HUNTING DEER IN DIXIELAND 
THE QUEST OF THIS GREAT GAME ANIMAL HAS BEEN THE FOREMOST 
FIELD SPORT OF SOUTHERNERS FOR NEARLY THREE-HUNDRED YEARS 
F OR about thirty years now I have 
been hunting the whitetail in the 
South, and it may be that some 
account of my experiences will be of 
interest to the outdoor brotherhood, 
especially to those who hunt deer; and 
of this number there is a constantly 
increasing army. The first observation 
that I should like to make is in regard 
to the comparatively small number of 
sportsmen who hunt deer south of the 
Line. They go to Canada, to Maine, 
to the Adirondacks, to New Brunswick, 
to the Michigan peninsula; but how 
few actually turn southward in quest 
of this great game animal, the hunting 
of which, in Dixie, has been the fore- 
most field sport for nearly three hun- 
dred years. Perhaps the reason why 
most men confine their, deer-hunting to 
the North is due to the fact that they 
are not fully aware of the number of 
deer in the South, and the degree of 
sport to be had in following them. 
For my part, I think that to walk up an 
old stag of the pinelands and to lay 
him low is to achieve the height of all 
sporting ambition. There is some mis- 
conception, too, in regard to the size of 
the deer in the South. On this subject 
I have been at some pains to collect 
material for many years. My conclu- 
sions are these: in the far North, the 
whitetail is generally of a more rugged 
type, and looks larger than the South- 
ern deer, but the more burly appear- 
ance of the northern bucks is due 
partly to the much heavier coat that 
they wear. But I have weighed many 
a Southern buck over 200 pounds, and 
have seen at least one grand stag, 
killed near Charleston, that was close 
to 300. I am persuaded that the size 
and appearance of deer depend less on 
latitude than on the nature of the 
habitat. For example, the bucks of the 
mountains of western North Carolina 
—such deer as are found in the great 
Pisgah Preserve — are stately crea- 
tures; so are the whitetail of the deep 
river-swamps of the Carolinas, where- 
By ARCHIBALD RUTLEDGE . 
as the deer of the open pinelands are 
smaller, and carry slighter antlers. In 
regard to horns, it may be stated that 
the deer with che greatest number of 
actual points (78) on its beams was 
killed in Texas. Stags of phenomenal 
antlers have been taken in Maine, 
Pennsylvania, Michigan, and in many 
other states. In Pennsylvania, how- 
ever, the old rugged type of whitetail, 
known locally as the “swampy,” has al- 
Photographed by Dr. G. C. Fisher. 
Uncle Pink Ward with a West Florida 
Whitetail 
most disappeared. Its type has been 
superseded by a smaller and slighter 
type, with antlers quite inferior. Un- 
doubtedly the finest head ever taken in 
the Keystone State was the magnificent 
Strohecher head, killed in the Seven 
Mountains in 1885. The Cameron 
County Head of 28-points and the Ross 
Head of 23 points have been taken 
within the last decade. Fit to be com- 
pared with these great heads was the 
one that I measured hardly a year ago. 
Contents Copyrighted, 1921, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
It was from a buck killed in Four 
Holes Swamp, Dorchester County, S. 
C. John Parler, the old hunter who 
killed it, said to me: “When I saw him 
coming, I thought I ought to run. He 
is the finest I ever shot, and I have 
killed hundreds.” This splendid head 
carried 26 points, had a spread of 24 
inches, and a beam-circumference of 6 
inches. I mention it to show that there 
are in Dixie deer of a size worthy to 
attract the most ambitious sportsman. 
A S the topography of the South is 
exceedingly varied, deer are 
found in widely different situa- 
tions; and the deer accustomed to one 
type of country will not willingly live 
in another. At least four of these 
kinds of environment may be men- 
tioned: the mountains, the river- 
swamps, the pinelands of the coastal 
plain, and the -coastal islands. With 
hunting deer in the mountains I have 
had no great amount of experience; but 
I have long followed them through the 
other three types of country mentioned. 
Of these three, swamp-hunting is the 
most difficult; but its rewards are like- 
ly to be quite fine, for, as has been said, 
the wilder the country, the larger the 
deer, and the more massive the antlers 
that they wear. I think that a descrip- 
tion of a swamp hunt that I had lately 
will convey a pretty accurate idea of 
the nature of this particular kind of 
sport. 
It was the first day of the season, 
and it found me in a little seacoast 
village some thirty miles northeast of 
Charleston. As I was well acquainted 
in the community, I had several invita- 
tions to join deer-hunts, which are 
rather more ceremonial in the rural 
sections of the South than anywhere 
else on earth. On the opening day es- 
pecially, old hunters join the ranks, and 
their field equipment reminds one of 
antebellum days. I remember being 
impressed with the prodigious size and 
the exceedingly mellow tone of an an- 
cient hunting-horn that one of the 
