I’m Matt — an Illinois whitetail hunter with 15+ years of experience hunting public land, family farm timber, and everything in between. This site exists because I got tired of hunting advice that sounded good in theory but fell apart in the field. Everything here is built on real experience: stands I’ve hunted from, gear I’ve personally tested, scouting strategies that have produced results — and honest opinions on the things that didn’t work, including gear I’ve stopped using entirely. Whether you’re chasing your first deer or your first mature buck, you’ll find something useful here.
The Buck that Started the Site
Below is a picture of the biggest and oldest buck I had been able to put my tag on near the start of the site. This buck was taken on December 3, 2015 during the opening day of Illinois’ 2nd firearms season. He has a gross score of just under 125 inches and I estimate him to be 4 years old. He is a buck that I had not seen all season. That is until earlier in the day when I finally had a chance to look at the cards from the trail cameras.
As it turns out, he had shown up on both of our cameras several times starting in mid November and we even had a daytime photo of him on November 17. Not only day, but mid day. 2 o’clock in the afternoon. With that new knowledge, I headed for the only stand that we had between those two locations overlooking the most likely trail he would travel on. With the wind in my favor, it was perfect. He is the very first deer that I have shot on camera and I couldn’t be prouder of him. The rest as they say, was history. To check out the full story of “Hit Lister”, Click Here.
Featured Articles from the Timber
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Deer Hunting in Cold Weather: What Actually Changes at the Stand
Click Here for more Hunting Tips To me, cold weather hunting starts at freezing, and I don’t mean a light frost. I mean genuinely below freezing. I’m talking about the kind of cold where I’ve sat through single-digit mornings with windchills well below zero. That’s the range this article actually covers. Anything milder than that…
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How to Grunt Call Deer: A Real Season-by-Season Approach
Click Here for more Hunting Tips Bottom line: I don’t grunt call all season, and I don’t grunt call at just any buck. I pull out the call in late October through November. I only use it when I’ve already spotted a buck I want a better look at, one that’s clearly not going to…
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Best Mapping Apps for Deer Hunters: What Actually Works for Whitetail Scouting
Click Here for more Scouting Tips Bottom line: I check HuntStand before I check the weather app most mornings during the season. That’s not a knock on onX Hunt, which plenty of hunters I respect swear by. Most of us hunt small private parcels, family land, or a lease or two here in the Midwest…
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Post-Rut Deer Hunting: How to Kill a Buck After the Chaos Dies Down
More from our Hunting Tips category: Click Here Post-rut deer hunting has a reputation as the point where most hunters quietly give up. The rut chaos is over. The woods go quiet. Trail camera pictures slow to a trickle, and it’s tempting to hang everything up until next season. That reaction is understandable. But it’s…
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Rattling for Deer: When It Works and How to Do It Right
More from our Hunting Tips category: Click Here Rattling for deer has a bad reputation with a lot of hunters, and I get why. You rattle for ten minutes. Nothing shows up except a squirrel losing its mind fifteen feet up a tree. You start wondering why this looks so easy on outdoor television and…
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Deer Hunting Gear: The Complete Equipment Guide
More from our Gear Reviews category: Click Here I’ve bought a lot of deer hunting gear over the years that never left the closet. I’ve also bought a handful of pieces that are still with me a decade later. That’s really the whole lesson behind this guide. Good deer hunting gear isn’t about buying everything…
Why We’re Here
Deerhuntertips.com was created in order to share my passion for whitetail deer with other like minded people. The goal is education, both for myself as well as others. Never will I say that I know everything that there is to know about deer hunting, I intend to learn as much from others as I hope others will learn from me. As a deer hunter, we should always be learning and trying to better our skills. I didn’t start out shooting nothing but mature deer.
In fact, my very first deer was a year and a half old 5 point buck. I can remember that hunt like it was this morning and am very proud of that deer. The progression within my hunting has now turned to wanting to pursue mature deer. I know that it’s one of the hardest things you can do as a whitetail hunter and I want be a part of the group of people who are able to do it on a consistent basis. Some people may never get there and there is nothing wrong with that. To each their own and you should be proud of every deer you take. We want to promote tolerance among all hunters so long as you are abiding by the laws where you are hunting. Happy Hunting y’all!