What to Expect When Hunting Deer in Group

When a hunter goes for hunting, he has a greatnear the woods looking out over the crossing,
expectation that we would kill a deer at the firstapparently undecided about chancing the open
sight. But with some mistakes, the deer run awayterritory. I shot her and, as she dropped, several
before a hunter could approach them. In this articleother deer showed their flags as they retreated
there are some methods to avoid the shootingfrom the edge of the woods. I did not follow them,
mistake.but did a quick job of woods-dressing the dead doe
I was sure that there was no deer dead when Iand headed for the other southern crossing. I met
came to the place where they have shot. I decidedanother hunter who had been attracted by the
that no deer had been killed and, I should take allshooting and we arrived in sight of the crossing in
possible advantage of the situation to trail the deer.time to see three deer cross, but not in time to
And I ran to get hold of the possible place where Ishoot at them. After a time I left the hunt and
could approach the deer without being spotted.returned to the place where I had shot the doe, only
Tracks and an occasional empty shell in the snowto find that some other hunter had dragged her to
showed where the men had first sighted the deerhis car and had gone.
and opened up at a range of about five hundredThe first mistake which these men made was
yards. The only gun in the party which was capableshooting at the deer when they were out of
of throwing a bullet that distance with any chance ofeffective range. (The bullets from one of the guns, a
a hit was a .30/30, and with such a gun equipped.38/55, struck the snow at a point which was less
with open sights, and sighted in for two hundredthan half the distance between the hunters and the
yards or less, any fatal hit would be the result of andeer.) Their second mistake was their all following the
accident. As it was, the initial shooting failed to drivetracks instead of trying to get into position on their
the deer to cover and they permitted the men toprobable course. (I found later that one of the men
approach to a point about two hundred yards nearerabandoned the chase before they ever took up the
and to fire the other eight or ten shots that finallytrail because he had used all of his ammunition.)
caused the deer to take cover in the woods.When I exposed myself and saw a doe I shot and
When I came to the place where the last shootingothers also came out from the wood, but I did not
had occurred, I decided that no deer had been killedfollow them. And what surprised me was that the
and, since all of the others had apparently gone intohunter had dragged the doe to his car and has gone
the woods leaving all of the crossings open, that itwhen I came back to the place where I have shot it.
was up to me to take all possible advantage of theThese hunters were not well equipped and were not
situation. I would not have time to reach the crossingwell aware of the ways of hunting deer and they
to the north in case the deer decided to use thatwent away with somebody's bag.
route, so I headed for the nearer to the south. TheSome mistakes can be avoided if a hunter can use
contour of the land was such that I was able tothe strategy to kill the deer at the first shot, and in
approach without being seen to a point which wasorder to achieve this, a hunter must know the
about seventy-five yards from the place where thisdistance where he has to shoot the deer according
trail emerged from the woods.to the type of the gun that he use. So, the hunter
When I reached a position where I was forced tomust know the ability of the gun before he goes for
expose myself, there was a doe standing in the fieldhunting, and equip himself with a proper gun.