Deer Hunting: 2nd Edition [Paperback]

Richard P. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1991

Revised and expanded, including five all-new chapters and color photos throughout

Includes chapters on preseason scouting, stand hunting, stillhunting, drives, and tracking

Advice on weapons, clothing, calls, cameras, and other equipment

How to butcher a deer and remove the hide and antlers

The latest information on chronic wasting disease, bovine TB, and other diseases that affect deer

An experienced hunter's take on different methods of deer management

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard P. Smith is an award-winning outdoor writer and photographer living in Marquette, Michigan. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 2 edition (July 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811730360
• ISBN-13: 978-0811730365
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,107,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good, but not quite as good as a novice hunter might like, March 7, 2004

By 

Travisji Corcoran "anarcho-capitalist" (Arlington, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deer Hunting, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

I've been shooting for several years, but only got my MA hunting permit last fall, and want to hunt deer this year. I picked up this book, and found it pretty interesting, but the title of the book seems to promise an overview, or encyclopedic coverage, and on that score I found it a bit lacking.

An index would have been quite helpful.

A bibliography or "further reading" section would have been nice.

Some discussion on shot placement, and minimum calibers for taking shots from different angles and ranges would have been nice. There is a chapter entirely dedicated to firearms and bowes, but no unified treatment of caliber and ammunition. There are a few anecdotes about what friends use, but what I'd really like to see is a table, showing common calibers, energy levels, suitability, etc.

Some discussion on optics would be nice. Scopes and iron sightes are mentioned in passing, but what are the author's recomendations on appropriate power levels for optics in various terrains?

The chapter on dressing a kill was decent, but I was hoping for more. The black and white photos were as clear as one might expect, but color photos that more crisply show the distinction between fur, organs, and meat would be nice...or better yet, color diagrams! (There is not a single diagram in the book, nor a single table, although there are lots of B&W photos).

There is a fair amount of information on removing organs, but the section on quartering is quite brief. A seasoned deer hunter knows all about this, I'm sure, but a neophyte could use a lot more information on what tools are recommended (hunting knife? small axe? saw? What brands? What should I look for?), and detail on exactly where to cut. Here is the complete information on removing hind legs:

"Hind legs, or hams, can be removed by cutting the hip joint. You can locate this joint by moving the leg back and forth a few times."

That's it.

When (if?) I'm face-to-face with my first ever deer carcass, and I have to quarter it to get it out of the woods, I'd prefer to have a lot more information than "move the joint back and forth and cut it".

Diagrams of the various bones would be nice. Telling me where to start cutting would be nice. Telling me what tool to use to cut would be nice.

Disposal of viscera is a topic that should be touched on. From the MA hunter's ed course, I know that one should either bury or pack out viscera (at least here in MA). Is this universally true?

One or more suggested equipment lists (as found in _The Complete Walker III_) would be nice. Maybe checklists for various permutations of single hunter/ two hunters, season, and weapon.

Some discussion of game laws and tags would be nice. I know a bit because of the hunter's ed course, but a refresher would be nice.

Anyway, in conclusion: this is a decent book, easy to read, by an author who clearly knows his business, but there are vast areas that it could cover and doesn't, and the organization and lack of diagrams/bibliography/checklists, etc. is a deep flaw. The discussions of the politics around high fence hunting preserves seem a bit out of place. The discussion of deer species is interesting, but should not come at the expense of a discussion of applied deer anatomy.

I'd love to see a fourth edition with 600 pages instead of 300, a good index, equipment checklists, some information on marksmanship, contact information, suggested reading, more on quartering an animal, much more on tools and brands, info on hunting regulations, diagrams, info on shot placement, info on scopes, etc., etc., etc.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Print too small, August 25, 2011

By 

Dariel Keeney (Litchfield, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deer Hunting: 4th Edition (Paperback)

This may be a good book but the print was so small that it is very difficult to read. My husband read the first two or three pages and just gave up. We returned the book.