A Beginner's Guide to Deer Hunting

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Don't get me wrong. Venison, if properly cared for, is delicious and healthful. Furthermore, the meat of a wild deer can't be duplicated, even by the ranch-raised venison served in the aforementioned eateries. It takes additional savor, too, from your pride at having supplied it and from the memories that help to season it. Its unique flavor should be just one of the reasons you drag yourself out of bed before dawn to stumble through the dark and climb a tree. The cost of the meat should have nothing to do with it. Remember, venison is priceless, but it sure as hell ain't generally cheap.

On the other hand, anyone who'd consider killing a deer for its trophy antlers and then make no provision for the care and transport of the meat simply doesn't belong in the wilds. There are names for such hunters, and "sportsman" doesn't figure among them.

A Place to Hunt

With that negative baggage safely stowed away, let's proceed to the (ahem) meat of this discussion. If you're fortunate enough to live in the country, you may well have no concern about where to hunt, as you'll have spent a good bit of out-of-season time watching deer munch your sweet corn, fraternize with the goats, and generally make themselves at home around the place. Even if your resident animals aren't all that ubiquitous, a few walks in the woods (check areas of brush and trees adjacent to farm crops in the summer, wooded areas containing oak, apple, or beech trees in the fall) should turn up sign in the form of tracks (Fig. 1) or droppings (Fig. 2) or both, if deer are in the area. Should you be afield during the fall rut, you may also no tice scrapes-areas where randy bucks have bared a few square feet of the forest floor with their hooves and, often, rubbed the bark from an overhanging branch with their horns and foreheads. These serve notice to does in heat that the resident buck is ready to be, if you'll pardon the expression, at their service.

Of course, if your country home is still a gleam in your eye, you'll have to do a bit more work to find some venison on the hoof. If you have friends who farm, or whose work requires a lot of travel down rural roads, ask their advice. Then, if this research turns up a hotbed of bucks on private land, visit the property owner (it might be polite to phone first) to ask permission to hunt. Let him or her know you'll carefully avoid any livestock areas and will be sure to close gates as you pass through them. It might help to offer a portion of any deer you take, and should you be hunting with archery gear (which is perceived as presenting less of a threat), be sure to make mention of the fact.

Should your search for private hunting land fail to pan out, don't despair. Many, many good deer are taken from public hunting lands because of, rather than in spite of, the amount of hunting pressure these areas receive. (Deer move more when more people are in the woods, and moving deer are easier to spot than still ones!) Perhaps the best way to begin checking out your options here is with a call to the local office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or of your state Wildlife Resources Commission. Let whoever answers know that you're a first—time deerstalker and want help in selecting hunting areas in your county and one or two of those adjoining. You'll be passed on to the appropriate individual (in many states this will be the terrestrial wildlife biologist).

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