Buck Fever

The Deer Hunting Tradition in Pennsylvania

Mike Sajna

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9780822971443
• Year: 2010

Every fall close to one million hunters enter Pennsylvania's forests and mountains in quest of the white-tailed deer. Some are seeking sport and companionship; others are stocking their larders for winter; many are conservationists who regard hunting as the most humane way of reducing overpopulated deer herds. They all face the increasing activism of animal rights advocates who are opposed to hunting in principle and who frequently picket and harass hunters. This controversial subject is explored in depth by Mike Sajna, the outdoors columnist for Pittsburgh Magazine and a twenty-year veteran of Pennsylvania's "pumpkin army," the orange-clad throng that invades the woods every season. To explain the ethos and traditions of hunting he takes the reader to a typical deer camp in Warren County, in the rugged terrain of the Allegheny High Plateau. Starting with the trek north from their homes around Pittsburgh, he captures the sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings of three generations of hunters. With humor, affection, and insight he recounts the hunting lore, the camaraderie, the physical testing that make deer camp a unique experience.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• Preface
• I. Winter Memories
• II. North Country Trails
• III. Of Mountains, Deer, and Lenape
• IV. Pumpkin Army
• V. To Sell the Sky
• VI. Big Bucks, Falling Pants, and Carbohydrates
• VII. Recoil
• VIII. Buck Fever
• IX. Leathers tockings
• X. Counting Coup
• XI. Bearded Bards of Long Ago
• XII. Fate of the Forest
• XIII. The Weight of Success
• XIV. Monarchs of the Woods
• XV. Sparring
• XVI. Computer Model
• XVII. The Last Bite
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index