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What’s the Perfect Venison Burger Recipe?

Do you prefer the humble smash burger? Or maybe you'd like some peanut butter smeared on your burger? We've got you covered in this recipe guide dedicated to deer burgers

BY DAVID DRAPER , COLIN KEARNS |





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What makes the perfect venison burger? That depends on your palette—or what you’re craving. If you ask us, venison burgers are best left simple: cooked to medium-rare on a hot grill (or in a scorching skillet) and served on a potato bun with minimal fixings. If that sounds like your kind of burger, too, we’ve got you covered in this wildly comprehensive guide to the best venison burger recipes.

And in the interest of breaking free from the monotony (and possibly wanting to start some controversy), we’ve also include a half-dozen venison burger recipe ideas that’ll put the wild back in your wild-game burgers.

Table of Contents

  • Venison Smash Burgers

  • PB&J Venison Sliders

  • Beer-Cheese Pretzel Burger

  • Breakfast Venison Burger with Maple Mayo

  • Venison Chicago Burger

  • Hamburguesa de Elotes

  • Big Lucy’s Blues Burger

  • The Perfect Venison Patty Melt

Venison Smash Burger Recipe


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At our deer camp in the Adirondacks, we sure do eat well. Breakfast burritos and pancakes for breakfast. Peanut butter, bacon, and honey wraps for an in-the-woods lunch. And a rotating dinner menu of feasts that usually showcase game meat—mule deer spiedies, venison Bolognese, cassoulet, and, when it’s my night to cook, venison smash burgers.

I have the inimitable Guy Fieri to thank for this recipe. Years ago, for an episode of “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives,” he paid a visit to White Manna Hamburgers, a Jersey institution, and the short-order cooks there gave a clinic in the art of the smash burger. As soon as I saw those perfect burgers come off the flat-top, I knew that’s how I’d cook my venison burgers from then on. Here’s how it’s done.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground venison (80 percent venison, 20 beef fat), portioned into ¼-pound patties.

  • Vegetable oil

  • White onion, thinly sliced

  • American cheese

  • Potato buns

  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Get the griddle ripping hot, then add some oil to the cooking surface.

  2. Place the patties on the griddle, season generously with salt and pepper, then smash them thin with a spatula. Add a small pile of the onions on top of each patty, then give them another smash so the onions stick to the patties. Cook for about 2 to 2 ½ minutes.

  3. Flip the burgers, so they continue to cook onion-side down. Top each patty with a slice of cheese, then add the buns. The bottom bun goes on top of the cheese, cut-side down, and the top bun rests on the on the bottom bun (see photo above), also cut-side down. This steams the buns while the burgers finish cooking. Let the burgers cook for about 1 to 1 ½ minutes.

  4. Lift each burger from the griddle with the spatula, then remove the top bun and place it, cut-side up, under the spatula, temporarily sandwiching the spatula and patty between both buns. Gently squeeze the top and bottom buns with one hand and slide the spatula out with the other. Pass the burger off to hunting buddy, and repeat with the rest. Each hunter gets two burgers.

PB&J Venison Sliders


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Serve these sliders at a cookout, and you’ll quickly identify who the adventurous eaters are. Those brave enough for a bite are in for a rich reward. Although the ingredients in this venison burger recipe shouldn’t work together, somehow they come together to create one of the best burgers to come off the grill in years. Feel free to upsize the burgers—but, in my experience, they are best served as sliders, since it’s easy to O.D. on all the rich, heavy flavors.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground venison

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Slider buns

  • Grape jelly

  • Peanut butter

  • 6–8 slices of bacon, cooked

  • Sliced cheddar cheese

Directions

  1. Divide the ground venison into six to eight equal-size patties, each slightly larger than the slider buns. Season liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill to medium over hot coals.

  2. To build the sliders, first slather the bottom bun with grape jelly. Add a grilled slider patty, then a spoonful of peanut butter. Next, break a slice of bacon in half and add it to the burger, followed by a slice of cheddar cheese. Complete with the top bun. Wait a few seconds for the peanut butter and cheese to melt before biting in.

Beer-Cheese Pretzel Venison Burger


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With hot beer cheese atop a pile of grilled onions, dripping off a thick whitetail patty, this may as well be the unofficial state burger of Wisconsin. It even has a pretzel bun, for gosh sakes. If you’re tempted to fancy up this venison burger recipe with gruyere and a craft beer—don’t. Stick to the working-man spirit of the burger, with sharp cheddar and a cheap lager. Also, be sure to have plenty of extra suds on hand to wash down the melty goodness.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground venison

  • Kosher salt to taste

  • 4 pretzel buns

  • 1 medium onion, sliced thin

  • 1 tbs. butter

  • Worcestershire sauce (optional)

  • Yellow mustard

For the beer cheese

  • 2 Tbsp. butter

  • 2 Tbsp. flour

  • 1 can lager

  • 12 oz. grated cheddar cheese

  • 1 tsp. hot sauce

Directions

  1. Divide the ground venison into four equal portions, and press into patties. Season liberally with kosher salt. Keep chilled.

  2. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a hot skillet, and add sliced onions and a pinch of salt. Lower heat to medium, and cook until softened and browned. Add a dash of Worcestershire if desired.

  3. To make the beer cheese, melt two tablespoons of butter in a small pot. Add two tablespoons of flour, and stir constantly until the roux is a light brown. Whisk in half of the can of lager, stirring until thickened. Add grated cheese a half cup at a time, stirring as it melts. If necessary, thin with additional beer until you achieve the proper consistency. Season with hot sauce and freshly ground black pepper.

  4. Grill ground venison patties to desired doneness.

  5. To build the venison beer-cheese burger, spread the bottom of the pretzel bun with good yellow mustard. Top with the burger patty, grilled onions, and a heavy dollop of beer cheese.

Breakfast Venison Burger Recipe with Maple Mayo



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I’ve checked the venison burger recipe rule book, and nowhere does it list not eating a burger for breakfast. Of course, there’s nothing that says you can’t have a breakfast burger for dinner, either. Fact is, whenever this burger comes off the grill is the perfect time to enjoy its savory flavors. Some salty slivered ham, a heavy handful of hash browns, sage and mace (classic pork-sausage ingredients), and the gooey drippings of an egg yolk fresh from the skillet make this burger worth getting out of bed for.

Ingredients

  • ¾ lb. ground venison

  • ¼ lb. ground pork

  • 1 tsp. kosher salt

  • ½ tsp. sage

  • ½ tsp. mace

  • ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

  • 4 hamburger buns

  • Slivered ham

  • Hash browns

  • 4 eggs

For the maple mayo

  • ¼ cup mayonnaise

  • 1 ½ tsp. maple syrup

Directions

  1. Mix the mayonnaise and maple syrup. Refrigerate.

  2. Place the ground venison and pork in a medium bowl with the salt, sage, mace, and freshly ground black pepper. Using your hands, mix until the seasonings are well incorporated. Press into four ¼-lb. patties and grill over a hot fire until the internal temperature reaches 152 degrees.

  3. In a hot skillet, heat a spoonful of bacon fat and a spoonful of butter. Fry hash browns until crispy. Heat slivered ham. Fry egg sunny-side up or over-easy, being careful not to overcook the yolk.

  4. To build the burger, spread a generous amount of maple mayo onto the bottom bun. Layer the slivered ham, hamburger patty, and pile of hash browns. Complete with a fried egg, then the top bun. Have plenty of napkins on standby.

Venison Chicago Burger

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Combine the Windy City’s favorite hot-dog toppings with the rich taste of a perfectly cooked wild-game burger, and you’ve got an instant classic. Like its tubular namesake, this venison burger recipe is a mouthful, with up to 10 layers of flavor competing for your taste buds.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground venison

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Poppy-seed bun

  • Yellow mustard

  • Sliced tomato

  • Pickle relish

  • Diced onion

  • Sliced hot pepper

  • Celery salt

  • Dill pickle

Directions

  1. Divide the ground venison into four equal portions and press into patties. Season liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill to medium over hot coals.

  2. To build the Chicago burger, spread the bottom of the bun with good yellow mustard. Layer a sliced tomato, pickle relish, the grilled burger patty, diced onions, and sliced hot peppers. Sprinkle with celery salt, then top with the burger bun. Finish with a dill pickle spear held in place with a bamboo skewer.

Hamburguesa de Elotes


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One of Mexico’s most popular street foods, elotes are fresh ears of sweet corn, charred over a hot fire, and slathered in mayonnaise, lime juice, or crema. Lucky for those of us stateside, these flavors perfectly complement a grilled wild-game burger that can be made at home. Don’t wait until winter to try this venison burger recipe, though; it’s best when the sweet corn is fresh.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground venison

  • Kosher salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Sesame-seed bun

  • 2 ears fresh sweet corn

  • 1/2 cup butter

  • Juice and zest of one lime

  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

  • Mayonnaise

  • Tajin

  • Queso fresco, crumbled

Directions

  1. Divide the ground venison into four equal portions, and press into patties. Season liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill to medium over hot coals.

  2. Pull the husks back from the corn and remove the silk. Fold the husks back into place and grill the corn over hot coals until the kernels are soft, and slightly charred in places. Slice the corn off the cob and toss with butter, lime juice, zest, and fresh cilantro.

  3. To assemble the burger, slather the bottom half of the sesame-seed bun with mayonnaise. Add the burger patty, corn, and queso fresco. Sprinkle Tajin seasoning over the top, then cover with the top bun.

Big Lucy’s Blues Burger


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Order a Juicy Lucy in the Twin Cities and you’ll get a burger patty stuffed with molten American cheese. Consider Big Lucy’s Blues Burger an upscale version of the standard model, both in terms of size and the cheese. Not for the timid of tongue, this beast of a venison burger recipe combines the pungent bite of bleu cheese with peppery spice via the rocket arugula. To complement the flavors, find the best tomato jam available, one with cloves and cinnamon listed in the ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground venison

  • 1 cup bleu cheese crumbles

  • 3 large potato buns

  • Kosher salt

  • Tomato jam

  • 6 slices bacon, cooked

  • Arugula

Directions

  1. Divide the ground venison into three equal portions. Form each into a rough ball, pressing a deep well in the center with your thumbs. Fill the well with bleu cheese crumbles and fold the ground meat over to cover. Press into a thick patty. Sprinkle with kosher salt, and transfer to a hot grill. Grill patties over medium-high heat, carefully flipping once, until cooked through. Brush potato buns with butter, and toast over a hot grill.

  2. Build the burger by spreading the bottom bun with a heaping tablespoon of tomato jam. Top with the bleu cheese-stuffed patty, two slices of bacon, and a handful of arugula.

Venison Burger Recipe: The Perfect Patty Melt


Our final venison burger recipe is another diner classic. A great patty melt is the sum of its parts, even more so than a standard burger. And though those parts are few—just some quality ground venison, onion, Swiss cheese, and rye bread—the end result is almost enough to make a guy swear off burgers forever. I’m too humble to say this is the best patty melt ever, but it’s pretty damn good. This is due, probably, to the copious amounts of butter and the technique for caramelizing the onions, which I admittedly stole from Kenji over at Serious Eats. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that my version features homemade rye bread baked by my mom. If you don’t have that, a good store bought rye—light, not dark—will do.

Ingredients

  • Ingredients:

  • ¼ lb. ground venison

  • ½ tsp. Worcestershire

  • Pinch of kosher salt

  • Dash of garlic powder

  • Dash of onion powder

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 2 Tbsp. butter

  • Water

  • ½ medium onion, sliced thin

  • Two slices of Swiss cheese

  • Rye bread, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

  • Mayonnaise

Directions

1. Place the venison burger in a small bowl and season with a couple dashes of Worcestershire, along with the kosher salt, garlic and onion powders, and freshly ground black pepper. Mix lightly to incorporate and form into a patty roughly the same size and shape as your bread.

2. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of butter and place the burger patty in the skillet. Cook 2 minutes per side, or long enough to form a crispy crust without overcooking the interior. Remove the patty to a plate and keep warm.

3. Lower the heat to medium and melt one tablespoons of butter in the skillet. Add the onions and one or two tablespoons of water. Stir frequently, using your spatula to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking, adding water a tablespoon at a time, until the onions are cooked through and caramelized.

Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise onto the outside of each slice of rye bread. Assemble the patty melt by placing the patty on one slice of bread and topping with caramelized onions and two slices of Swiss cheese.

5. Melt a little more butter in the skillet, then place the assembled sandwich in the pan and cook until well browned. Flip and brown the second side, cooking until the cheese is melted.



 

Small Calibers for Big Game: This Is Not a New Thing

Bigger isn't always better for caliber selection, and shot placement trumps all

BY TYLER FREEL 

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Despite what the internet might lead you to believe, the 6.5 Creedmoor did not start a movement to hunt big game with smaller-caliber cartridges. In reality, folks have been putting big animals down for over a hundred years with cartridges that would have social media commenters’ thumbs worked into a frenzy. They did it without a second thought, maybe because nobody ever told them they couldn’t.

Both Col. Townsend Whelen and Jack O’Connor had an affinity for mild-recoiling, accurate cartridges like the .250 Savage, .257 Roberts, and the .270 Winchester. As former Outdoor Life contributor Jim Rearden wrote, legendary Alaskan hunter Frank Glaser started out with a .250 Savage, and later decided on the .220 Swift to be his favorite cartridge for taking hoofed game.
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What Does More Power Get You?

It’s easy to get sucked into the mindset of “bigger is better.” After all, more powerful cartridges typically do offer more devastating performance, and somewhat more forgiveness of error on shot angles. But caliber selection is a personal choice each hunter must make. The problem is that today there are plenty of blowhards who will question whether you even belong in the woods if your rifle is not as big as theirs—regardless of whether they truly understand the advantages or disadvantages of choosing a high-caliber piece of artillery.

Recoil

Sure, more power is more power, but being able to shoot your rifle accurately and with confidence trumps all else. What a high-test cartridge does bring you is more recoil, and a cannon does you no good if you’re scared to pull the trigger. No one would admit to being scared of their rifle, but I’ve seen more than a few grown men with such a bad flinch they couldn’t keep bullets on a paper plate at 100 yards.

Most large-caliber proponents confuse the ability to fire a rifle without crumpling to the ground and the very real affects that heavy recoil has on every shooter. Former shooting editor Jim Carmichel detailed these effects, as did Jack O’Connor. It’s for good reason that high-volume shooters almost always choose cartridges that are more manageable than the speed-demon magnums.

Terminal Performance

Perhaps our expectations of what happens after the shot dictate the direction we choose to go in cartridge selection. If we expect an animal to drop as if hit by lightning, then chasingrpower would be the natural direction. Intuitively, we’d think that the bigger the cartridge, the more quickly it will kill game, but it’s not always that simple.

When selecting a cartridge, you need one that is capable of adequate penetration, and a projectile that will offer sufficient terminal performance at the distance you’re shooting at your chosen game. A species like cape buffalo will certainly require a heavier-hitting cartridge than what you’d need for elk or moose, and more powerful cartridges do offer some terminal benefits. But don’t forget that you cannot out-caliber poor marksmanship. The fantastic performance of a lightning-in-a-bottle cartridge won’t do you any good if you can’t hit what you’re aiming at.

Simple Facts

The fact is, if you punch a quality bullet through the lungs of the toughest bull elk, moose, bear, or caribou, he’s going to die—quickly. A bull moose shot through the lungs with a .25-06 or .270 might not crumple on impact, but he’s not going very far. And moose don’t topple over quickly anyway. In fact, an instant drop is more often the exception. The most dramatic pile-up I’ve ever seen on a moose was at the receiving end of a 150-grain Hornady inter-lock out of my .30-06 at 350 yards—while the last bull I shot showed no reaction when hit twice with a .300 H&H from 100 yards (before falling on his nose).
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An Alaska-Yukon moose is a behemoth of a critter that supposedly demands cartridges starting in the .33’s. In reality, more moose have probably been taken with .222’s, .30-30’s, and .243’s in Alaska than any other cartridges. In Canada, the .303 is likely king, which is hardly a powerhouse. The .223 Remington is currently a dominant cartridge in the bush of Alaska, and it has proven to be plenty adequate for caribou when used with well-constructed bullets. And although the .223 would be considered light for moose by anyone’s standards, it still takes quite a few moose in the bush every year as well.

What About Bears?

Bears, especially grizzly bears, are another area for cartridge contention. For guiding purposes, or as a backup gun, it’s not a bad idea to tote something in the .338 to .416 range. But for hunting purposes, it’s simply not necessary. Bears will generally not be anchored in place with a single shot, no matter the caliber. You’ll hear stories of shooting bears in the shoulders to “break them down,” but I know of a few instances where bears were never recovered because of this method. Shoot them cleanly through both lungs and their fate is sealed, usually very quickly. For black bears, a .243 with a good bonded or monolithic bullet is absolutely deadly. This season, my son took his first black bear with the pipsqueak .350 Legend. The bear ran about 10 yards and fell over dead.

Grizzlies do garner a reputation of being a little tougher to kill, but that seems to have much more to do with the bear being aware of the hunter’s presence. In all the guiding and hunting he has done, my uncle still says the fastest death he ever saw of a grizzly was brought on by a .25-06. I’m convinced that a good first shot is much more critical than caliber. I killed a Boone and Crockett grizzly bear with a 6.5 Creedmoor this season, which was on the ground before the echoes of my first shot even subsided. He only made it seven yards. Previously, I shot an equally large bear with a patched roundball out of a .50-caliber muzzleloader. He ran about 75 yards before expiring. Even on giant coastal brown bears, a good shot trumps a big bullet. I know of several big Kodiak bears that were taken cleanly with a .308, and another recently with a 7mm-08.

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The Takeaway

The common theme with many cartridge selections historically is ammo availability. The traveling hunter often has the luxury to bring whatever cartridge he or she wishes to the field, but in more remote areas, folks have always used what they had available; often that meant standard, mediocre cartridges. They made it work and still do. As caliber selection applies to us today, this shouldn’t be interpreted as license to try and outdo each other with the smallest cartridge possible.

My point is that a cartridge’s adequacy rests much more in a good-shooting rifle and what’s between the ears of the person pulling the trigger than in some curmudgeon’s ballistics charts. If you’re one of the folks who just needs one good hunting rifle, pick an accurate gun that you’re comfortable shooting and buy good ammunition to shoot through it. If your disdain for popular culture excludes you from owning a 6.5 Creedmoor, pick up a .25-06 and maybe you’ll start your own cartridge movement. Either way, the animals won’t notice.



 

GOOSE LUNCH MEAT

Make delectable goose breast sandwiches using the sous vide cooking method

by Scott Leysath

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The duck hunting in Northern California, where I live, was a little slow this past season, but the goose hunting was on fire. Limits of specks, snows, and Canada geese were common, and many of my friends asked me for suggestions on what to do with all their goose meat. I recommended this recipe for lunch meat, which works well with any goose species.

You'll need a sous vide (pronounced soo-veed) cooker, an increasingly popular kitchen gadget that circulates water in a container at a specific temperature. You place seasoned meat into a vacuum-sealed bag or zip-top bag and then submerge it in the circulating water bath. After several hours, the meat is perfectly cooked and super tender. The only problem with this cooking method is that it doesn't brown the meat. If you like your meat somewhat charred and crispy on the outside, it's best to undercook it by a few degrees and then transfer to a hot skillet or grill to quickly sear it

Sous vide cooking basically poaches the meat in its own juices, as well as whatever flavors and seasonings you add to the bag before cooking. It's best to add more seasoning than you would when cooking with other methods, because the seasonings can be diluted with the natural meat juices. Load up the bag with Italian seasonings, chopped fresh garlic, fresh herbs, hot peppers, and marinades to add incredible flavor to the meat. The seasoning possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

SOUS VIDE GOOSE LUNCH MEAT

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This method works especially well with larger Canada geese, but it's great with any goose species. The skin can be left on or removed. If you leave it on, it will take several minutes in a hot skillet after the sous vide to make the skin side crispy. For best results, brine the meat overnight in a solution of 1/2 gallon water and 1/2 cup each coarse salt and brown sugar. Yields: 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 goose breast fillets, skin on or off
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • Cooking oil


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DIRECTIONS

[STEP 1] Season goose breast fillets liberally with salt and pepper. Place each fillet in a separate vacuum bag or freezer-safe zip-top bag, along with equal portions of garlic and rosemary. If you're using vacuum bags, seal them. If you're using zip-top bags, remove as much air as possible before zipping them closed.

[STEP 2] Place the bagged breast fillets in a 134-degree sous vide water bath for six hours. Remove fillets from bags, pat dry, and sear in a lightly oiled skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned on both sides. Allow to cool completely.

[STEP 3] Once cooled, slice thinly across the grain. For easier slicing, partially freeze breast fillets first.


 

Three Women in a Minivan Stole This Bear Hound Because It Was Being “Forced” to Hunt

The suspects, who were driving a maroon minivan with Florida plates, removed Ringo's GPS collar and drove off with him

BY KATIE HILL 


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A family from Rural Retreat, Virginia, is offering a $1,000 reward for information on a missing bear hound who was taken from the side of the road by three women in a maroon van with Florida license plates on Saturday. Rocky Deel and his 11-year-old son Charlie had collected five of their six dogs after an unsuccessful day of bear hunting in Speedwell around Hale Lake when they realized the sixth dog, a “blue English” coonhound named Ringo, was nowhere to be found. Then they got a call from a family friend and fellow hunter.

“He said [Ringo] was out on Route 21,” Rocky tells Outdoor Life. “By the time we get down off the mountain and get to where he was at, we can’t find the dog but we’re still picking up the signal from the collar. Well, we end up finding the collar laying in the ditch.”

The hunter who had called Rocky had actually spoken with the women on the side of the road, who had sworn they would drive Ringo into cell phone service and call the Deels using the number on Ringo’s collar. So the hunter drove away, leaving Ringo with the women. But Rocky never heard from them. Now, he and his family suspect the women thought they were “saving” Ringo from a neglectful home where he was forced to hunt.


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Meanwhile, the Deels are reeling—especially Charlie.

“This just broke his heart,” Rocky says. “He loves the dogs. He would help me do the feeding, but now he’s telling me he can’t help me feed without Ringo being there. It just didn’t feel right.” 

Bear hunting with hounds is legal in Virginia and other states. It’s often controversial, however, and in Vermont, for example, bear hounds and their owners have been attacked by anti-hunting activists in the past. But Rocky says he’s never had any conflicts with anyone else over the practice. 

“Around here, everybody hunts. It’s a hunting community,” Deel says. “And for the most part you don’t have any trouble. We’ve never had any issues with anyone. But [the other hunter] did say [the women] were going on about how they think hunting is cruel, and that we make these dogs hunt. So I don’t know if they thought I was being cruel to the dog, but these dogs are bred for this. You don’t make them hunt.”  


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Surely these women didn’t consider the legal implications of their actions. Stealing a dog in Virginia is a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Additionally, removing a GPS collar from a dog is a Class 1 misdemeanor, which could get them another year in jail or a $2,500 fine. Interference with lawful hunting is a Class 3 misdemeanor, which might tack on an additional $500 fine.   

The Deels made a Facebook page where they are collecting information on Ringo’s whereabouts. They have also filed police reports, contacted law enforcement in multiple counties, and have reached out to every dog rescue and shelter in the area. 

“I’ve been out every day from daylight to dark searching for him,” Rocky says. “That’s what I’m actually doing right now. I’m just trying to find the van, or hoping they would have let him out somewhere. But with the reward, I’m hoping somebody will talk sooner or later.” 



 

The 10 Best Stand Locations for Hunting the Rut

The rut is the most exciting time to hunt—if you're sitting in the right spot. Here are our picks for the top stand locations for the rut

BY Josh Honeycutt

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The rut is a phenomenal time of year to be a deer hunter. It’s when anything can happen at any time. Bucks are chasing does, and even those elusive mature bucks can be spotted on their feet during daylight. The drive to breed can push bucks to travel miles from their typical home range which gives hunters the opportunity to tag a giant buck that they’ve never seen before.

However, the chaos of the rut can also make deciding where to hunt more challenging. If a big buck could show up anywhere at any time, it’s also true that he could never show up at the spot you’re hunting. And this leads to the biggest question when it comes to hunting the rut: Where should you sit?

To help you make the right call, we’ve listed the ten best stands for hunting the rut. These picks are based on interviews with expert whitetail hunters, deer biologists, and from personal experience in the field.

Buck Bedding Areas

While this might seem like a surprising choice, sticking to thick bedding areas that bucks have been using all season long can produce during the rut. According to The Hunting Beast’s Dan Infalt, this is an excellent way to encounter mature bucks that rarely move elsewhere during daylight hours. He says these are the places that he kills most of his mature deer, even during the rut.

Generally, these are the absolute thickest, nastiest areas around for bucks to live in. It gives them an advantage on seeing, hearing, or smelling danger before it reaches them. Hunting these in a strategic manner can produce solid results. Listen to the podcast below to hear how Infalt does it.

Doe Bedding Areas

One of the best stand locations for the rut is near doe bedding areas. This is a time when bucks are covering ground in search of does. The downwind sides of doe bedding areas can put a hunter in a good position to capitalize on cruising bucks.

“I will hunt doe bedding areas that harbor bucks, or adjacent bedding areas near there,” Infalt says. “But I still kill most of my bucks in bedding, not in funnels.”

Interestingly, according to recent research, you might even have new rutting does and bucks pushing through an area that weren’t previously there.

“We’ve learned that females make forays outside their traditional home ranges in the breeding season,” says Duane Diefenbach, wildlife biologist with Penn State University. “The conventional wisdom was that it was all about males making mate selection choices. But females play a role in mate selection as well.”

Pinch Points and Funnels

Pinch points and funnels are probably the most classic stand locations for hunting the rut. These spots include stretches of timber or early successional cover that pinches deer down through a narrow area. Whitetails that funnel through such spots are easier to encounter and get a shot at. Other great funnels include creek, river, ditch, and fence crossings. Topographical funnels, such as hogbacks, ridges, and saddles, are great spots, too.

That said, in heavily pressured areas, whitetails can begin to avoid such locations in favor of travel routes that receive less hunting pressure. This is especially true with mature bucks.

“One thing I see with private land guys is that, a lot of the time, they’ll place stands in the best funnels and spots, such as food plots,” Infalt says. “They’ll rotate through those stands, and the bucks learn where they are. You’ll get on a mature buck’s tracks and watch him go through the whole woods without going past one of those stands. It takes a mobile move to get them.”

Food Sources

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Throughout the year, food sources drive deer activity. If there’s food, deer will likely be there. If there’s bedding cover nearby, they will likely be there during daylight hours.

“I think one of the things that gets me onto bucks the quickest, and it isn’t 100%, is food,” Infalt says. “This year, there’s a good acorn crop. In a lot of cases, they’re bedding near acorns. That can kill you in the hills and forests where oaks are everywhere. But in the swamps and marshes, oaks are isolated on the islands. I look for the beds surrounding those.”

Art Helin of Own the Season agrees.

“Hunt food sources early mornings and evenings for the first part of the rut, as bucks will be out checking the does,” he says. “But by the first week of November, move to funnels and hunt hard during the midday, as the bucks will be up cruising going from bedding area to bedding area looking for that hot doe.”

Benches

Another excellent rut stand location is a bench. Quite simply, a bench is a long, relatively narrow strip of flat ground that cuts along a ridge. These areas are commonly traveled by bucks as they parallel ridge lines. Bucks use benches to scent-check does that are either above or below them.

In the morning, when thermals are rising, bucks tend to travel higher-level benches. This allows them to smell does (and danger) below them. In the afternoon, when thermals are falling, they tend to hit lower-level benches. This allows them to smell anything up above them.

Leeward Ridges

Similar to benches, leeward (downwind side) ridge lines are excellent places to intercept cruising bucks. These are also great places for mature bucks to avoid danger, even during the rut.

“A lot of these bucks are sitting up on top of a ridge where they can smell anything coming, and they can jump off and run down a very steep slope and be gone within seconds,” Diefenbach says. “To get to those spots is difficult. But if you can hike up to one of those spots, and set up during the day, you might catch one of those bucks walking. They’re going to get pushed by hunters to that spot. They’re going sit until maybe 10 a.m. If you can get there, you might intercept one.”

Water Barriers


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Whitetails get pressured during the rut more than any other time of deer season. Once the human intrusion begins, bucks start slinking into areas that give them survival advantages. Oftentimes, this comes in the form of a water barrier.


“I go anywhere other people don’t go,” Infalt says. “People leave behind scent that can last 10-15 days, perhaps longer than that. A deer can detect they were there. Deer really use water as a buffer. They bed in thick areas that are wet. They love high spots surrounded by water. Islands, oxbows, peninsulas, and coves are good. In marshes and swamps, I’m looking for islands and points in remote areas.”

Water Sources

But don’t forget that whitetails drink … a lot. And they drink even more during drought conditions, which much of the country is currently facing. They also drink more water during the rut. Cruising bucks must stay hydrated, drink upward of 5 quarts per day, and a secluded watering hole can be the ticket to a big, rutted-up buck.

Weird Spots

Throughout most of the year, whitetail bucks inhabit the spots you’d expect them to — the best available habitat. Rarely do you see them bedding or living in what we hunters perceive as subpar areas. That said, if ever there was a time for mature whitetails to inhabit a weird spot, it’s during heavily hunted seasons.

Diefenbach says mature whitetails grow old because they’ve found a place to survive and avoid human encounters. They have a spot where they aren’t disturbed.

“I think of one example down in the Gettysburg area,” Diefenbach says. “It’s highly developed — either crop land or human development with small woodlots. This one buck would just lay down along a powerline in a blackberry patch. That’s where he stayed from an hour or so before hunting opened for most of the day. They’re just smart like that.”

Of course, during the rut, bucks commonly push does to weird areas to get them away from the bulk of the deer herd. Such spots include sinkholes, small woodlots, pockets of CRP, and other areas where they can avoid other whitetails.

Trail Intersections

Lastly, consider trail intersections. Hunting where two or more well-used trails intersect is a solid choice during the rut. Bucks cover a lot of ground in search of does.

“There was a deer in Missouri that went 180 miles,” says Kip Adams, chief conservation officer with the National Deer Association. “That was the longest range movement that we know of in whitetails.” It traveled that distance over the course of 22 days during the 2017 rut. Picking main deer trail intersections gives you a chance to intercept one of the transient bucks.

Regardless of where you decide to hunt, just get out there.



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