Oak Duke

Tiny poults from very late hatches have a more difficult time dealing with an early, snowy winter than their older cousins, among other challenges.

If their local range is lacking in a necessary level of minerals, bucks face a nearly impossible task of surviving a tough winter.

Contrary to logic and our feelings as deer hunters, sometimes it's best not to hunt out of a favored stand. Not because the hunting property switched hands.

Oak Duke offers tactical guidelines that have worked well for filling deer tags on small properties between two types of posted-up properties.

Oak Duke Outdoors Columnist Deer hunters who depend on wild food sources for stand sites can find their placement problematical from

If the weather cooperates, Oak Duke expects bucks to be on the move during mid- and late-October chasing does. This year’s rut pattern should be similar to 1997 and 2005, he says. (Photo by Oak Duke)

Deer hunters have spent countless hours watching scrapes. Here's how to make scrape-watching pay off this hunting season.

It’s the dark of the moon and bucks will be their feet 24-7. It’s a great window of opportunity to fill that tag with the deer of you dreams.

And then our light bulb goes on, and we say to ourselves, “I’ve got to pull this stand,” no matter how productive it has been in the past.

Oak Duke expects bucks re-visiting old hotspots such as scrapes made in October as the rut intensifies around mid-November.