By Mike Cox

While most hunters today primarily view white-tailed deer as a source of lean meat and trophy racks, the antlers grown and shed every year from the foreheads of bucks are more than just symmetrical (or sometimes not) calcium formations intended by nature as a means of self-defense and as a symbol of genetic quality. Since before recorded history, antlers — either taken from harvested deer or picked up after they have been shed — have comforted and benefited man as spiritual icons and cultural artifacts ranging from tools to art. Read more.

By Henry Chappell

Hunt deer long enough, and it’ll eventually happen. Maybe you simply shot the buck poorly. Maybe he jumped as you squeezed the trigger. In any case, the deer bolted, and you didn’t see him fall.

After a half-hour wait, you follow up. Sure enough, you find blood spots, but the trail disappears after a few yards. A careful search turns up nothing.

You mentally replay the shot and try to convince yourself that you just nicked him. But you know the truth. If you don’t find him, coyotes will. Read more.

By Mike Cox

Simon Winston starts his pickup, and the country-and-western channel on his satellite radio kicks on with the late, deep-voiced Johnny Cash singing his classic Ring of Fire.

“And it burns, burns, burns
“The ring of fire, the ring of fire…”

Winston was parked on the highest point of land on his family’s timber- studded farm five miles south of Nacogdoches to discuss with a visitor, among other things, the important role of prescribed burning in conservation. Cash’s song could not have been more appropriate. Read more.