Deer Season Dates 2026-27: Official Dates for the Top 10 Deer States
2026-27 deer season dates for the 10 biggest whitetail states: archery, firearms, muzzleloader and youth, every date verified from the official state agency.
Deer Hunting
Whitetails and mule deer. Rut timing by state, movement forecasts, stand and land strategy, tag availability and chronic wasting disease testing.
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Deer Movement Forecast by ZIP: Best Hunting Times
Hourly whitetail movement forecast for any US ZIP code, built on real sunrise, sunset and moon times plus your state wildlife agency published breeding chronology. Solunar periods computed and shown with the GPS-collar evidence on what they are actually worth.
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Chronic Wasting Disease Testing in 2026: What Hunters Need to Know
Chronic wasting disease testing is mandatory in more units for 2026. Here is what hunters need to know before the season, from sample drop-off to positive results.
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Food Plots for Deer: What to Plant This July for Fall
Food plots for deer planted in late July feed bucks through the fall rut. What to plant, when to plant it, and the soil step most hunters skip.
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Trail-Cam Velvet: How to Pattern Summer Bucks for the 2026 Whitetail Season
Summer velvet bucks pattern on food, water, and bachelor groups. Here’s the trail-camera strategy that turns June images into October stand sites.
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How to Count Points on a Buck and Score Deer Antlers
This guide covers how to count points on a buck and how to score deer antlers under the Boone and Crockett system, plus what changes for elk and mule deer. How to count points on a buck Count every projection on the antler that is at least one inch long and longer than it is…
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Field Dressing 101: Knowing When It’s Their Turn
Mentoring New Hunters Through Field Dressing The first time I ever watched a deer being field dressed, I was thirteen. My uncle had dropped a nice eight-pointer, and as we huddled around, I was half excited and half trying not to breathe too deeply. I remember him pausing halfway through, looking at me, and saying:…
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How Can You Tell If a Deer Has Chronic Wasting Disease?
Depending on where you live in the country, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is either something you’ve just read about, or it’s something you try not to think too hard about while you’re sending in your harvest for mandatory testing. What’s scary about CWD is that it’s basically like Mad Cow Disease, only for deer. It’s…
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Where the Bucks Are: Hunting Suburban Deer
How Kendall Golightly got started, triumphs, Doe-maggedon, charity work, & future hunts. If you’re serious about bowhunting and monitor social media at all, you are likely familiar with SEEK ONE, a group of hunters who have brought suburban and urban hunters together, shared tactics and tips, and popularized the idea that sometimes the best place to…
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BOO! What Spooks Deer Most: Coyotes, Wolves, Cougars … or You?
What do deer fear the most? If you’re a deer hunter, many’s the time you’ve heard the sounds of other predators in the woods, and cursed them. Deer are easily spooked … but what spooks them the most? What natural predator is most likely to spoil your hunt (or get to the biggest buck on…
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How to Age a Deer on the Hoof: Buck Age by Body
How to age a deer comes down to one rule: you cannot age a buck by his antlers, and the hunters who try are the ones who shoot a 2½-year-old every November and wonder why the neighborhood never grows a giant. Age lives in the body — the legs, the belly, the way the neck…
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COVID-19 Found in Utah Mule Deer
While COVID-19 was confirmed in white-tailed deer in parts of the U.S. last year, the virus was recently confirmed in Utah mule deer for the first time after the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources submitted samples taken from deer during winter health assessments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has been collaborating…
