Whitetails, Guns & Crappies: 10 Great Stories You Loved in 2024

Game & Fish online users were most interested in articles about whitetail hunting, crappie fishing and firearm reviews in 2024. In fact, those three subjects resulted in more than a million visits to our website. Here are the top 10 articles, based on online traffic.

1. Best New Deer Rifles for 2024

• Check out the lineup of new deer hunting rifles introduced at SHOT Show 2024.

The annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas is the coming-out party for products large and small. Among them each year are new deer-hunting rifles, many of which will find their way to hunters’ stands and blinds this season.

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2 America's Top Whitetail States

• Our ranking of 37 deer-crazy states, backed by research and data.

This project started with a simple question: What’s the best whitetail-hunting state in the country? Along the way, over the course of several months, we discovered that determining an answer to this question is anything but simple.

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3. Regional Rut Update

• Our experts in the field provided whitetail rut updates throughout the season.

In much of the nation’s whitetail country, and especially in the best states and counties where giant racked bucks prowl about, it’s the whitetail rut that begins shortly after the jack o’lanterns get carved each season that we love the most and think about all year long.

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4. New Rifles for Hunting Big Game

• From big elk bugling in the high country to speedy pronghorn antelope racing away in the lower elevations, here are some new big game rifles to consider.

If you’re dreaming of hiking in light and packing out heavy, these six rifles to consider for your big-game hunting adventures this season.

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5. Bedtime for Bulls: How to Target Jumbo Bluegills

• The spawn brings huge ‘gills to shallow waters near you. Here's what you need to know to catch them.

Not many bluegill anglers consider themselves lunker hunters, but in spring and early summer it’s possible to consistently target the supersized members of the species, commonly called “bulls.” And that is precisely what a buddy and I did during a trip to Florida’s Lake Kissimmee a few springs back.

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6. Crappie Lures, Baits and Rigs for Fishing Through the Spawn

• They're the keys to catching limits of slabs from pre-spawn to post-spawn.

Crappie are voracious feeders, a challenge to understand and hard fighters, especially in food-rich reservoirs.

The good fishing starts early in the year. Here is a look at the best lures, baits and rigs for crappies now, throughout the spawn and beyond.

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7. Trophy Crappie Time in the South

• Spring brings hot fishing for giant slab crappies. Learn the top places and tactics to score big.

Across much of the South, the spawning migration begins in mid-February, and lots of fish are on the beds by early March (except in Florida, where the crappies spawn earlier, typically in February). So, early spring is bound to be prime time for trophy-size crappies in the majority of places you might decide to fish.

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8. How to Estimate a Buck's Age Before Deciding to Shoot

• Learn how to age a deer on the hoof to let young bucks mature while fostering a healthy deer herd.

The best way to age is buck is to analyze its teeth, but that’s not happening from a treestand. Those who wish to target mature bucks must know how to age one on the hoof, and there are many reasons to learn to do so. First, recognizing younger bucks allows them to reach an older age class and results in more mature bucks on the landscape. At full maturity, bucks express their biggest and best sets of antlers. Plus, letting bucks reach older age classes results in better buck age structures and buck-to-doe ratios—and a healthier deer herd overall.

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9. Is the Invasive Snakehead the Best Thing to Happen to Topwater Fishing?

• If you're still clinging to the snakehead hatred from the early 2000s, maybe it's time to get onboard.

Not so long ago, saying anything positive about invasive snakeheads made you a target for ridicule, but more than 20 years after they infiltrated U.S. waters, the joke is on you if you can’t appreciate their silver linings.

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10. The Not-So-Secret Plan for Deep Crappies

• The summer crappie bite can be easy if you understand how to present your baits.

Consistently catching summertime crappies calls for a varied skill set of presentations that can be applied to the specific situation. Here is a look at three of them.

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