By Reggie Theus

For the last three years, my good friend, Rod Nutter and I have been hunting the mid-November rut for whitetail deer just outside of Columbus, Ohio. [...]]]>

I May Never Hunt the Rut Again

By Reggie Theus

For the last three years, my good friend, Rod Nutter and I have been hunting the mid-November rut for whitetail deer just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Early in October of 2000, there was some very cold weather along with a very good acorn crop. Rod called me to say that there was good buck movement and he had found a scrape line and large areas with rubs, so we decided to hunt the pre-rut. However, by the time I could get away, the cold weather had ended and they were having unseasonably hot weather (high 60’s to mid 70’s). All of the buck movement came to a screeching halt and the fresh sign had dried up. There were leaves covering scrapes and there was no sign around the rubs.

My first day and a half of hunting, all I saw were first year bucks play-fighting, getting ready for the day when they would have to do it for real but I almost didn’t care about the deer or the heat. I just focused on the color of the trees. I had never been in the woods at the height of the changing of the color. They were on fire with red, orange and yellow. With the acorns dropping around me, they made their own type of music. I felt like I was sitting inside a rainbow. I enjoyed the serenity so much; I may never hunt the rut again.

Now, it was time to get to work and find some buck sign. Rod, Mike Rex and I put a couple of tree stands on our backs and headed to thicker woods where we thought the bigger bucks were trying to beat the heat. We found an area at the end of a very brushy patch that had acorns above a flat green field with clover growing, water and two natural funnels on both sides. I set my tree stand up so I could hunt that evening.

That afternoon, because of the hot weather, I got in my stand at about 5 pm. Around 6:30, a couple of does showed up. All of a sudden, three basket bucks came in to my area. One buck was chasing the doe, not totally unusual but then, a larger buck came in and chased the smaller bucks off and started making a move on the doe. That’s when I realized that this doe was in early estrus. Just before dusk, I saw a large set of horns coming my way at full gallop, making rutting sounds, scattering all the deer under my tree stand. There was no question that this buck was a trophy I would be proud to harvest. It stopped about thirty to forty yards from my stand, trying to locate the doe in heat.

I started talking to myself trying to calm my heart down. I slowly got my bow. I knew I only had about 30 seconds before the big buck realized which way the doe went and would take off after her. I was wearing a Scent-Lok® suit, hat and breath shield. I was planning to pull the breath shield down when the large buck came into range. Things were happening so fast that when I came to full draw, I realized I hadn’t pulled down my shield. The deer was now standing just seventeen yards away with his mouth open and his tongue hanging. He was so close, I could hear him breathing. I knew it was now or never. I got the best anchor I could and let my PSE Mach-10, with my Easton ACC and two-blade Magnum Flite broadhead do its thing. The deer ran about twenty yards and expired quickly. It took me about ten minutes to climb down out of the tree because my legs were shaking so badly.

Rod and Archer's Choice Co-Host [...]]]>

Check out these awesome pics!  Follow The Whitetail Hunter to bag some of these yourself!  All of these bucks were harvested using the strategies and tactics that I will be sharing with you in my upcoming e-book. I will also provide some stories about many of these awesome bucks.  Rod.

Rod and Archer's Choice Co-Host Ralph Cianciarulo at Rod's farm in Athens Ohio back in the early days

Rod and former NBA Star Reggie Theis at Rod's Athens farm. Check out the letter from Reggie under "Testimonials" on the left.

Rod and Randy Hilty in Athens in 2000

Rod at Athens in 2003

Rod at King Ranch Hunt in 1996

Rod at King Ranch in 1996

Rod at the King Ranch in 1996

Rod in Central Ohio with huge 12 point buck

Rod with 13 point old farm buck in Jan 2008

Rod with another nice buck

Rod with huge buck in Oct 2002 in Athens

Rod's 13 point Texas buck in the early years

Rod's Dec 2006 170 in 8 pt in Athen at Randy Hilty's farm

Rod's Nov 11, 1998 180 in 6x5 Buck in Athens

Rod's oldest son Alex in 2007

Twin Monsters in Athens

Rod & Fred Asbell, who wrote book on instictive shooting, hunting whitetail in Alberta Canada

Rod and Walter Payton in Athens in 1996

We are excited to introduce you to our new website dedicated to archery hunting trophy whitetails. My name is Rod Nutter and I have been bow hunting whitetail deer for over 30 years and have killed 25 mature bucks utilizing fair-chase tactics. I have been on TV, in [...]]]> Dear Whitetail Hunting Enthusiast:

We are excited to introduce you to our new website dedicated to archery hunting trophy whitetails. My name is Rod Nutter and I have been bow hunting whitetail deer for over 30 years and have killed 25 mature bucks utilizing fair-chase tactics. I have been on TV, in numerous whitetail hunting videos, books and magazines. I have the knowledge and skill to help you become a successful trophy whitetail archery hunter. I have shared my whitetail hunting strategies and techniques with friends, professional athletes, family and professional hunters. These strategies have helped all of them to harvest big bucks.

These techniques will weed out the fiction out there about archery whitetail hunting and give you the hard facts that will help you to become a trophy hunter too.

Some of the highlights of the last 30 years of archery hunting include: hunting with many well know figures including: former NFL star and all-time rushing leader Walter Payton, former NBA star Reggie Theuss, Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo of “Archers Choice TV, Ted Nugent at the King Ranch and Fred Asbel who wrote one of the top bow hunting instruction books, Instinctive Shooting to name a few.

Most of all, I have enjoyed sharing these techniques with my sons and friends. Now, through www.thewhitetailhunter.com website, these skills will be shared with you through an e-book that you can download for free at www.thewhitetailhunter.com. The 8 chapters will include all of my strategies and techniques. In the future, we will also offer specialized products and links to all of the products that I recommend and use while hunting. I will also be offering a thewhitetailhunter.com gear bag that you can use to keep all of the products that I recommend to use in the field. In addition, I will include a picture of the “Anatomy of a Whitetail Deer: for you to download. I suggest that you laminate this picture and keep it in your hunting bag so you know the proper placement of your arrow to humanely harvest your deer.

The website will also feature a free forum that will allow you to ask me specific questions that you may have about whitetail trophy hunting. I will answer all of your questions personally.

I will offer a trophy whitetail hunt through a raffle for one lucky hunter per year to hunt with me and harvest a trophy buck using all of my archery hunting techniques.

My website will also include some great pictures and stories from not only my hunts but from some of my friends who I have hunted with through the years.

Lots more to follow…also, stay tuned for the first several informative chapters of my e-book.

Thanks,

Rod