How do you hunt deer?

[Cowgirl_Jules]

I would totally trade deer meat for apple pies, kayaker. In fact, I’m giving away some venison this week. Nobody’s bringing me pie though. I should plant a suggestion.

[kayaker]

If you were in PA, there would be pie for ya, CJ.

[drastic_quench]

@muldoonthief

I apologize for the hijack - what’s the philosophy behind making it illegal to sell game meat? Are they worried about professional hunters doing it for the money and driving out the casual hunters who do it for the hobby?

It’s not inspected. There’s a sizable risk of idiots poisoning people. Some deer are gut shot and their intestine’s contents spill out all over the body cavity. How well it’s washed, and what’s not thrown out obviously varies way too much to be safe. Then there’s people who attempt dry aging. Some will disastrously fail. Some hunters don’t properly field dress a deer - they might leave organs in there. Some are too lazy to dress a deer in a timely fashion.

[FallenAngel]

@drastic_quench

The shots carry too far. Rural Illinois is largely flat and there’s houses and farms closer than you might think. If your shot travels hundreds of yards and isn’t stopped by the terrain, you can put a hole in someone’s house or worse. There are a good number of deer hunters in IL that travel to neighboring states to hunt deer with rifles. I’ve never done it, but having shot a rifle with a sighted in scope - it seems like it’d be too easy. I don’t even want a scope on my shotgun.

Growing up in Ohio it was the same. I took my first deer with a slug in a break action .410.

[FallenAngel]

I don’t hunt often anymore, but when I do I use a .303 Enfield with open sights. I don’t take trophies, keep all the meat I can store and give the rest to friends who didn’t get a tag in that year’s lottery or didn’t bag one when they were out.

And just my $0.02, but I don’t find passive hunting to actually be hunting. It’s sniping. What makes hunting a worthwhile activity, for me, is getting as close as possible to the animal before taking the shot. For my money, shooting from a stand is the equivalent to the world’s most boring trip to the grocery store.

[Shagnasty]

@Fiveyearlurker

Can I tag on a dumb question about hunting deer?

Hunting deer seems really easy. I mean, whenever I drive around the northeast they seem to be everywhere, and they seem pretty easily killable. They just sort of stand there stupidly.

Now, I’ve never done it, so I’m guessing there is something that I’m missing, but shooting a deer (at least with a rifle) doesn’t seem to be much of a challenge. What am I missing?

It can be fairly easy with rifle hunting but there is no promise that you will see anything you can legally shoot on any given hunt no matter who you are. Hunting seasons are pretty restrictive and you have to be able to identify deer by sex and age plus have some luck, patience, and decent firearms skills to get one. Deer are common in the many parts of the country but hunting means knowing where you can find them on demand.

That said, many hunters do get bored with rifle hunting over time as they get really good at it and switch over to things like muzzle hunting or bow hunting to make things harder on themselves and to take advantage of the special seasons dedicated to those methods. My younger brother does that religiously and bow hunting is not easy. Deer spook extremely easily and it is hard to get a legal one in range for bow shot and takes extreme patience, preparation, and scouting plus some luck. Anyone that can learn to shoot a gun and sit really still for long periods can kill something legally somewhere given enough time but it isn’t as easy as it sounds and it can be a pretty expensive and time-consuming sport. The penalties for illegal deer hunting activity are also unusually harsh in most states f you get caught doing something illegal.

[Dereknocue67]

Recently, I’ve begun using some old WWll phosphorus grenades I found in an old trunk . I’ve noticed they have more than enough capability to kill any size deer with the added benefit of cooking it at the same time. I’m now the envy of those draconian rifle hunters who are forced to drag their kill back to their pickups.

[Rafe_Hollister]

I hunt the rocky hills of southern MO, but grew up in west central IL. Only shotguns were legal in IL, but I find my 12 gauge to be perfect in the Ozarks, since most shots are 75 yards or less and there is a lot of brush. Most of my in-laws and their hunting clan tend to use a 30-30, with the Marlin 336 the most common. I’ve also seen a 6.5 Swede, 223, and 30-06 in deer camp, but those are the exception to the rule.

My last firearms season was 2005. Since then I have exclusively hunted with archery equipment. Why?

1. Much longer season–4 months instead of 11 days.
2. Seclusion–I’m the only bow hunter on our family’s property.
3. Safety–During firearms season there may be 6 hunters on 140 acres, many of them wearing bifocals.
4. Challenge–Firearm hunting is like grocery shopping, where you pick out what you want and take it home. Archery demands much more of the hunter and the thrill of the hunt is magnified, regardless of the success.