MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • November 19, 2023
This installment is intended mainly for non-hunters who wish to communicate more effectively with hunters, or new deer hunters who don’t want to make their status too obvious. Let’s start with the basics. One does not catch a deer, or a duck or a turkey.. Acceptable terms include: get, shoot, kill, bag or harvest. A male deer is a buck, a female, a doe. A young deer, less than 1, is a fawn. Only bucks (note: the plural for both sexes includes an “s”) sport antlers, which hunters sometimes refer to as horns. Technically, they’re not horns; let it go. Don’t ask, “Did you get your deer yet?” That’s a bit of an inside joke among deer hunters and a sure tip-off you are not one. ~ Bob Humphrey