Manosphere-affiliated blogger Tim, has created an introductory ebook on hunting deer, called, in blunt style, Shoot Deer. He gave me a copy to review.
I am a beginning hunter; I went out by myself this fall for the first time. For my first hunt, I simply drove out to the nearest crown land, parked at the side of the highway and walked a few hundred meters into the bush til I found a small clearing. I then sat on the ground in small dip leaning back against a tree and waited, shotgun in hand. Probably not the most effective way of harvesting anything, but it was a learning example for next time (while hoping not to get lost in the woods), when I plan to prepare a bit better.
As could be expected, I didn’t catch anything, which was somewhat frustrating as I could hear scraping/crunching within shooting range, but couldn’t see anything through the trees. I would move a bit closer, wait 5-10 minutes, then move again, but it always was just out of sight. In retrospect, it was probably just another hunter and we were simply spending a few hours hunting each other.
Other than that attempt, I’ve never hunted and I don’t really know anybody who hunts, so the topic of this book really appealed to me. Learning a few tricks of the trade would be handy.
And that, this book provided. It had a lot of information on deer hunting. I can’t tell you if its correct or not, as I don’t have the proper experience, but what he writes makes sense and he seems to give due consideration to methods of which he disapproves.
There a lot of things in here I simply would never even have thought of. As one small example, he talks of finding special detergent to wash camo, as most detergents make clothes brighter, something you do not want for your camo.
The book cerainly delivered on its main purpose of providing solid information for beginners on deer hunting. I plan to re-read it again closer to the next deer season.
The major problem I had with the book is Tim focuses a lot of the book on maintaining private hunting property, especially in the first half of the book. He devotes 8 chapters to the topic and only two to alternatives.
For a beginner, its quite the expense to purchase a decent chunk of land for hunting. I live in an area that’s not overly expensive, but checking Kijiji, the cheapest hunting land is $12k for 40 acres. Although, that might be cheap for real estate, that’s quite a bit of upfront investment for a beginner. (I wish I had $80k to spare, there is a lot of beautiful land I could get on Kijiji).
I think the book would have been better for beginners if it had a bit more on hunting on public land (although, maybe public land isn’t as abundant in the US as it is in the western Canada). It would also have more flow if the property chapters were more towards the end of the book rather than right near the front.
That being said this book is excellent and I wish I had had it this summer. There’s a lot of information, and it all seems good. The book is written in a conversational, first-person tone which fits well enough. It also looks well edited for self-publishing; there were few typographical errors and none that interrupted the flow of the book.
At $8 for about 200 pages, the price is good for the amount of information presented.
Recommendation:
If you’re thinking of starting deer hunting, this will be a gecent book to helping you get started or to give you a some information on what’s involved in hunting. Pick up Shoot Deer, but skip the chapters on property ownership (unless of course, you plan to purchase property right off the hop).
If you’re not interested in deer hunting this is obviously not going to be all that useful.
If you’re interested in more information on deer hunting, check out Tim’s blog, Shoot Deer.
Also, Tim, I would suggest putting up an easy to see link to your book on Amazon on your blog; I didn’t see one.
Wow great timing. Just started looking into going deer hunting this fall for the first time. Just looked at the Ruger 77 yesterday. Good luck!
Hard to beat a Ruger 77, but follow up shots can be difficult if you are not smooth/ fast on the bolt action. Not that the need for it comes up often when deer hunting but you never know.
I have a 14 year old son who was really bugging me to get him into hunting deer. It is a “manly” hobby that I did not want to discourage. However I knew nothing about it and didnt even own a gun. So I enlisted the help of a friend who is into hunting. It was really helpful because he taught us everything and even advised us about a good beginners gun to purchase. He even put us in a great spot on his property. Unfortunately we did not shoot anything this year but we really learned alot and are looking forward to next fall. Oh yeah, by the way, another guy did shoot one while we were there one day and the process of “gutting” the deer is pretty gruesome and one that I’m not looking forward too.
Love that “just drove to the woods and waited”! It is a bit easier if one just looks for trails and natural choke points in the terrain
Thanks for the review.
I was unhappy with the editing, and was told to add pictures, so I am in the midst of having it edited, by someone else, and I will be re-releasing it shortly. Once it is done, and available as a paperback or kindle version, I will do some more advertising for it.
Thanks for the review, I shall take it into consideration before it is finalized.
Also: Depending on where you are in Western Canada, you may live where there are mule deer, or blacktails. They will be quite different than the hunting of whitetails that I am familiar with.
The equipment recommendations are outdated, but two more books are: Outwitting the Whitetail by Perry Riley and One Man’s Whitetail by Gene Wensel.
Not sure on how seasons work in Canada, but for US hunting, one of the best recommendations I can give you is taking up squirrel hunting. In the US, squirrel season opens up in mid-August. It is relatively cheap to get into and can really improve your woodsmanship. Spotting and stalking squirrels gives a great intro to moving through the woods, noting your surroundings, stalking and moving quietly, and basic marksmanship when you actually have a live animal in the sights. All great things to work on before you actually get into the heart of deer season, as well as giving you an opportunity to cover a lot of ground that you can note for track and signs of deer to make your hunting more effective.
@ Padre: Yeah, it wasn’t the best planned trip.
@ HH: Not a bad idea. As far as I know you can shoot squirrels any time as long as you have a cheap trappers license.
Increasing urbanization hunting is a significant threat to the future of hunting. Partly from habitat loss. Perhaps even more important due to urbanites disconnect from the natural world. I think most hunters understand this. If you know any hunters at all I think you will find that after getting to know them they will be glad to help a neophyte Nimrod. If you do not know any hunters I suggest spending some time where you will meet them. Almost any community group in a small town or rural setting will have some hunters as members.