B82 
[Dec. 30, 190.=;, 
Deer Hunting in Wisconsin. 
The last twenty days of November is a very busy time 
for deer in the northern half of Wisconsin. I have given 
account of my hunting trips the past four seasons, except 
the last one, and with your kind permission will here 
recite how we went and did it during the season just 
closed. 
Our party was made up, as last year, and we camped 
on Lost Creek, some three miles out from Sayner, on the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, near the camp 
of last year. The station of Sayner is building up, and 
now boasts a lodging house and a grocery store, though 
the deer seem to be annoyed very little by this intrusion, 
and the territory- adjacent to this branch of the C., M. & 
St. P. Railway will furnish sport for hunters for years 
to come. My friends had preceded me by four days, 
and when Mr. John Surges, who is this year caretaker 
at the summer house of Mr. Backus, of Chicago,, and 
who chanced to be at the station with his team, landed 
me and my duffle at our tent door about 3 P. M., I found 
my friend. Dr. Mackey, keeping house. The boys had 
selected a sheltered spot in a pine grove, where were 
dead stubs and stumps for fuel for our two sheet-iron 
stoves. Headrick, prior to my arrival, had investigated 
the wood question, and laid stress on the virtue of pine 
stumps. A couple of days later, when I turned my at- 
tention in that direction and found how easily they were 
lifted from their sandy beds, how readily they yielded to 
the ax and were divided into all sorts of shapes and sizes 
suitable for both kindling and keeping fire, and the 
amount of virtue they possessed owing to the resin they 
contained, I went after them root and branch, so to 
speak, and I vowed a vow, to-wit ; If in the wisdom of 
Providence, my lot should again be cast in a pine country, 
for long or short, I should ask nothing better for fuel 
than pitch-pine stumps frotn an old chopping. Why 
settlers haul them into large heaps and fire them I don’t 
know, unless that it is easier to buy coal than split 
stumps. 
The boys had found something beside stumps, for they 
had two fine bucks, a duck and some rabbits hanging oh 
a pole, and were out looking for more. It is a habit our 
boys have that of looking for things when they get up 
there in the woods, and one can’t blame them when one 
stops to think what the privilege costs in coin of the 
realm. We look for a desirable place to camp, where 
game can be found, as well as wood and water. Finding 
these, we are content; and to see us eat, oh, my! If a 
man don’t eat while campipg out in that northern pine 
country, it’s because — well, there is no negative side to 
the question. There is meat in abundance — -porcupines 
when nothing else- — and some people contend that hedge- 
hog is as good eating as other porkers. 
Tuesday morning about 2 A. M., Hedrick got up and 
struck a match, but slipped back to bed. It seemed to 
me only a few minutes until he was up again, and this 
time stayed up, the hour being 5 o’clock. Bender was 
the second man up, and soon thereafter both stoves were 
roaring and mush was sizzling in the frying pans. The 
Doctor was always the last to throw off the night robes, 
and he not infrequently accompanied it with some mild 
reflections on the fast life certain people seemed dis- 
posed to lead. Breakfast over, we were soon hitching on 
our hunting outfits, and after learning in what direction 
others were going, I planned a circle, crossed the creek 
and followed the wagon road down to Big St. Germain 
Lake, then turned up the Lost Lake road to the chopping 
south of the lake, then skirted the woods to the north- 
west, coming back to camp on the old timber railroad, 
which the boys dubbed Peggy. Peggy was an abandoned 
road, the bed of which was full of ties from which a 
good many spikes protruded, hence the name. 
On the circle I saw some tracks, but -no deer.' The 
earth was dry, the weather fine and the walk a pleasant 
one of about four miles. After dinner we all went west 
and then north in something of skirmish line order. I 
was at the east end of the line in the Glen Brook wagon 
road, and Spahr was in the woods a half mile to the 
west. He shot a rabbit and scared a deer, which came 
by Journay, who got a couple of running shots. I ran 
down the road and clambered on to an uprooted tree, 
thinking the deer might run off across my front if the 
boys did not get him, but instead I got a glimpse of him 
back south of me in the timber filled with hazel brush, 
but got no shot. After we went to camp, a dog belong- 
ing in the neighborhood took the trail, ran the deer 
around our camp and on east. The dog came to our 
camp after dark, and I clubbed him until he left. 
The weather was warmer now, and in the night a light 
rain began to fall, changing to snow, and Wednesday we 
had -about one-half inch of snov/, which served for track- 
ing. Hedrick and Spahr' went west. Bender and Mackey 
remaining in camp, while Journay and I went north up 
the Sayner wagon road. Before we reached the green 
woods, Journay turned out to the left, the understanding- 
being that we would swing around to the west and south 
to meet Hedrick and Spahr, who were to go west, then 
north. Just as I got where I could see into a small 
ravine, which the road crossed, where there was a deer 
crossing in the thick woods, I saw a spike buck going 
west. He had crossed the road and was walking leisure- 
ly along a deer trail._ I -waited until he came into a small 
open space, thm whistled. He stopped, partly facing me, 
and the next instant tumbled over backward with a ball 
that hit the left jugular near the shoulder and lodged 
against the skin of the right shoulder. It was the most 
killing shot I ever made at a deer. Journay came, and 
we dragged the deer down the road to camp. We had 
been out less than an hour, but saw where two deer had 
crossed the road about 400yds. from camp since we 
passed along, one having walked quite a distance in the 
wagon road. I remained in camp, boiled beans and bacon 
and stewed peas for dinner. The afternoon tramp 
brought only tired legs. 
The boys skinned out the shot shoulder from the deer 
I had killed, and we had fried venison for supper. 
Thursday we hunted west. Journay getting a chance 
shot at_ a small deer, -which we followed to Plum Creek, 
where it took water, fooled us for a time, and then slipped 
off for the heavy timber westward, Journay and Spahr 
folio-wing for about a mile. 
Friday, the 17th, we got a fine doe near camp. In the 
afternoon four of the boys hunted a mile east of camp, 
5pahr getting a shot and woundipg a ,do.e^ w.h.icb they 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
followed until dark. We put in all of Saturday looking 
for that wounded doe. For a while the brush-covered 
hills looked like clusters of diamonds, every twig being 
covered fully its own thickness with frost. Then the sun 
shone in over old St. Germain, and the picture became a 
memory. In the afternoon, after the Doctor had had a 
shot at a deer slipping through a thicket, and Spahr had 
worn himself and the trail both .about threadbare, I 
called to- him, and proceeded down between two ridges 
on one of which I saw the Doctor some 500yds. west of 
us. Spahr didn’t hear me, or didn’t heed, and I went 
on until I got tangled up in a boggy place covered with 
shrubbery and logs. I stopped to decide whether I 
should back out or go- on at the risk of wading through 
knee-deep muck. I thought I might run a rabbit out, so 
took a step over a log, when rip-tear ! went two deer ; 
and by the time I squared around, I could see only a 
streak going north, which was off to my right, the most 
inconvenient direction, of course, for me to shoot. I took 
tw o snaps at the deer ; then the Doctor opened up and 
threw four balls at them in rapid confusion. The Doctor 
was shooting with a peep sight, and the boys contended 
that evening that he was liable to shoot anywhere within 
twenty feet of the deer. If Spahr had come at my call 
he would have been in line, and those deer would, with- 
out doubt, have suffered another broken leg or two, if 
nothing worse, for Spahr is a rapid and fairly accurate 
shot, though it does seem from the number of broken legs 
charged up to him that his 40-75 has a penchant for 
shooting low. 
Sunday, the 19th, was an Indian summer day. I made 
a rabbit and squirrel stew^ for dinner, and we enjoyed 
the camp and rested mostly. 
Monday, the 20th, I stayed in camp during the fore- 
noon, got up wood and prepared dinner. Then, in the 
afternoon took a turn around the big swamp east of us, 
but saw nothing. The other boys met like success. The 
ground was dry, the sun shone, the air was w'arm, but 
the deer were non-est. 
Tuesday, the 21st, Spahr, Journay, Mackey and I all 
went down the Eagle River road, scattered and hunted 
east, between the swamp and Big St. Germain. Spahr 
and Mackey were_ in the Lost Lake road,- between me 
and the lake, while I was on a log on a ridge, and 
Journay was north of me. I saw two deer coming from 
the west, through the brush. They ran across the grass 
plot back of the old brown cabin and down toward the 
lake beyond the cabin. * They were some 400 or more 
yards from me, and .thinking we might corner them in 
the brush near the lake, I called to the boys ; but they 
could not understand, and Spahr ran back west right to 
the^ spot the deer crossed, looking toward me all the time, 
while the deer were beyond him. 1'he upshot of it was 
the deer ran off east along the shore of the lake. Then 
I_ wished I had got in some shots while they were in 
sight, though clearly out of reach of my .38-40. We 
continued our hunt on east, then north by west, and 
when approaching Lost Creek, where we had a foot-log, 
we got our fifth deer, which we took on to camp. 
In the .afternoon we all went back across the foot-log, 
drove south, scared up the three-legged doe again very 
near where I had disturbed her and another one, ran 
her into- the lake, then let her get away into the hills. 
Wednesday, the 22d, we all started down Lost Creek, 
Spahr and I on the right, the others on the left. In a 
tamarack swamp, filled with brush of every description a 
small deer jumped, went behind an upturned root, and 
on like a gray streak. I jerked my gun up and took a 
snapshot, then yanked another cartridge into the cham- 
ber, but I saw no more of the deer. 
We twisted about the swamp and thickets, but saw no 
more, and went to camp for dinner. After dinner 
Hedrick started out, carrying a ladder about ten feet 
long, which he said he meant to climh when he got it in 
position. I think he did stay out there most of that 
afternoon, but I recall that he was generally in the push 
afterward. I often think of the fine places one finds from 
which to shoot, but I note that they are have-beens. 
They may be on well-used deer trails, but watch them and 
you get tired and sleepy, for the deer don’t use them in 
the daytime, and in the hunting season especially. I 
took a long walk among the burned-over hills east of 
Big St. Germain, then back north by west to camp, 
through hardwmod timber and via Peggy. All I shot was 
a big white rabbit. 
Thursday, the 23d, we all lined up on the Sayner 
road some 200 yards apart, and made a half circle west, 
south and east to camp. We found nothing but a 
.grouse, from which Bender clipped the head with his .38 
Winchester, and a r<abbit I shot with my revolver. The 
weather theatenend rain, there was no sign of deer, and 
we wished for snow that w.e might locate them. Nothing 
daunted, all b'ut Bender, who had a headache, and I, who 
had taken the outside of the circle in the forenoon, went 
over east into the timber for an afternoon hunt. They 
got some shooting at a doe and fawn and broueht the 
■fawn to camp. A light rain set in and continued all 
night, with much wind. 
All day Friday the wind howled and shook mist from 
the clouds, and toward night the temperature dropped. 
The boys made an evening hunt in the woods east, but 
got nothing. Rain turned to snow. 
Saturda3'-, the 25th, we hunted east of the big swamp 
and did some tracking in the light snow. At one place 
Hedrick and I saw where a wolf had been chasing a 
rabbit, and in the end the small deer we were following 
fooled Hedrick completely. He tracked it down to Lost 
Creek, where it landed out in the water on the jump, and 
he concluded it had crossed the creek, so whistled us all 
in to the foot-log. where we crossed. Spahr and I went 
up the creek to pick up the deer trail, but could not find 
it, thou.gh we searched the bank for several hundred 
yards. The deer must have gone up the creek some dis- 
tance and returned to the swamp on the same side it left. 
The next day I made a long jaunt east some three 
miles through hardwood and came back on a road run- 
ning east to Found Lake. Two young men who are 
snending the winter at^ Found Lake came up with me. 
They were going out to the little store at Sayner station 
for supplies, and one was pulling a hand sled. I .got back 
to camp for dinner and rested during the remainder of 
the day. 
The following day we scoured the woods east of the 
big swamp thoroughly, followed some deer trails in the 
li^ht sflow,, b.fit got flpfjhing save a couple of rabbits. 
While I was standing on a stump a mink came racing by. 
Just as it was opposite me I jerked my gun to my face, 
hoping it would see the movement and stop long enough 
fer rne to shoot its head off, for it was a large black one 
mad its pelt worth some $4. It saw the movement, but 
in.stea_d of hesitating, it turned like a streak of lightning 
and simply flew back to an old root and was out of sight. 
In the evening rain began to fall, turning to fine snow, 
and m the night I told the boys we were likely to be 
buried before morning. At 4 A. M. I was awakened by 
a yell from Bender. We all got out and shoveled the 
sno-\v off the tents, which were giving way under the 
heavy load. The earth is yellow sand, and the rope 
slakes will not hold as they do in clay soil. The snow 
in the open choppings was about ten inches ; in the green 
-weeds, where much of it lodged on the branches, it was 
net more than five inches; but down in the swamps, 
w'here the creepers, moss and brush held it up, it was 
knee-deep. About 8 A. M. Journay and Spahr started 
down the -west side of Lost Lake, while Bender, Hedrick 
and I crossed the creek and took the road along the east 
side of the creek, our intention being to disturb any 
game that might be sheltered in the swamp thickets 
along either side of the creek. While we were on the 
ridse between the crek and the big swamp basin on the 
east three shots were fired by one of the boys on the 
w-e.rt side. Hedrick and I stopped and waited, looked 
and listened, but could come to no conclusion as to what 
was happening or where Spahr and Journay had gone. 
So I went back up the road, recrossed the creek and fol- 
lowed Jonrnay’s tracks down along the creek until I 
came to where he had turned suddenly and gone west- 
ward acros.s a chopping. I followed his trail until I came 
on to Spahr’s tracks and the trail of a deer that had 
j uniped from its bed and gone off southwest through 
the thicket on the southeast of Bass Lake. Then I tried 
to let Hedrick and Bender, who were yet over east of the 
creek, know^ what was taking place, but could not locate 
them. So I went on down the creek and soon met Jour- 
nay, who w-ith Spahr had turned back after following the 
deer over south of Bass Lake, and finding that Spahr 
had missed. The boys turned back toward camp for the 
walking was very exhausting, and I, too, turned and 
crossed a windfall of small uprooted trees at the outlet 
of Bass Lake, shaping my course for the hill where Spahr 
jumped the deer, beyond which the old -Peggy road led 
to camp. While divided over some logs that lay cross- 
wise, with both feet buried in the snow and bog, a rabbit 
scooted out from under me and lay .sprawled under a log 
about eight feet distant. I took the rabbit along with 
rne, and when I came to the hill back-trailed Spahr’s 
deer, for it seemed to me a peculiar circumstance that a 
deer should be lying up on that shelterless, chopped-over 
hillside in deep snow, when 2CO yards further on there 
was a comparatively safe retreat and good shelter. Yes, 
even at the foot of the hill there was a fringe of brush 
and vines bordering Bass Lake. But here that deer had 
made a second bed within 100 \ards. 
Now, I have follow'ed deer some, and I stopped and 
asked myself, “Where is the other deer?” Some one 
might ask, what other deer? You have only mentioned 
one. Do deer always go in pairs?” No, not always. 
But something influenced that deer to lie down up there 
on the bleak hillside in eight inches of snow. She didn’t 
like it so got up and pottered on to the farther point of 
the hill. The something would not come, so she lay 
down again. I went on the back trail some further and 
here it was made plain. A second deer had come up the 
hill from down by the lake jumping on three legs, the 
fourth leg uselessly swinging from side to side, the sharp 
toes cutting circles in the snowc Spahr didn’t see this 
deer for she went off northwest, while the one he shot 
at' was farther east and he was shooting and looking 
southward. I followed her trail across Peggy and on 
west of the old lumber camp wagon road, then turned off 
to camp. This -w^as the evening of our hunt, and we had 
to leave the three-legged deer to the mercy of the wolves. 
I was in camp sixteen days, all of which were filled 
with rollicking boyish pleasure. Among the shots I got 
were one at a rabbit’s head twenty-seven steps, and an- 
other at a partridge walking. In the first instance the 
ball from my gun cut the throat of the rabbit, and in the 
secoiid the partridge’s head had just disappeared behind 
a tree and I cau.ght a quick bead and lifted the back off 
the bird wdthout mussing up the meaty part. One of the 
quickest and most accurate shots I ever made. 
We took in all seven deer, one duck, three partridge, 
a dozen rabbits and some pine squirrels. The latter we 
shot with a target gun among the pine .shrubs around 
camp. Game wardens must have taken it for granted 
that we were on our good behavior, for none made them- 
selves known tO' us. Neither were we annoyed by other 
hunters, and if settlers’ dogs had stayed out of our hunt- 
ing grounds everything would have been ideal and we 
would have taken more deer. G. W. Cunningham. 
Guide and Kaiset. 
Hamar, Norway, Dec. 7 .- — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The article, “Kings Afield,” in the Forest and Stream 
of Nov. 25, reminds me of an amusing incident happen- 
ing to Kaiser Wilhelm on one of his trips to Norway. 
He had decided that he wanted to shoot a reindeer, but 
as they won’t consent to being “driven,” like the Ger- 
man stags, he had to stalk them like any other common 
hujnan being, and had secured the services of an old 
hunter and mountaineer as guide. 
They had found a bunch of deer and were stalking 
them, the guide ahead and the Kaiser a little distance 
behind, when the old fellow thought the Emperor was 
making too much noise and angrily turning around shook 
his fist at him. At this the Emperor was rather sur- 
prised. and his attending officer was about paralyzed. It 
was taken all in good nature, however, and within, a short 
time he had his reindeer. Chr. G. 
Through the escape recently of a large number of 
jack rabbits from a preserve on the Country Club’s 
grounds, Eastport, L. I., the adjacent covers are now 
filled with game. The rabbits belonged to Dr. Parker a 
member of the club, who was fond of hunting them with 
hounds. 
THE MANY-XrSE Olf. 
prevent.s rust. T^iihricate.s perfectly; 6 oz. can. 25 c. — Adv. 
