BigBuckZone

Travis Faulkner is a school teacher and outdoor writer from Kentucky who has cut his hunting teeth on public-land hunts. He's been getting a lot of attention in recent years for sharing his strategies on taking deer in these high-pressured areas—attention that has also opened some doors for him to hunt some places that he never dreamed he'd get a chance to experience. Travis will be one of the faces you'll see on the new BBZ and in the pages of Outdoor Life and he's excited to share his knowledge with you and answer your questions. Following is a special hunt he enjoyed this past season (Doug Howlett):

I could hardly wait to climb into the treestand for an early season bow hunt in Missouri. The property I was hunting consisted of gently rolling hills, strategically placed food plots, thickets and hardwood ridges. It was truly a deer hunter’s paradise and my adrenalin kicked into overdrive as we glassed several fields from our vehicle the night before the hunt. Deer trails that were worn to mud crisscrossed the area and I could see fresh white bark stripped at the base of several cedar trees located along the field edges.

The chance to hunt C and D Farms, owned by Dave and Carman Forbes, who also own Hunter’s Specialties, was a rare opportunity for a country boy from the mountains of Kentucky who is used to hunting high-pressured tracts of heavily wooded public land. During the week, I had several encounters with a number of top-heavy bucks that were extremely hard to pass up. However, I decided to gamble and hold out for a buck that would really turn some heads. As luck would have it, Dave Forbes had spotted such a buck crossing the road during a mid-morning walk. This chance encounter helped eliminate other stand options.

On the last evening, I climbed into the stand hoping my gamble would pay off and began reflecting on my week of hunting. I had already taken a doe on this trip, but it would definitely be a long drive back to Kentucky without a bruiser buck to look at in the bed of my truck through the rearview mirror. Maybe I had made a mistake by not dropping one of the bucks I had let walk earlier in the week.

This thought kept running through my head and then all of a sudden...

Saw this one making the email rounds the other day. I don't have any info on it, but it's a pretty cool pic of a gang of bucks lounging beneath a kid's trampoline in somebody's backyard.

I've always heard how trampolines can be dangerous for kids. I can guarantee this one would be. Jump too hard and when you come down, those antlers would be like daggers digging into your backside!!

You've always heard that once the guns start going off, bucks tend to hide where they can safely hide. Not sure this one is going to do the trick or not.

If anyone has any info on this pic, let us know.

Happy New Year to everyone.

I'd give my 2006 deer season a C+.

Started out with a spectacular bust on a bowhunt in WY in September. October was pretty bad, until I went up to Saskatchewan with my buddy Grant Kuypers and smoked a decent 9-point muzzleloader buck on the last day.

My annual MT Milk River bowhunt with Luke Strommen was a blast. With the deer in full-blown rut on Nov. 20, it was a sight. Monsters dogging and chasing does all over the place. I had probably 15, hair-raising in-your-face encounters with big shooters. I made some bone-headed moves drawing on a couple of them and flat-out missed a PY buck we had named "Flop Ear" (he'd broken an ear in a fight and it dangled down and flooped when he chased does around). 

My excuse is that I was bowhunting/stalking on the ground for "Whitetail Revolution," which is tough (and why nobody else tries it) but makes for kick-ass TV. Watch for this episode on Versus next season.

Gun and bowhunts scattered in and around these trips sucked, and my season was humming along in solid D range--until I went out to Iowa the first week of December and killed my first-ever slug buck, an incredibly symmetrical 160-class 10-pointer (photo).

Looking back, that kill was a damn miracle. The first 2 days I hunted, high temps were in the single digits and wind-chill lows were way below zero. If you're man enough to hack it 10 hours on post, that's what you want in December because post-rut bucks have to pop out to feed sometime for a few minutes in daylight hours or else they'll die.

The day after I killed my deer, temps shot back up into the 40s and 50s and mature buck sightings plummented again in daylight. It's been warm out there ever since.

What's up with this weather anyhow? Global warming, or a Gore myth? It's gonna be 70 here tomorrow. Then it snows like hell twice in CO and KS...go figure.

Anyway, so how was your 06 season? Give it an A...B...C...F? How many does did you kill...bucks...elk or any other critters? Miss any? Mess up. See anything weird in the woods (bigfoot maybe?) Do anything incredibly smart or stupid. Let's blog it out.

BTW, heading to Orlando for SHOT show next week, where I'll start setting up my hunting/filming season for 2007. Tough gig, I know, but I gotta shoot for an A next fall.