The hunt for deer begins

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BAZETTA — Longtime hunter Brian Phillips says it is a fairly common mistake to believe that rain showers like those expected today make hunting for deer more difficult.

However, the idea that deer might stay in their bedding in such conditions instead of moving around for food and water is false, he said Sunday while practicing near his house with the shotgun he’ll use today during the first day of deer-gun season in Ohio.

“Some hunters will come out for a few hours and say, ‘They aren’t moving because of the rain,’ but [the deer] got to move,” he said. Deer, Phillips said, behave about the same way whether it rains or not, and they consume a large amount of water about three times per day, he said.

Those are the times when it’s easiest to harvest a deer — when they are on the move.

Phillips, who enjoys bow hunting more than hunting with a shotgun, says the deer-gun season brings out lots of hunters on the first day of the season who make another common mistake: leaving the woods at lunch time.

“Usually at noontime [deer] get up to take a drink,” Phillips said, which causes a lot of hunters who leave the woods for lunch to miss their opportunity to harvest a deer. Phillips usually packs a lunch for that reason, he said.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.