in your coyote-hunting territory and you'll [...]

UNLESS YOU HUNT private land, chances are your Western elk hunt will involve a pre-dawn race to the top of a mountain. Public-land elk follow a typical pattern throughout their [...]

SPOT-AND-STALK tactics rule for mule deer success in the West, especially with the early-season archery crowd. But Gobi-dry environments and continuing drought has opened up another option: Wait by the [...]

THERE'S STILL TIME TO SALVAGE YOUR ELK SEASON. SO BREAK OUT THE MAP OPENING DAY is a distant memory. It's now the fourth quarter, and the ref just signaled the [...]

Some trophies just don't deserve a trip to the taxidermist for a shoulder mount, yet they don't deserve to be tacked to the tool shed, either. European skull mounts are [...]

'THEY HAVE TO BE within 200 yards now,' I whispered softly to my son as the thick forest below our sagebrush knob blew up with elk bugles and the mews [...]

Elk have Houdini habits. That's why most hunters have a love-hate relationship with them. They worship elk country, but the lack of encounters with the animals makes them batty. If [...]

'ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH' HAS A double meaning when you're chasing mule deer bucks in high altitude in September. Not only will you be at the tops of mountains, but you [...]

Regardless of what the elk experts might say, textbook calling strategies rarely work to bring a bull into bowhunting range. This might sound like a cop-out, but when you use [...]

AS DESOLATE AS the Western prairies appear to be in Hollywood cowboy movies, plains wildlife species do have other residents to mingle with in the form of cattle, and you [...]

YOU'VE WAITED ALL YEAR FOR A CRACK AT A GIANT BULL WITH YOUR BOW. TO GET CLOSE TO ONE, START LOOKING FOR COWS IN THEIR LATE-SUMMER RANGE SAVVY BOWHUNTERS KNOW [...]

I WAS FINALLY hunting the famed Milk River in Montana, but the constant blowing of doe whitetails was the sound of frustration. If I didn't beat the doe security detail [...]

Whitetails are masters of their domain, especially as they mature. Even subtle changes in their home habitat will turn settled bucks into evasive, nocturnal spooks. And if you carelessly intrude [...]

Who doesn't want to save a dollar these days? You can save several by making your own all-weather shooting sticks for hunting season. Commercial models will set you back around [...]

Spring gobblers' acute vision is legendary. That's why the current craze in decoys--I field-ready taxidermy mounts--trumps any store-bought foam decoy. Turkeys dig them. And they can tell the difference. Ask [...]

THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE. HUNTERS are a stagnant group. That's why South Dakotan Jim Glines puts his heart into South Dakota Youth Hunting Adventures, Inc. The idea was hatched by [...]

Top public-land mule deer opportunities Nevada's Ruby Mountains Nevada's Ruby Range offers exceptional mule deer archery opportunities east of Elko. The region includes 450,000 acres of the Humboldt National Forest. [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1 | STOP AND THINK "Once you've taken a shot and are fairly sure you've hit a deer, you should calm yourself down, assess the situation and try […]

The article presents suggestions and information on various U.S. states, which offer kinds of options for hunting. It is stated that nothing defines Western hunting more than elk, and no state gives better opportunities to hunt elk than Colorado. As suggested, if one is looking to add a doe pronghorn to his or her freezer, Wyoming is the best bet. Others include Montana for whitetails, and South Dakota for archery mule deer.