How smart were the deer Native Americans hunted with their sticks and string? How cagey were the deer Daniel Boone hunted with his Pennsylvania long rifle? How vulnerable would those deer be under today's hunting pressure, to hunters trained by experts in countless magazine articles and videos, using today's superior gear?
Today's whitetails are hotly pursued in a way that the ancestors of our deer never faced. Although some people say today's deer have few "natural predators," that phrase is misleading because human hunters are, and have always been, natural predators. And human hunters are the smartest creature on earth. He uses tools and strategies no other predator can match. It's no wonder that, over the last few hundred years, the deer we hunt have become very good at avoiding us.
Check out my August 6 column—read "We're Hunting Smarter Bucks Today" online in the Jamestown (NY) Gazette.
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