America has been a nation of deer hunters for about 400 years, beginning in the early 1600s. Because of our fast-growing human population, in the 1930s subsistence deer hunting (living off the land to put meat on the table) had to give way to sport hunting and being limited to taking one deer a year during short hunting seasons. Throughout the history of American deer hunting, hunting instructions have been passed on primarily by word of mouth—in the beginning from American Indians to European colonists and since then from experienced hunters to beginners—fathers to sons or daughters, for example. Other than learning how to safely use a firearm, my own first instructions for deer hunting (1940s) were rather sketchy, my most important instruction being, “Walk straight north (or south, east or west), keeping an eye on your compass, until you come to the road (or trail, stream or opening) where the standers will be.” Back then, those I hunted with only made drives. After that, I was largely on my own to figure out how to hunt deer other ways (mature bucks preferred), often ending days afield muttering, “There’s got to be a better way.” After eight years of college, earning three degrees and being engaged in some kind of research during most of those years, I decided the only practical way to become a more successful whitetail hunter was use the scientific approach to study habits, behavior and range utilization of wild deer and use information thus attained to develop more effective ways to hunt deer. I’ve been doing this for nearly sixty years, full time beginning in 1980. Based on my research are my ten editions of Whitetail Hunters Almanac, each covering different subjects. My first edition was published in1988. My 10th Edition (likely my last), published in 2018, covers all the best of what was learned in my two primary whitetail study areas and other areas in our country since my 9th Edition was published in 1997. In this 10th Edition are detailed instructions for using six new, extraordinarily-productive, mature-buck-effective stand hunting methods, developed and honed since 1990. If you’d like your son, daughter, nephew, niece or a friend who has expressed a desire to hunt deer to be regularly successful from the outset, my 518 page, 8 x 10 inch 10^th Edition is arguably the best new written source of advanced deer hunting instruction today. Anyone who receives it as a gift from you will be forever appreciative. Based on all the thank you letters and photos of big bucks I regularly receive, I can guarantee it.