theHunter Classic White-tailed Deer Guide

Whitetail Deer Overview

Description

Whitetail, White-tailed, or the Virginia deer, are an infamous member of the deer family.

They adorn a reddish to grayish - brown coat, and possess the well - known white underside of their tail.

Their color is primarily dependent on age, with darker coats determining mature members, as well as the snout's length.

Males, called bucks, typically boast a medium - sized, but nonetheless impressive pair of antlers, grown during the spring and summer months, which they use for fighting rival males over breeding rights to does, female White-tailed deer.

White-tailed deer live from the northernmost points of North America, down to Bolivia and the Andes Mountains in South America, but have been introduced as game animals to some European countries, as well as New Zealand.

theHunter Classic

In theHunter Classic, White-tailed deer are regarded as beginner animals, however they can be difficult to hunt if you are inexperienced or ill - equipped, or are pursuing a trophy - grade member.

They wander around forests and fields, stopping throughout the day to drink, eat, or bed down.

White-tailed deer are typically solitary, though you may occasionally see 2 or 3 members of either gender moving together.

In - Game Habitats And Range

White-tailed deer are inhabitants of:

Whitehart Island Logger's Point Settler's Creek Redfeather Falls Rougarou Bayou

The White-tailed deer has the greatest spread of any animal across the Evergreen Hunting Reserves.

It can be found on all reserves based off of the mainland United States, as well as the only Canadian one.

They can be found in most places, including swamps, forests, fields, mountains, and hills.

These animals spawn in special areas around 80 % of the time, but never rely on this as they can spawn elsewhere.

In addition to this, they are spawned as if they came into the game an hour earlier when you start a game to lay tracks.

Equipment Pt. 1

Attractants

There are two main attractants for White-tailed deer.

Urine Spray

Callers Urine spray appears as a spray bottle, which you can equip and spray around your specified hunting areas to gradually attract nearby White-tailed deer.

Callers work with left click, and produce a sound ment to mimic either a doe with the bleat, or a buck with the grunt caller.

The usage of these callers emits a radius of about 100 meters (328.084 feet), over a period of time.

Note that these effects do not stack, and only reset the time left to attract animals.

There is currently no bait.

'Defensive' Equipment

What I call 'defensive' equipment is really just items ment to give you an edge over the adept senses of White-tailed deer.

There are scent - eliminators, wind powder, and camouflage.

Scent eliminators work by masking the player's scent from the deer, which can smell several times better than bloodhounds. These last for 30 minutes.

Next, there is wind powder.

This is not dissimilar in appearance to scent eliminator, but they do not do the same thing.

Instead of masking your scent, they detect the direction of wind travel so you can move upwind of animals.

Camouflage

(in continuation of defensive equipment)

Camouflage is specially made articles of clothing ment to make visual detection exceedingly difficult.

White-tailed deer inhabit 4 summer - based reserves, which require Sneaky 3D Summer Camouflage, and 1 swamp - based reserve, which requires Sneaky 3D Summer Swamp Camoflage (or the previous one depending on your location).

Others include Boone & Crockett, Doc Monsignor, Army Outfit, and English Gentleman Hunter.

But we will focus on the Sneaky 3D bundles.

Sneaky 3D Summer: Sneaky 3D Swamp: Boone & Crockett: Doc Monsignor:

Camouflage allows you to 'blend in' with the environment around you, further strengthening your visual defense against the White-tailed deer's lower-than-average eyesight.

Other visual defenses include face - paint, adding an extra element of visual coverage.

Equipment Pt. 2

Optics

Optic equipment is designed to allow you to see further, and include things like spotting scopes, rangefinders, and binoculars.

Binoculars, or field glasses, are a pair of telescopes mounted besides each other, and angled to point in the same direction allowing the user to use both eyes.

This piece of equipment is useful for the big forest and small fields, due to the magnification being 'just right'.

Spotting Scopes are compact high-power telescope optimized for detailed observation of distant objects. These are extremely useful for spotting White-tailed deer from great distances, primarily vast expanses of water in Rougarou Bayou, or Logger's Point.

There are currently two magnifications, 16x, and 30x65.

A rangefinder is a device that measures distance from the observer to a target, in a process called ranging. These can be useful, primarily for bow hunting, to judge distance and thus know which pin, or how high to aim with.

Large Equipment

Large Equipment consists of items too large to be carried in a normal slot, that can also be placed down. These include things like blinds, tree stands, hunting towers, and tents.

Tripod stands consist of three, tall, metal legs with a ladder leading up a seat.

This offers good visual reduction and superior scent reduction, so use these in areas with brush or low visibility to counter the deer's advantage.

Ground blinds are a propped - up packing style piece of equipment, which you can enter, with the right camouflage setting, and gain a legendary amount of visual cover.

Tree stands are a piece of equipment that are attached to a tree in an elevated position, allowing one to crouch/sit or stand with a gain of visual, scent, and sound reduction matched by no other piece of equipment. Bow hunters are particularly fond of tree stands as it allows them to close the distance between an animal which is otherwise very risky.

Hunting towers are constructed buildings consisting of a room raised by 4 long legs and reached by a ladder around 20 feet tall. They are not for the impatient, as it takes 24 real - time hours for the tower to be constructed. There are also free hunting towers which can be found around the reserve, some taking the appearance of a treestand.

Firearms & Bows

Hunting in the Evergreen Hunting Reserves is with either firearms or bows, both having their fair share of pros and cons.

Firearms

A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual.

They will be seperated into 4 categories.

Note that White-tailed deer can be hunted with only some firearms.

Including:

Handguns

Rifles

Shotguns

Muzzleloaders

Below I will show you what I recommend using.

These aren't necessarily required for hunting White-tailed deer, but will make it a lot easier to do.

Hunting totally bare can be completed with the 243. Bolt - Action Rifle, and the 12 Gauge Single - Shot Shotgun loaded with either slugs or buckshot.

Handguns

A handgun is a short-barrelled firearm that can be held and used with one hand.

A fine choice for White-tailed deer is the 10mm Semi - Automatic Handgun, it packs a punch and it's semi - automatic feature allows for extremely quick follow - up shots.

Another great choice would be the .44 Nosler Sporting Revolver, it is even more powerful, and is able to be fitted with a variety of telescopic sights.

Rifles

A rifle is a long-barrelled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the bore wall.

An outstanding rifle would be the .300 Bolt - Action Rifle. Extremely powerful, accurate, and comparable to the .223 family in flat trajectory, making it long - range as well.

A second great rifle would be the .30-06 Lever - Action Rifle. What it lacks in penetration, it makes up in wounding power and quick follow-up shots.

Shotguns

A shotgun (also known as a scattergun or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub-projectiles called shots, or sometimes a single solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns are most commonly smoothbore firearms, meaning that their gun barrels have no rifling on the inner wall, but rifled barrels for shooting slugs (slug barrels) are also available, however slug guns are not available in - game.

When hunting White-tailed deer, remember to use slugs or buckshot only, as birdshot is considered unethical.

Probably the best shotgun out of the two would be the Maisto 12 Gauge Semi - Automatic Shotgun.

It is very fast firing and reloading, it packs good firepower, and with a red - dot or slug scope it can be accurate as well.

If you would like more range and firepower, I heavily recommend the 10 Gauge Lever - Action Shotgun. It has some of the best range for a shotgun, and with it's large projectiles, it is also extremely powerful.

Muzzleloaders

A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel).

First and foremost, the .50 Inline Muzzleloader. Being a muzzleloader, it is extremely fatal by nature, but it is also extremely accurate as it can be fitted with a variety of scopes, and it has a range of ammunition (.45 Saboted to .50 Conical).

Secondly is a sidearm, the .50 Inline Muzzleloading Pistol. It shares many of the same stats as the previous one, but you are able to have it as a sidearm.

Bows

The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles (arrows). There are currently many to choose from, ranging from modern compound bows to simplistic classical stick - and - string ones.

First off, I recommend the Parker Python Compound Bow. While not as powerful as others, it is extremely quiet and quick, allowing you to take down multiple animals without causing any to flee, or in more experienced player's cases, entire herds.

Secondly, is the Snakebite Compound Bow. It is incredibly powerful, one of the loudest bows, but still quiet. Perfect for larger animals.

Hunting The Animal

The Basics

When hunting the White-tailed deer, make sure to only claim males as the females are not worth anything, only exceptions would be a rare fur variation.

If you are not sure a White-tailed buck is worth shooting, look for the widest spread of the main beams, and for many long points. Avoid short points, even if the spread is wide.

Weight also does correspond somewhat with the score, so follow heavy bucks, but the rack is primarily what decides the score of a buck, so consider medium - weight males just as important.

A good White-tailed deer buck should look something like this:

Credit to HooCairs for the image.

Tracking

Once more, weight does not make up the score of a buck entirely, but heavy bucks are typically worth tracking. If you receive few fleeing tracks, it is not worth it. However, if you reach 5-6 tracks, it is probably a nice / decent buck. If you are experienced, you can call them in and judge their worth right there and then.

Remember to walk or crouch when tracking a deer, as the moment you reach a new track or a roaming track while running, the White-tail is most likely already spooked, as the animal can stop fleeing abruptly.

Take your time, especially with a high - scoring buck, as they tend to run further.

Use your optics to try and spot it, also look very closely for tracks and pay attention so that you could catch vocal signs.

Stand Hunting

Stand Hunting involves staying in one place, or small area, and using any of the equipment mentioned in Equipment Pt. 2, or simply sitting still.

Using White-tailed Deer urine spray around you area could be very useful, especially if it gets uninteresting just waiting. Stand Hunting also works very well with bows.

Should you lure in multiple animals, pick them off as they come with a bow, or be prepared with a quick weapon like the .30-06 Lever Action or the Maisto 12 Gauge.

Driving

Driving is a rather difficult task for one person only, as it is composed of crossing the entire reserve while shooting to spook animals towards the border, which they will not cross. This takes a great amount of ammo, so bringing in fellow hunters is greatly encouraged. When you do this, do not shoot too often as to preserve ammo, but do not go so slow as to give the deer the time to return to roaming. Once you reach the border or see the animals running in incoherent patterns, you should then be able to shoot.

Conclusion / Credits

Everything here was based off of what to use and do when hunting the White-tailed deer.

Credits for the images go to Wikipedia, theHunter Classic Fandom, and Expansive Worlds.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2361892552

White-tailed Deer Guide