Gallery • 7 Photos

Three Whitehills sitting in a stand in their backyard, eagerly waiting for a deer to walk by. Whitehill says, “Sitting in the stand with the family, no better feeling in the world.”

Deer Hunting in Minnesota this year was from Nov. 5-13. There is another opportunity to hunt in the northern part of Minnesota Nov. 14-20. Hunting has been a way for families to put meat on the table, now it is passed down through generations. People use a variety of different guns and tactics to deer hunt such as, shotguns rifles and deer drives.

In Minnesota there are two zones, shotgun and rifle. Rifle is used in the northern zone, shotgun in the southern part of the state. With a deer license the hunter can hunt anywhere in the state as long as you abide by the rules for the zone. If the hunter is under 18 they get a doe permit no matter what. A doe permit means the hunter has the choice of shooting a doe or buck. Some zones hunters need to apply for a doe permit, but about 1 in 11 hunters get one. In the zones where hunters need to apply for a tag, the population is down. To regulate the population the DNR gives out a certain amount of doe permits, to keep does alive to repopulate.

Deer Hunting is usually passed down and taught through generations. People usually hunt with their family and close friends as a fun way to make memories and harvest meat. People travel all over to places, such as cabins and relatives homes to get together for annual deer hunting season.

Math teacher Darby Whitehill said, “In our family, hunting has been a generational thing. Back when I was 10 or 11 my father and grandfather took me to the woods for the first time to tag along with hunting, and watch and observe and participate from a guiding standpoint.”

Whitehill started as a young kid in the woods, learning the way of deer hunting. Then he started the process of actually hunting. “I got my hunter safety and through my teenage years I started hunting on my own,” Whitehill said.

Hunting started as a way to put food on the table and provide for the family. As time as progressed hunting has become more of a sport and less of a means for survival. However, hunters still do use the meat harvested in the season to put food on the table.

Whitehill said, “We started back, just collecting meat for the family and doing it as shared time together experience.” The Whitehill clan uses the deer hunting season to really connect and bond with each other.

So do the Cowleys as sophomore Zach Cowley said, “It’s a family tradition and we’ve always done it.”

Their are a lot of different ways to deer hunt with a firearm. In the northern part of Minnesota it is a rifle zone, because their are fewer houses and a rifle’s bullet will travel way farther than a shotguns. Shotgun is in the southern part of the state, people use slugs which are shotgun bullets, but don’t disperse like the ones hunters use for bird hunting. The different ways to actually hunt is either sitting, or doing deer drives. Many people use different ways to sit and most importantly conceal themselves from the deer and weather. A portable stand is about 8-12 feet tall and can be moved to any tree. A box stand is permeant and boxed in so hunters are very well concealed. Most box stands are elevated so the hunter still can look over a field, but not very high only about five feet. Some people make their own variation of a stand, making a treehouse like stand. Also hunters can use a blind, which does the same thing was a box stand, just on the ground and its portable.

Cowley said, “I have a stand, we have our own property land and we have box stands on it.” Some hunters sit two hours in the morning two hours at night, some all day. Cowley said he sits, “We get up early at about five o’clock and then go for about seven hours for a day.”

People also instead of sitting in a tree do a deer drive, which is a little more difficult. People line up just outside of where you think deer are laying sideways, in a line about five feet apart all facing the same way. Then people walk through the area to scare the deer out to the standers.

A deer drive can be a very effective way to hunt, the problems are you don’t get a shot at a deer not at a full sprint, which is up to 47 mph. Also its not very safe, because the standers can’t see the people making the drive. Whitehill who said, “I’m much closer to 50 than 30 these days.” Whitehall added, “I prefer sitting, but my young kids they don’t like so sit they are more anxious.”

Deer hunting really brings families and close friends together for a few weekends every year in the state of Minnesota. Its a tradition that’s been passed down from generation to generation.

Whitehill’s favorite memory started two years ago. “Recently two years ago, I started bringing my boys and again we had three Whitehills in the woods, those are my favorite memories, just hanging with the family.” said Whitehill