Whitetail Nation

Every autumn, men and women across the country don their camo, stock up on doe urine, and undertake a quintessential American tradition: deer hunting. The pinnacle of a hunter's quest is killing a buck with antlers that "score" in the Boone and Crockett record book. But even with all his years on the trail and as the chief outdoors writer for the New York Times, Pete Bodo had never reached that milestone. Sadly, he was a nimrod.

Whitetail Nation is the uproarious story of the season Pete Bodo set out to kill the big buck. From the hills of upstate New York to the vast land of the Big Sky to the Texas ranches that feature high fences and money-back guarantees, Bodo traverses deep into the heart of a lively subculture that draws on durable American values—the love of the frontier, the importance of self reliance, the camaraderie of men in adventure, and yes, the capitalist's right to amass every high-tech gadget hunting's exploding commerce has to offer.

Gradually, Bodo closes in on his target, and with each day spent perched in a deer stand or night suffered in a drafty cabin, readers are treated with an unforgettable tour through a landscape that ranges from the exalted to the absurd. Along the way Bodo deftly captures the spirit of this rich American pursuit, examining that age old question, "Why do men hunt?"