Like many of us raised in Minnesota, I started hunting as a pre-teen (at the age of eleven) and have been at it ever since. Some highlights include my first ruffed grouse (1978) and first deer (1981). Years later, my first contribution to Whitetales, a story (“Whitetail Deer Evolution”) in the Spring 1995 issue. During the subsequent thirty-plus years I’ve been privileged to write/contribute an additional 42 Whitetales stories.

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Spurred on by a combination of factors, including the growing interest in long-range shooting, availability of high ballistic coefficient bullets, new powders, rifles with fast-twist barrels, and the popularity of AR-15 style rifles, there has been a surge in the development of small-caliber cartridges over the last 20 years. 

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No rest for the wicked, or so the saying goes. We’ll quickly be staring down summer weather with all it’s drudgery, including ticks and mosquitoes, but there’s plenty of work to be done before then. Here’s how to triage spring chores that should be done now. 

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My grandma was a bona fide hoarder. Back when I was a kid, I was afraid to bring my friends to her house. There was stuff stacked floor to ceiling with just a deer trail leading between the rooms. 

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When winter settles in across Minnesota, sometimes early, sometimes late, other times in the middle, temperatures will vary from moderate to bitter lows throughout much of the state. For sure, the days will become shorter until the winter solstice on December 21 or 22, and more often than not, our lands and lakes will lay quiet under a blanket of snow of varying depths. In these often brutal conditions, survival is a constant challenge for white-tailed deer. Yet, they have proven to be remarkably tough. 

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