Bow Hunting Deer

WE MUST now get acquainted with the game we are to hunt. We said in the introduction that, "One must know a lot about the nature and the habits of the deer."

Most of us have seen deer both in the wild state and in the parks. They are beautiful animals. More has been said andwritten about these animals than any other species. They have been hunted harder and longer than any other big game. Yet it is said that there are more deer in the continental United States now than there were when Henry Hudson first sailed up the river that bears his name. A number of reasons can be given why this is so. Before the white man came, the deer herd was preyed on by such predators as wolves, panthers,and bob cats. None of these killers recognized any game laws or any season. The Indians came in for their share also, but do not want to classify the Indian as a killer. He was a conservationist. He took only what he needed. He killed the killers and by so doing, his take probably did not equal that which he saved. While we have a greater number of deer now than ever before, their distribution is vastly different from what it wa sin colonial times. When the white man first came to our shores, the deer were scattered, virtually, all over the country.The law of the survival of the fittest and nature's balance of power caused a natural distribution of deer that assured plenty of range and food for them.

Now, there are no deer to speak of in the great Mississippi Valley. If we name the states in which only a few deer are found, the number surprises us. If we have more deer now than ever before, where are they?

East of the Mississippi, one herd is located in the New England states, principally in the state of Maine; New York state has a large herd in the Catskills and Adirondacks; Pennsylvania has a great herd, principally in the Appalachian Mountains; West Virginia, in her mountain regions; Michigan, in the northern section, especially the northern peninsula; Wisconsin, in the pine and lake country to the north;Minnesota, in the lake region to the north. These are the places where the great herds have taken their stands. There are some deer along the coastal regions of the Carolinas,Georgia, and Florida; a few are found in the lowlands and the canebrakes of the lower Mississippi River and in the Ozarks. From the Rocky Mountains, west to the coast, there seems to be no great change in the original distribution. There is no state, with the possible exception of Rhode Island,that cannot boast of at least a few deer.

Fifty years ago it was a different story, especially in the State of Pennsylvania. In those days the deer were getting very scarce. It was found necessary to create a Board of Game Commissioners as early as 1896. Their first act was to stop hunting deer at salt licks and running them with dogs. In1905, the Commission established the game refuge idea which proved to be a very wise act.In 1906, 50 deer were imported from Michigan and placed in the refuges; the following year witnessed the passage of the famous buck law, thus giving the doe absolute protection.

Two men, Dr. Joseph Kalbfus and John M. Phillips deserve the thanks of all Pennsylvania sportsmen for their untiring labor in conservation activities and the wisdom they displayed in planning programs that have given Pennsylvanian of the largest deer herds in the country. By the year1930, the legal deer kill had reached 95,000 animals. By 1940 the herd had reached an estimated population of a million animals and the kill for that year was 186,575 deer!