Summer trail camera pictures featuring monster whitetail bucks have been populating every corner of social media for a few months now. It seems like everyone who owns a trail camera has an interesting picture or two. Providing endless amounts of hope for the season to come. I'm not the guy who enjoys raining on anyone's parade, but let's have a quick conversation about the reality of summer trail camera pictures. This is a conversation that we need to have. Whether it's from

The summer months are the perfect time to get back on the trail camera train as our collective minds turn to summer scouting. We always stress the importance of the summer when it comes to setting the stage for success in the fall, and there is good reason. It's just plain difficult to put an arrow or a bullet in a mature whitetail buck without some kind of scouting intel in your back pocket. Trail cameras are obviously all of the rage when it comes to scouting in 2019, and t

The month is June and times are pretty slow for those of us who love to hunt. Fishing season and other summertime activities definitely have their places in our hearts, but the early summer does not do much to satisfy that inner hunter. Especially if you're a bowhunting nut who is just counting down the days until archery season. Now, if you are a true bowhunting nut then you know how important this phase of the year really is. A time that is neglected by many but eventually

Rain is an inevitable aspect of spring turkey hunting. They say that April showers bring May flowers, you know. Unfortunately for turkey hunters, we want to be in the field and on the hunt throughout the month of April. Resulting in an inevitable clash between turkey hunting and spring weather. This seems like an obvious and irrelevant reality to be talking about, but hear us out on this one. Talking rain and turkey hunting is an important thing to touch on. Whether you’re an

Photo by Tes Randle Jolly Some say that locating a wild turkey's strut zone is the telltale sign to putting a bird in the back of your turkey vest when the season rolls around. While several other factors are obviously being overlooked, those folks may be on to something. For those who are not familiar with the intricacies of turkey hunting, a strut zone is simply an area where a tom turkey routinely goes into full-strut to show off for hens. These zones can be frequented thr

Spring turkey seasons are getting ready to kick off in full force across the southern US. Those of you in South Florida have already been after it for a few days chasing the weary Osceola. Whether you're in the South and making your final preparations for turkey season or you're stuck in the North with over a month of waiting, we can all kick the spring strut off in some form or fashion. There's no better investment for a hunter than pre-season scouting. Deer hunters live and

If you live for deer hunting season like we do, it feels like we're in a constant transition. Just when you settle into the early-season, the rut comes along. The rut blazes through in the month of November and suddenly we're eyeing down the late-season. Whitetail hunting is a game of constant adjustment. We have been harping on the importance of scouting information as we make the transition to the late-season. You would probably be hard-pressed to find one of our December d

With gun seasons chugging into December across the country, I figured it would be a great time to address firearms season for everyone. Whether you're hunting with a rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader, I wanted to throw out some of my favorite gun season strategies in this article. While I will throw a slight bit of shade at gun season from time to time, I truly do love it. I just love bow season a tiny bit more. That's just me. The overwhelming majority of deer hunters in North

September is definitely a month of change in the world of whitetail deer hunting. Seasons across the country begin to open, velvet sheds away from antlers, and the overall psyche of deer begins to change. The subtle changes are difficult for us humans to pick up. Sure, we start to feel fall in the air and those way too early fall decorations start coming out. But we really cannot feel the changing of the seasons like a deer or any other wild animal can. They live in the natur

Photo by OtterBox Many people say that the outdoors and technology do not mix. Smartphones distract you while in the treestand, make obnoxious noises and take away from the outdoor experience as a whole. All of that may be true, but there is absolutely no doubt that tech and hunting are becoming more synonymous and synchronized. You would be hard-pressed to find a hunter without a smartphone or at least some connection to technology. That is probably true for the general popu

The mid-August sun and warm temperatures may have you feeling a bit more summer than fall, but deer season is not that far away. Archery season openers will be kicking off hot and heavy before we know it. That drives a lot of bowhunters to the archery range on these warm summer evenings. We have all heard the age-old saying that practice makes perfect. Indeed it does, but not all practice is created equal. You have probably heard the saying about perfect practice making perfe

In the words of the great baseball legend Yogi Berra, it's getting late early. We're only in the month of August, but that also means we are several weeks to a month away from many deer seasons opening up. Some of you folks in places like South Carolina or Tennessee are looking at a matter of days before you can hit the deer woods. If you have yet to make preparations in anticipation of the upcoming deer season, now may be the time to get rolling. There is a laundry list of t

It is officially the final day of July 2018. That may be hard to believe, but here we are. Literally just weeks away from many whitetail deer hunting seasons. Meaning that we are entering the final stretch of what I call "prep-season". The time to get your hunting spot primed and ready for the fall. Looking at the summer season on a calendar can be daunting. The off-season feels like an eternity. An eternity in which you have all the time in the world to get your pre-season t

Photo by Josh Honeycutt on Facebook At Affiliated Outdoors we are incredibly proud to be the official podcast for Mass Pursuit TV. When we are not featuring our favorite friends from MPTV, we like to feature the most interesting and insightful folks in the outdoor industry. We were lucky enough to feature Realtree.com associate editor and deer hunting editor Josh Honeycutt in our latest episode. Our goal was to create the ultimate pre-deer season podcast to get early-season h

It finally struck me that we are mired in the absolute dog days of summer. It may be more comforting to look at your calendar knowing that September is not that far away, but that archery season opener for my home state of Ohio sure looks incredibly distant. Yes, some of you guys are lucky enough to start hunting again in August. Still, the fall hunting season looks distant. Meaning that it can be easy to get bored at this time of year. We're currently staring at a forecast l

Photo by NPR The spring food plot that you envisioned being a deer magnet in the upcoming fall season is slowly but surely turning into a barren wasteland of weeds and grasses. Now what? Well, the first thing you can do is welcome yourself to the club. Anyone who has ever planted a food plot for hunting purposes has experienced miserable failure. It's just par for the course. There are so many reasons why food plots struggle and ultimately fail. The second thing that you need

Photo by Bone Collector/BoneCollector.com As the summer burns on, whitetail deer hunters cannot help but to get a little bit anxious. Trail camera photos begin to roll in with velvet bucks posing in the night, fall food plots begin to hit the ground, and treestands and blinds inevitably take their places. The likelihood of finding a consensus agreement on when is the best time to officially hang your treestands and place your blinds is about as likely as finding consensus in

If you caught episode 12 of The Affiliated Outdoors Podcast featuring Dr. Grand Woods of Growing Deer TV, you heard a lot about "hidey-hole" or "kill-plot" food plots. Undoubtedly one of the most beneficial and simple ways to improve your whitetail hunting results. Kill plots require nothing more than light equipment, the will to work, and a significant amount of know-how. We wanted to share a little bit of the know-how with you as the summer rolls along. It won't be long unt

Photo by North American Whitetail Breaking news: You can make improvements to your hunting property while on a budget! Yes, you read that correctly. Summer deer and land management projects are not reserved for the wealthy hunting professionals alone. Those of us who wear blue jeans and blue collars can still engage in management practices, and we can do it without massive amounts of money being spent on heavy equipment and products. Believe it or not, we can also achieve sim

Photo by Todd Mason, NOLA.com As spring food plots are being planted across the South and last-minute preparations are being made to plant across the North, it’s time to discuss some deeper considerations to make when it comes to planting your food plots. While there are plenty of great farmers out there who are diehard deer hunters, most of us are hunters with no true farming experience or implications whatsoever. We’re planting food plots to better our hunting experience an