Bowhunting Whitetails with Bill Winke

I have been making this recipe for several years. In fact, it is by far our favorite way to cook and prepare all cuts of venison. If you are looking for a tangy, savory venison recipe that is good by itself or when made into sandwiches, give this one a try. This would also make great jerky if you have a food dehydrator. kwhunting kwwhitetail

Going into the hunt I was very skeptical. My trail cam photos showed almost zero daylight movement on the farm and that had me perplexed given no one has been hunting here for almost a month. But, the actual hunt was a different story. With the very cold temperatures, corn seemed to be the best choice so we sat in a Redneck blind that offered a close range opportunity for Jordan's bow. I carrie

Jordan and I are going back after the buck she missed low the day before. We know it is a long shot, but that is the perfect buck to remove from the farm, if possible. He is obviously a battler given his scrapes and scars and he will never have a big set of antlers. Plus, there is a definite need for redemption. Along the way, we discuss the fact that it is rare to see lots of movement two days

We saw some big deer on our last hunt, so there is definitely hope for next year. The season is now over in Iowa and while it was frustrating, I did learn quite a bit about deer behavior and even a few things about hunting strategies. There is no replacement for being prepared and while I had a good Plan A going into the season, things didn't work out the way I had hoped. I needed a Plan B. I

After using cell cameras for 2 1/2 months, I can say that they didn't distract from my enjoyment of the hunt, as I had feared. But some of that had to do with the way I was using them. On the other hand, they did show me some surprising activity that I never would have known existed otherwise. Specifically, I had no idea there was this much morning activity taking place all over the farm during

Way back in the mid-1980s I read an article in Bowhunter Magazine called "Stalk Your Stand". I didn't understand what the author was trying to get across. We didn't know much about deer back then, and it wasn't until the 90's when a friend of mine, Jim Hill, explained it in another way - you are the burglar breaking into a house, what extremes would you go to in order not to get caught. Now app

Just for fun, this off-season I am going back through the hunts that we have filmed over the years with the goal of finding one simple lesson from each. These videos will be short, fast-paced and fun (I hope) with at least one useful lesson from each. The first episode in this series is from 2008, a hunt that I easily could have messed up if I had given in to my urge to call too soon.

This is the second episode in our new "Classic Lessons" series. I plan to keep posting episodes to this series during the off-season (at least until I can get back to work on the farm). This buck was out cruising 200 yards off a county road during the middle of the afternoon at a time when most bucks are locked down with does. He was the rule breaker. Sometimes they just do things and live place

Here is another great hunt from 2008. I hadn't realized how many awesome bucks we shot that year, and we have two more to go! The day was too windy for the passing buck to hear a grunt, so I snort-wheezed and he stopped in his tracks, pivoted and walked right to the tree. My boyhood friend, Mike Sawyer, finished him off with a great shot. This hunt reveals the simple lesson that they can't react

Another Classic hunt from the 2008 season. Mike Sawyer and his cousin, Chris Mack, both shoot great bucks (and several does) from the same stand over a three day stretch right on the heals of late season warm front. We always think that we need cold fronts to produce action, but during the late season a warm front following several days of frigid temperatures can really get the deer on their feet,

This is another in my series of Classic Hunts that are intended to teach a simple lesson. Well, this one ended very badly and the lesson was hard to read. But if we can take anything from this unbelievable day of hunting, it is the fact that November 7 is possibly the very best single day to be in the field with a bow in hand. November 7 has been my favorite day of bowhunting since the early 90s

This is a really cool hunt from 2009 that shows the power of the call to change your season. I called to two really good bucks over the course of the morning and ended up shooting one of them. During my bowhunting career, roughly 40% of the bucks I have shot came into a call. The rate won't be that high in areas with lots of hunting pressure, but in areas with light to moderate hunting pressure,

My friend, Mike Sawyer's, hunt from back in 2009 brings up the question of whether it is our responsibility and duty to shoot wounded deer when the opportunity occurs. After several decades of seeing the types of wounds deer can recover from, I have my own thoughts on this debatable subject.

My first painful experiences with string jumping occurred in 2009 when I hit and lost two really big bucks. This was the official end to my ignorance is bliss stage of bowhunting career. From 2009 on, I have dealt with string jumping more often than I would like to admit. I offer a few tips on how to handle this behavior based on my experiences.

We all live to hunt the early November rut, and for good reason. It is an awesome time to be in the woods. But some years the plan doesn't work and you are still holding a tag into the second half of the month. There is a bright side, however. The second half of the rut, after most of the does have been bred, can offer really good bowhunting for mature bucks as this November 24 hunt from 2010 p

The best time to find a mature buck on the move during daylight is roughly a week before the time when the greatest number of does are in estrus. That peak of estrus is roughly November 15, in the Midwest. This is why I have always liked November 7 as the perfect rut hunting day. We have had a lot of really good hunts on, or around, November 7 over the years - including this hunt by my friend,

I shot a great buck on October 30, 2011. That was one of my first introductions to just how good late October can be. Since then, and more recently in the past five years, I have confirmed that theory with many other great hunts during that time. Mature bucks tend to be closer to home, but still moving in daylight during the last few days of October - more predictable than they will be at any oth

After finishing up our scheduled TSI work for the winter, Carsen and I took a day off to celebrate that event and we spent it shed hunting. I had trail cam photos of the biggest buck on the farm without his antlers. The buck had shed only a few days before, so we set out with the goal of finding both sides of the "Jordan Buck". Carsen came through with flying colors! It took him nearly 7 hours,

It is super valuable to scout your hunting area with an eye toward figuring out what the deer see from every bed you come across. What they see (and don't see) will greatly help you decide how to sneak in and out of that area. We found a no-brainer funnel surrounded by apple trees that we will definitely be hunting this fall. Don't wait until just before the season to scout new areas. Right now

We spent two more days shed hunting on the farm and found several more nice antlers. Along the way the guys talk about where to look for antlers and we also score the sheds from the big Jordan Buck that Carsen found last week. If he stays here, he should be a really nice buck this year! It will also be fun to see how his behavior changes from year to year.

A couple weeks ago, Jordan and I took you along as we scouted a new part of the farm that is thick with apple trees. We knew we had to hunt it, but there was no clear way to do that without spooking lots of deer. After time spent thinking about it, I decided that the only way to hunt this spot is from a blind so we could stay downwind of most of the action. But that was only half the puzzle. We