In order to enjoy the sport of deer hunting fully, a hunter needs a thorough understanding of the animal and, to a lesser extent, of the country to be hunted. This knowledge cannot be obtained in one short hunt, but must be acquired by years of hunting, by reading or by listening to other hunters who have this knowledge.
A very successful hunter once told me that deer hunting was ninety percent luck and ten per cent good marksmanship. He had hunted for a good many years and should have known what he was talking about.
'All that a man needs to do to shoot a deer,' he said, 'is to be in the right place at the right time and to be able to hit any deer that he sees.'
This man believed it was luck that placed him at the right place at the right time, but I am sure that the knowledge that he had unconsciously acquired about the habits of the deer in the territory where he hunted had a lot to do in enabling him to shoot most of his deer. While luck certainly plays an important part in deer hunting, the man who depends entirely on it is very apt to be disappointed at the end of the hunt.
The need for hunting knowledge varies with the method used while hunting. It requires little knowledge to shoot a deer in the nighttime with the aid of a light.
This is nothing but butchery of a bewildered defenseless animal. On the other hand, the man who enters the woods armed with a bow and a few arrows, who attempts to outwit an animal in full possession of all its faculties, must have a thorough knowledge of that animal to be successful.
I am not in favor of bow-and-arrow hunting for everyone, for, although the hunting arrow is deadly in the hands of an expert, the average hunter is too unfamiliar with the weapon to make clean kills - a necessary part of good sportsmanship.
A hunting method favored by many is to walk the woods roads and trails as quietly as possible, usually against the wind, with the hope of jumping a deer to shoot. I enjoy this type of hunting in the less heavily populated areas. By traveling quietly while constantly watching for game, a man will see many wilderness sights that will often repay him for the walk even if he fails to bag a deer.
I have killed quite a few deer by using this method and have seen many others that I did not shoot. On two occasions I have seen sleeping deer before they awoke. I permitted one of these to make a successful escape without firing a shot, but I killed the other - a nice eight-point buck - as soon as it started to run. I have always considered that these two hunts were equally successful, although a memory was the only reward for one of them.
One of the most important requirements for this type of hunting is good eyesight. Not necessarily 20-20 vision, but the ability to evaluate the constantly changing scene and to distinguish the difference between shadow and concrete objects. The ability to pick out one of the best camouflage of animals in its natural habitat. This hunting vision is not a thing that we are born with. It must be acquired and cultivated by hunting experience.
Hunting deer is an art as well as a sport, and with the right attitude and skills can be one of the most enjoyable of all. Good hunting!
Speaking of being tired, I had another experience with deer in Kennebec County. This time, however, I wasn't deer hunting, but had been out after small game?squirrels, rabbits, birds?with my single-shot 16 gauge. When I started for home shortly before dark, passing through a swamp, I jumped a good buck. Since my gun was loaded with birdshot, I made no effort to get him, but continued my walk homeward. We had three hunting licenses in the family that year, one of them had been filled? the deer was hanging in the shed'so I had no real use for another. But what real deer hunter can resist the impulse to put a shell loaded with buckshot into his gun when he sees a good buck and knows he's in good deer country! This is what I did, and when I saw another deer shortly afterwards, I could not resist throwing lead at the small buck.
By the time he was dressed out, it was beginning to get dark. I thought of that long, uphill drag to the house. This was a little too much for me to take and I began to feel sorry that I'd given in to the impulse. I decided to hang the deer and return later in the week for it. The weather was cold enough to keep the meat and we did not need it at home. I was in an area of cedars and small firs, with nothing handy to use as an aid in hanging the deer so I cut him in half crossways and hung each half in smooth-boled cedars, high enough to be out of reach of dogs and foxes.
Well, time went on'as time has a habit of doing? and I didn't get back to the deer for at least ten days. A companion was to carry one half while I handled the other. It would thus be a simple task for us to bring the meat out of the woods. When we approached the trees where the deer hung, we began to see an increasing number of fox tracks. Something was wrong! Perhaps a limb had broken and let one of the halves fall to the ground? I hoped it was the forward half rather than the more valuable rear half. No such luck! The remains of the hind quarters were strewed over the ground at the foot of the tree. The forward half was still hanging in its place and we walked over to see what had happened. When I looked at the tree, I knew. I had not seen a bobcat's tracks in that area for several years, but a bobcat was responsible for the condition of that deer. There were his telltale claw marks on the bark where he had tried to pull the two quarters of meat from the limb.
Did you ever see bobcat work on a deer? Well, this one had eaten practically every bit of meat from the fore quarters yet had not disturbed the hide, which hung there empty, giving the appearance of an undisturbed piece of meat. I suppose these cats have a place in the world and I don't mind giving them a feed once in a while, but if I had had that one at my mercy at that moment, I would have gladly killed it and waived the bounty. On the other hand, probably my inherent Yankee thrift would have prevented such foolish action. I would have gone back for his scalp.
IF a hunter wants to leave the deer for quite sometime, he can hang the deer, which in a good distance from the ground, this way will keep the deer in a better condition and away from the attack of the fox or others attacker.
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