North American Whitetail

The American dog tick is common in much of the whitetail's range, and hunters often encounter them while checking trail cameras or doing off-season habitat projects. Fortunately, this species doesn't trigger the "red meat" allergy spread by the superficially similar Lone Star tick; nor does it spread Lyme disease, as does the blacklegged ("deer") tick. But the American dog tick can spread tularemia ("rabbit fever"), as well as several other nasty infections that including deadly Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. So take sensible steps to avoid being a target of any kind of tick whenever you're in deer habitat, and stay alert to the symptoms that could point to big trouble later.

Using his grandfather's hand-me-down lever gun, Missouri's Tim Phillips finally dropped the 32-point mega-buck he called "Walter." Tim had begun chasing the St. Charles County non-typical in 2014 but didn't win the battle of wits until the November 2017 season. Joe Martino's story in North American Whitetail's October 2018 issue detailed how the quest finally came together, resulting in a net 233 7/8-inch Boone & Crockett monster.