Mitch Johnson asked:


There some occasion that it is difficult for the hunter to follow the tract. But fresh track is very easy to follow.

I will have to make it short, because we want to get an early start on the morrow.

Perhaps I had better tell you of one of my first deer hunting trips that happened before I was old enough to have a hunting license. This wasn’t in Maine, but deer hunting is the same wherever we hunt and this incident could happen to anyone.

I had never hunted game with a pump-action shotgun and on this day, I borrowed a friend’s gun of that type and went out to try to get a deer. Not knowing just where to look, I roamed the woods on the off-chance of seeing a big buck that was blind and hard of hearing, or one that would let me walk up to him for some other reason. There was about an inch of snow on the ground that made traveling kind of quiet, but all of the deer tracks I saw were old and not worth following. Probably it wouldn’t have made much difference if I had found a fresh track ’cause, at that time, I didn’t know how to take advantage of a fresh track anyhow.

After a while I came to a thick growth of hardwood sprouts. There was a woods road running through which made easy walking, and I took this road. The brush was thick on both sides of the road and the only place where I had a clear view was right down the middle. All of a sudden, a deer jumped into the road ahead of me. I brought the gun to my shoulder, but by that time the deer had crossed into the brush on the other side. While I was trying to get another glimpse of it, a second deer jumped into the road and I swung back to cover this one. This deer also crossed before I could get my sights on it. This happened with two other deer and I never fired a shot.

But, when the fifth deer jumped into the road, he did something that very few deer ever do. He turned and ran down the road, directly away from me. This time I sent a charge of buckshot right into his rear end. Of course, he kept on going and I stood there and tried to pull the trigger guard off the gun, thinking it was the second trigger of my double barrel. I never thought of the pump action until that deer was long gone.

Feeling kind of bad about wounding the deer, I followed the blood trail for about two miles. The deer rejoined the others and they traveled together until they came to a river that separated two states, where I left the trail.

Do you need any help with that corkscrew, Jim?

From this article we can take the conclusion that hunters can take the advantage on the fresh track; this will lead the hunters to the location of the deer.



Quade

Mitch Johnson asked:


There are some threats that the hunter will face during his hunting. Such as a bad weather or the attack of other animals such as bear and fox.

Another time on Deer Hill this adventure occurred: My wife said one day, “You will have to go to town today and get some meat for tomorrow.” Now, town was three miles away and money was scarce, so I replied: “Never mind. I’ll go and get a deer before noon.” Of course, I was bragging some when I said that. What I intended to say was that I would try to get one before tomorrow. Along about ten o’clock I took the gun and went into the woods with the intention of stalking a bedding area about a half-mile from the house. Before noon I was back asking for help in dragging a six-point buck from the woods.

This is what happened. Hardly had I reached the edge of the bedding area where I was carefully treading a deer trail, when I came to a small natural clearing. This clearing was caused by water standing in a slight time and covered with grass and very low bushes. As I glanced across this clearing, I saw a deer. This was one of the few buck whose antlers I saw before shooting. The very instant that I spotted it, I fired. As I pulled the trigger, I thought, “That’s the shortest legged deer I ever saw!” I never realized that he was in his bed until he leaped up when struck by the bullet, and ran into the woods. He didn’t go far, and I wasted the second bullet that I sent after him as it didn’t connect.

Yes, Kennebec County was a good place, and still is, but there are a lot of hunters there now and more land is being posted every year. I don’t know what will happen, but I still have a little piece of brush land in the Deer Hill area and maybe some day I’ll build a little shack there and spend a few days in an effort to see if deer still use the same trails and crossings of ten years ago. I am sure that they do, for deer seldom make permanent changes over the years.

Years ago, I was hunting with a companion and we took a canoe across a rather large lake. We had no luck by mid-afternoon so we decided to return to camp for the evening hunting. Although the wind was in our faces, blowing a small gale, we headed into it as we knew it would probably continue to blow until sunset. Under such conditions, we always keep as near the shoreline as possible to avoid a long swim in case of an upset—a real danger in windy weather.

There was a headland that consisted of a steep ledge with deep water right up to shore. When we came to it—paddling not over six or eight feet from shore, keeping in the lee of the cliff—my companion in the bow looked up on the cliff-side and cried, “Look!” He dropped his paddle and reached for his gun.

I looked up and there on a narrow ledge—a hundred feet above—was a bear. He had been eating blueberries, but about the time that I saw him, he started scrambling up the side of the almost perpendicular cliff. If you’ve never seen bears in action, you have no idea of the speed and agility they possess. Talk about cats. They’re slow compared to bears, clumsy- looking critters though they may be.

The bear was directly above the canoe on our right when we both shot. This put us out of shooting position. The recoil of our two guns unbalanced the canoe for an instant and by the time we had recovered our balance and jacked another shell into our guns, the bear had disappeared over the top.

When the hunters are away in the forests or woods, they must always aware on wild animals in the forest or in the woods for their safety.



Horace

mchlgropp asked:


Excuse me,but I lived in the country where the deer population was Big. Once a year you could go deer hunting. Most people I knew ate the deer they killed. How can that compair to someone delibertly killing man’s Best Friend?

Rolf

piedra.francisco asked:


What is a good lever action gun and caliber for hunting deer and bear? Im looking for something cheap and something that will take out a bear but that i can also use for deer hunting and not damage the animal hide to much. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Titus

Mitch Johnson asked:


The deer visits their other groups once it is winter, and sometime they also meet in groups in common ranges. They sometimes settle in one place during the winter when there is food scarcity. Later the mature bucks join groups of their choice and the fawns of the year accompany their doe to their summer places. That’s how this animal starts their grouping. When you have a good knowledge of how the doe and the buck groups and how they arrange their shelter, that can help you to better on how you will plan your action once you starts hunting for the deer. Therefore good knowledge is always preferable when going for hunting deer.

At the spring “break up” of the yard, our doe, accompanied by her fawn of the year before, will return to her summer range. There she will probably bear two fawns and the four deer will repeat the life of the year before. The following spring, the oldest fawn will be on its own. If it is a doe she will seek a range of her own and will start a new family group. Quite often this new range will adjoin and include a portion of the territory where the animal was reared, but the two groups will seldom travel together. The life of a mature buck is different from that of a doe. He has no family ties. He has no responsibilities except to himself, and for this reason he usually leads a solitary life during the summer. When he leaves his mother, he picks a range of his own, sometimes in company with another buck but often alone. During the time when his antlers are growing, he travels very little, but as soon as they are hard and polished, he begins to extend his range so that by the time that the rutting season starts, he has a general idea of the country and the doe population over a considerable territory. The important thing for the hunter to remember about this situation is that the buck does not have the intimate knowledge of each range that the local doe has and that he must depend on the doe’s knowledge and strategy for safety, or return to his own range when in danger.

During the rutting season, the buck travels extensively, stopping for a short time with any doe that welcomes his attention, then going on in search of another. Since the hunting season coincides, at least in part, with the breeding season, and the goal of most hunting trips is a buck, it is highly desirable to understand the actions of buck deer at this time of year.

Reproduction is the compelling urge at this time and other activities are subordinate. Fighting other bucks is done to establish and defend the fitness of a buck to increase the herd under the law of “survival of the fittest.” Feeding at this time is merely incidental to the business at hand. Travel is intended to be a means of reaching as many doe as possible in the allotted time.

Self-preservation is the only thing that is more important and, in some cases, even this seems to be disregarded. When a buck has found a willing doe, he will stay with her for a time or, if there are other doe in the immediate vicinity, he will divide his time among them. If he is startled by hunters while in the company of a doe, he will follow her lead and depend on her strategy to remove the danger. Once he has submitted his safety to a doe’s direction, he will follow her almost blindly.

Any danger that she passes through, he will attempt, yet always following, never taking the dangerous leading position. If he is startled while alone, he will usually go to the nearest doe for leadership even though this places her in jeopardy. Sometimes he passes on by, leaving her to cope with the danger. Sometimes he will go to a feeding area where there are tracks enough to confuse a hunter and possibly transfer his attention to some other deer. This lack of chivalry is a buck characteristic that should be remembered by the hunter when he is attempting to hunt deer.

The extensive traveling habits of the bucks during the rutting season are also the hunting season. Try to collect as much information about the movements of the bucks. The bucks during this travels with the intention of reaching as many doe as possible within this allotted time basically meant for reproducing. And the bucks mainly follow the doe during this period.

Don’t waste your time in following the wrong tracks of your deer that you are hunting and try to invest your time in places where the deer can get food to eat and that where you can do your hunting in much easier ways. This will save you time and your energy.



Eldwin

banshee_370 asked:


im looking at getting overalls and a coat…also need to get better boots…looking for any suggestions so im not frozen in my stand so i can stay out longer

Sterling

Mitch Johnson asked:


While a hunter go for hunting, he has to select which target that he has to shoot. As some of the animals are protected.

Now that we have a slight understanding of the basic principles of deer hunting, and some of its many problems, why don’t you, in fancy, come along up to the Maine wilderness—where the bucks are big and the bears are black—on a little deer hunting trip? I will be your guide—the best guide in six-teen counties—but don’t let it get around ’cause if you do I will be so busy guiding that I will have no time for hunting, and I like to hunt. We will have to hoof it into camp from the highway. It’s just a little hike, but we had better hurry to make it before dark. Not that there is anything to worry about, but the steaks will be cold unless we’re there to eat them. Hear that noise in the distance?

Another of those bobcats starting out for his evening hunting. We may hear an owl before dark, but they usually keep quiet until later. Hold it! See that bull moose? No, not there. Over there by those willows down by the edge of the bog. Big one, ain’t he? Don’t try to shoot one of those fellows. They’re protected, but I am afraid that it will not do much good. They’ve got moose sickness and until the biologists can find some way to prevent that, the moose haven’t much chance of making a comeback here in Maine.

Well! There’s the camp. And there’s our host, waiting to greet us. You know what he will say? “Welcome to the camp. You should have been here last week. The conditions were perfect then and the deer were everywhere. Now it’s not so good.” That’s the standard approach. It sets up an alibi. If you don’t get a deer, that lets him out. It ain’t his fault, but the weather’s. All of you who have ever hunted or fished or are married men, know the value of a good reason for not bringing home the bacon, or delivering the goods. He happens to be right this time and conditions don’t look good for tomorrow. But never mind, conditions can change overnight here in Maine.

Well, here we are back in camp. No deer today. That dry, hard, frozen ground, covered with frozen leaves and sticks, was so noisy that we spooked every deer within miles of camp and when we tried to drive one to a stand, they all ran the wrong way. We all feel better now as we gather in the living room with our bellies full of steaks cut from the deer I killed a week ago. Sure it’s illegal to eat it, but who is there among us who doesn’t think forbidden fruit the sweetest, and besides, the game warden is quite a ways from here.

Things look better for tomorrow. There was a circle around the moon last night. A snow bank in the south west this afternoon. The scent of snow has been in my nose for the last two hours and the wind is beginning to act kind of shifty. Hear that owl? Notice how hollow he sounds? Yep! Snow before morning and that means a deer before night. So drag your chairs up to the fireplace, see that there’s a full bottle on the table—remember that now is the only time that a bottle has any place on a hunting trip—and I will tell you of a hunt that occurred a while back.

It is always better for hunters to check which animal which is protected and which one that they can shoot.



Broderick

Mitch Johnson asked:


Using of compass is very good for any kind of adventure in the forest. Those who are familiar with the territory of the hunting ground are less apt to lose their way while hunting than those strange to the place. And one thing you have to remember is that of the locations of the streams, brooks, and major rivers in the area. They could help you a lot.

In my youth I, with one companion, spent a summer in the wilds of western Canada. Neither of us carried a compass nor felt the need of one. We were lucky. To be sure, we were in a drainage basin which ran south for hundreds of miles and for at least fifty miles to the north. This series of lakes and streams could not be crossed without swimming and even the exuberance of youth could not make that snow-fed water inviting. If we had become confused as to direction, all that was necessary was to go to the top of the nearest mountain and we would have a panoramic view of the entire area, and any considerable body of water was sure to be in the right direction for us to travel. Even so, it was a foolhardy thing to do and only the self- confidence and ignorance of youth would induce two people to put themselves, entirely on their own, in a strange, wilderness country without a compass.

The man who is familiar with his hunting territory is less apt to lose his way while hunting and, if he becomes lost, has a better chance of finding his way out of the woods than the one that goes forth without any idea of the local terrain. The only way to become thoroughly familiar with an area is to travel over it, but the use of a good map can give a good map reader a comprehensive knowledge of the salient features of the country so that when he enters the woods he can identify many of the hills and streams which he encounters. The layout of streams is, perhaps, the most important thing on the map. Most hunting areas are drained by one main stream, fed by small brooks which empty into some major river system. Knowledge of this drainage area is good insurance in that, if a man becomes lost, he will be able to reorient himself in a short time and find his way out of the woods.

There are some places (we have them here in Maine) where the streams run “every which way” so that they are of little use as direction pointers. This can be extra confusing when two drainage basins originate in the same comparatively level area. Study of a map before entering such places will help, but they are very dangerous to the inexperienced, and, if in the deep woods, should not be hunted without a guide.

Any hunter who has any doubts about his ability in the woods should hire a guide, and then, if he should happen to become lost, he can let the guide do the worrying. That is one of the things for which he is paid.

By this we can sum up that the more you know about the territory the better safe you are when hunting in unknown places. And if any doubts, it’s better to hire a guide or an expert who is more knowledgeable about the woods. This means that you should be prepared with any possible information about the place you are going for hunting deer.



Blair

Mitch Johnson asked:


The wounded deer are not like the normal anymore. They try to cover themselves in the thickest woods in order to heal their wounds. We can know that the longer the wounded member remains with the group, the less severe is the wound. It is well for the hunter to remember that a wounded deer is not a normal deer and that it will not act as normal deer.

Rest is nature’s remedy for sick and injured animals. (There are herbs in the woods which might be beneficial to a wounded deer, but I have never seen any evidence to show that deer know about, or use, them.) Since rest is what the deer desires, he will head for some thicket where he will be comparatively safe from any disturbance. This place will usually be close to water, for water is necessary to alleviate the fever caused by the wound.

The time elapsed between the wound and the time that the deer heads for seclusion is an indication of the severity of the wound. This may be best observed when the wounded deer is one of a group. The longer the wounded member remains with the group, the less severe is the wound.

The idea of waiting for a wounded deer to find a resting place before following it may be sound in theory, but I prefer to start trailing as soon as I have hit one. It will usually require considerable time to overtake the animal and time is something which is not too plentiful during the deer hunting season. Aside from humane reasons, I want to dispatch the wounded animal as soon as possible and before fever have progressed far enough to affect the meat. The time that is necessary for a wounded deer to “stiffen up” so that it can be easily overtaken is usually so long (often over-night) that the meat will be full of fever-fighting anti-bodies and it will be undesirable, if not unfit for food. This is no objection when the hunter is hunting deer solely as trophies.

As a rule, deer which are seriously wounded are fairly easy to hunt. An exception is the deer which has received an abdominal wound. While this type of wound is nearly always fatal, the deer, if followed, will travel for long distances and is often difficult to approach. Death will often be delayed for several days, so I always make special effort to overtake and kill a deer wounded in this way.

While hunting alone, I have often wished for a companion who could circle ahead and intercept the deer that I was trailing or who could replace me on the trail so that I could make a stalk on some position which seemed particularly promising. This idea of companionship is good, but it is difficult to find a hunting companion who will be a help rather than a hindrance. Two people in the woods will double the amount of scent and noise and unless they are equally used to the woods and to each other’s hunting methods, they soon become two individual hunters instead of a team. Unless they work, as a team, the chances of either of them sighting a deer depends more on luck than it does on hunting skill. I have had a few companions that were able to hunt with me and we have shared many a pleasant and successful trip. Others I have hunted with in an effort to give some hunting experience.

Seriously wounded deer are fairly easy to hunt. But it is often very difficult follow the wounded deer which often travels far long distances. And they don’t die very soon, so you need to overtake them the wounded deer and kill them.



Elton

Lt asked:


She knew I was an avid hunter before we got married, and she has knowingly eaten and even cooked deer meat. For some reason, now, my hunting is a problem. I’ve tried all the logical arguments, but she still gets upset when I go hunting…Help!

Isaac