When the air turns crisp in November, hunters celebrate opening day of deer season as though it were a national holiday. In Arkansas, schools used to close. All across the nation, guns boom. Six million deer fall. Rites are passed. Traditions continued. Then, in the offseason, hunters buy gear, study how-to articles, and watch hunting shows. The animal’s economic impact is measured in billions. Why? There is no warier, more adaptable, tastier, or more challenging game animal on Earth. In America, whitetail is king.
Odocoileus virginianus is purely American, ranging from Peru to Canada. While bespectacled men have attempted to classify whitetails into subspecies, DNA evidence suggests they are genetically identical. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t adapted to environments.
Savvy hunters know deer’s preferred food changes with the season and crop availability, but less known is how adaptable their diet is. Deer have been observed eating bark, cactus, ants, chicks and eggs from nests, and other oddities. But a ripe acorn from a white oak tree remains the whitetail’s caviar.
The deer gets its name from its flaglike tail that it raises when scared. This communicates danger to other deer, and tells the hunter he’s not sneaky enough. Bucks grow antlers annually, beginning in late spring. The living tissue, covered by a velvety network of blood vessels, is thought to be one of the fastest growing on earth; by September they shed the velvet, revealing hardened antlers used for defense, territorial marking, and fighting. Antler size and configuration vary depending on age, genetics, injury, and nutrition.
Stand Hunting
The vast majority of the country’s 13-million-plus whitetail hunters use permanent and portable treestands to ambush deer as they travel, feed, and interact. Hunters employ decoys, scents, lures, and calls to bring whitetails into range of their stands.
Stalking and Still-Hunting
The most skilled hunters among us can find, stalk, and kill whitetails in wooded terrain. The Benoit family of Vermont has made their living doggedly tracking big bucks through snow. Other hunters “still-hunt,” or ease through the woods while scanning ahead for deerlike shapes and movement. Damp, quiet ground and a favorable wind are important for still-hunting success.
Spot and Stalk
Western hunters employ this technique in which large expanses of country are scanned and scrutinized for desirable animals. Once they’re spotted, a stalk is made using available cover to creep within gun or bow range. Where the terrain allows, this is an active, highly enjoyable method of whitetail hunting.
Other Methods
In the South, where swamp- land abounds, deer hunting with dogs is a very traditional method. Hounds are let out at one end of thick cover in order to roust hiding deer past hunters lying in ambush. Since most shots are taken while the deer is running, it’s common to use shotguns with buckshot.
In some states, corn feeders are used to bait deer into kill zones while hunters wait nearby in elevated “shoot houses.” In the South, the same tactic is used, but distributed corn is substituted for cultivated bean fields.
GEAR UP
All ancient hunters needed in order to take a whitetail was patience, cunning, and skill with a homemade weapon. Modern American hunters don’t live in the woods, however, and most only get a few days to hunt. As a result, our hunting skills have eroded, and we rely more heavily on technology for success. After acquiring an accurate rifle or bow, a few pieces of gear have been proven to make hunting more enjoyable and more successful.
Optics
Quality optics are essential for finding and identifying deer. While hunters can spend thousands on a top-end binocular, they can also purchase an adequate unit for about a tenth of that price. Bushnell’s Fusion binocular includes an integrated laser rangefinder—and the price is reasonable.
Clothing
Modern clothing can make hunters quieter and more comfortable. Gore-Tex, or similarly lined clothing, stops wind and rain while letting body vapors escape so your own sweat won’t soak you. Clothing containing wool, down, or synthetic-fiber insulation keep the head, body, and feet warm so hunters can hunt more and warm up in the truck less.
Treestand
For ambush-style hunters, a commercially manufactured treestand is important for sitting comfortably and safely above the deer’s natural line of sight. Homemade stands can be dangerous if not well maintained
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BOWHUNTING
MONSTER
WHITETAILS
The United States’s surplus of whitetails has afforded hunters the luxury of being choosy.
As a result, a legion of hunters has emerged who are only interested in the biggest and most mature bucks, and only hunt them with self-handicapping archery gear.
These big-buck fanatics might opt to pass by hundreds of legal deer before finally taking one that meets their standards.
These hunters obsessively pursue the species’ biggest specimens for its challenge.
Fact is, getting within 30 yards (or meters) of a mature, free- ranging whitetail is one of hunting’s greatest feats.
