The mid December sun was brighter than it was warm. I was feeling pretty invisible in my snow camo and the three does moving up the hemlock dotted hill toward me were oblivious to my crouched position. They moved nervously, turning frequently to scan their back trail. It was not the kind of nervousness you'd expect if they were winding another hunter or had a coyote working the hillside below them. They were browsing the berry whips and running pine and seemed more anxious than alarmed. Then it happened; they hit my boot trail where I had come up through less than an hour before.

"How many times in all of my deer hunting years had I witnessed this exact scenario?"

The three of them stopped as if they had come up against an invisible wall. Nose to the ground, then straight up in the air; again they glanced their back trail. At 30 yards I could see the steam coming off their nostrils as they stood for a moment not willing to cross my track but still mindful that something yet unseen followed. They turned to the left and skittered out of sight. I continued to sit and listen. The deer had not run and I could still hear them browsing.

"One or more of those does is hot and there is a buck on their trail" I thought to myself. But I no longer was in a position for an ambush. In fact, if I was correct the buck would get to the does and never come into view of my stand. I had to move. Slowly, I raised myself up still leaning against the tree. Now standing, I still could not see over into the saddle where the does had wandered. I needed to move at least 10 yards in that direction to peer over the top. I started to slowly, quietly creep forward. As I reached the slightly higher ground, I peered intently into the draw ahead of me trying to detect movement or color any hint of the deer that I was sure were somewhere right in front of me.

"Have you ever had a deer blow so loud and so close to you that you nearly lose your composure?"

Three tails went up right in front of me but I was instantly aware that the sound had not come from any of those deer. I heard the crashing as the big animal tore down the hill out of my sight even before I could get a good look at him.

The tracks indicated a mature animal.

"Busted again…"

Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time at it, I don't consider myself a really good whitetail hunter either that or the deer that I hunt are just better at the game then I am. I know a lot of good deer hunters though, but recently I have been pondering the idea that a good New England whitetail hunter may not be a good Midwestern whitetail hunter. Having the skill to track down a backwoods Maine buck does not necessarily translate to success in Saskatchewan or South Texas.

Why? Well, to my way of thinking there are several compelling reasons that support this theory. First on the list, would be the recognition that whitetail deer are not all the same, literally. The genus for most whitetails is odocoileus virginianus but within this species there are 17 subspecies in North America alone and 21 more in central and South America. Second, most of these subspecies can further be defined by differences in their geographic locations. This in itself translates into widely varying types of behavior typically related to differing food sources and diversity in the topographical features of their home range. And, although buck/doe ratios, the rutting culture of different subspecies and other factors play a role, third on my list would be hunter attitude.

Treading lightly here, whitetails do not universally exhibit the same behaviors. While northeastern deer are stationary within their range western state's whitetails often are found in the same areas as mule deer and like their distant cousins they migrate to the valleys as snow builds into the mountains. Even on Anticosti Island the deer migrate in late fall to the southern shore area where the winter's wrath is often less severe. The Northeast has some very good whitetail hunters but chasing this continent's most elusive big game animal requires different hunting techniques. A first time elk hunter is going to be pre-disposed to following his guide's advice because he readily admits that he does not understand his quarry well. Yet, take a local deer hunter and put him in Kansas or Alabama or Illinois or western Canada and his level of confidence because he has been hunting whitetails his whole life may actually be a handicap.

The fact that this is a different quarry defined by different habitat and different genes seems to be lost on many whitetail hunters who travel. To believe you are hunting the same deer you have been chasing since you were old enough to pick up a rifle just because it's a whitetail may hamper more than help your odds for success.