By Alex Comstock 

Today is finally the day. It's a day that I've been dreaming about since the second I walked out of the stand for the last time last year. Every season is a fresh slate, with new learning opportunities out there, hopes and dreams unscathed, and the unknown of what the upcoming season may present. Today marks the start of my 2018 deer season, and I could not be more excited. I'm in North Dakota and have high hopes of getting it done in the next few days, hopefully arrowing an early season mature buck. And with that, I wanted to touch on a few tactics that I feel are underrated which you could capitalize on in the next month during your early season hunting. 

By Alex Comstock 

Deer season officially starts for me this Friday afternoon as I'll finally be in a stand once again in North Dakota. I've got high hopes for opening weekend, just as I always do during the first week or two of season. I've come to the conclusion that if you hunt a state that opens early (specifically the front half of September) it could be your best time all year to tag a mature buck. Here's two reasons why!

By Alex Comstock 

Scent control in the deer hunting world. It can be a fascinating conversation between hunters. Does it work? Is it pointless? How about somewhere in between? I think at the end of the day it comes down to the individual hunter and what works for you. But what if you don't know if you should practice scent control or not? Well today, I'm going to give you my honest thoughts on it, and how I approach my scent control strategy. 

By Alex Comstock 

Between right now and October 1st (date most all states will be open for bowhunting) I'd be willing to bet a lot of treestands are going to be hung. Whether you are hanging rut stands, or are frantically trying to get a set ready before opener rolls in, stands all across the country will be going in trees. When hanging stands, we don't just randomly pick a tree right? Usually there are reasons we put a stand in a certain place. On occasion, and I've certainly been guilty of this, we don't always look at the details when hanging stands. Today, I wanted to hit on three things that I find important when you are out hanging treestands. 

By Alex Comstock 

In the last couple of seasons I have started hunting more and more with a "run n gun" stand setup. This style of hunting requires you to hike in with a stand on your back, set up on the fly, and then tear down at the end of the hunt. There are a lot of advantages to this type of hunting style, and I've come to really like it. Often, the first time in to a spot can be the best chance at a mature buck. Just like anything, there are downsides as well, and today I wanted to review both the pros and the cons of a mobile hunting setup to help you decide if you should adopt this kind of hunting. 

By Alex Comstock 

It's hard to believe August is already here. For me, I'll be in a treestand in about three weeks, which is absolutely absurd to me how fast opening day is nearing. With deer season seemingly approaching faster and faster everyday no matter where you're located in the country, the last thing we as hunters want to do is mess up our season before it gets here. These four things in this blog post could set you on the wrong path for your 2018 season, and you'll want to surely avoid them. 

By Alex Comstock 

If you've followed along here on WhitetailDNA, I think by now you probably know that I love trail cameras. You could even go as far as calling it an addiction. Trail cameras have their place when it comes to deer hunting, no doubt. They are a tool that when used in the right way, can help your hunting efforts immensely. Over the course of the last few years, I had at some points been running close to thirty trail cameras. What I've found though is that in this case, more doesn't always equal better. I've learned a few things about trying to run too many trail cameras, and now this year, once I've got all my cameras up, I'll be running in the 10-15 range. Below I'll detail a few of the negatives that come with running too many trail cameras, and why if these are an issue for you, maybe it's time to downsize the fleet. 

By Alex Comstock 

I'm currently trying to locate a big woods buck this summer to hunt in the fall, and after only checking a single trail camera once, it hasn't happened yet. There's still a lot of time for it to happen, but today I wanted to briefly talk about what it really can mean to you when you locate a mature buck when hunting in a big woods setting. 

By Alex Comstock 

Public land holds a special place in my heart. I learned to deer hunt on public land, and it affords so many people a bountiful amount of opportunity when it comes to hunting. Yet, some people don't find public land important, and some public land is in jeopardy of being transferred out of federal hands which could ultimately lead to the loss of public land. If you only private land, I think you should still appreciate public land and value it, and here's why. 

By Alex Comstock 

Planning an out of state whitetail hunt can take a lot of work and planning to the point where it can even be intimidating if you've never done it before. I do a fair amount of out of state hunting myself and even though it can be strenuous, and difficult to pull off successfully, it can be extremely fun to hunt a new area, or a place that you end up going year after year. To get a little more insight and a different perspective from mine on out of state hunting, I reached out to Michael Mancl of The Breaking Point. Michael has done a ton of out of state hunting and had a lot of good information. You can read all about how to better plan and execute an out of state hunt by reading our Q&A below.