
    HIGH-TECH HUNTING  by  Bill Clede

    OUTDOOR LIFE feature article December, 1989 
      
    "Let your computer take a 'byte' out of deer hunting preparation.
     The Deer Expert System may just be the planning tool you need to
     bridge the gap between you and your whitetail."
     
        Deer hunters need to match their hunting techniques to the 
     conditions they face.  Hunting pressure, terrain and  weather can 
     all influence animals' behavior.  And even if you've hunted an area
     before, it's helpful to know how the experts would do it.
     
        Your computer can now give you this expert advice.  It's easy
     and fairly inexpensive. 
     
        I keep in touch with sportsmen of all outdoor persuasions on 
     Compuserve's Outdoor Forum.  CompuServe Information Service is a
     data network that offers access to research databases, electronic
     mail, special interest forums and many other useful services.
     Outdoor Forum is open to all who subscribe to the service.
     
        Looking through the Forum's library one day, I found a file called
     DEERHU.EXE.  Curious, I loaded it into my computer and found the
     wisdom of hundreds of hunting experts.  
      
        The Deer Expert System is a planning tool, based on the author's
     study and research into whitetail deer behavior that is compiled
     with the advice of deer hunting experts.  It covers the type of 
     hunting found in the Midwestern and Eastern portions of the U.S.
     as well as Eastern Canada.
     
        The program first asks you questions about the conditions and 
     circumstances of your planned hunt, compares your responses with
     its database of deer hunting logic and reports back with the method
     most likely to succeed under those conditions.  The program's
     author, Chester Ceille, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said that his 1988
     deer hunting party took three deer out of six tags available, 
     because Ceille chose not to take a doe and another hunter missed 
     his shot.  In 1987, they took five deer on six tags in two days.
     
       "I think the program can help people enjoy the hunt more and help
     them to be more successful and safe," Ceille says.  "My own 
     experience is that the better you plan the hunt, the more safety
     conditions come to mind and the better prepared you are for 
     varying conditions."  
     
        The program consists of a methods list and a variables list from
     which the hunter can select the conditions and circumstances under
     which he thinks he'll hunt.
     
        The methods list includes stand, tree stand, drive, stillhunt,
     tracking, and rattling.  Variables include time of day, opening
     day or not, snow or rain falling, type of terrain and ground cover,
     if the rut is on, temperature, number in party, and if you can
     find your way in the woods.
     
        As an example, I used the time my late father-in-law and I went
     hunting in the northern Maine woods.
     
       If I responded that we were only two in the party, after opening
     day, in hilly and wooded terrain and with light snow on the ground,
     the program told me that tracking would be the best method to use.
     If I said that there were more than two in our party, with similar
     terrain and weather conditions, on opening day, the program 
     suggested stand hunting.  
     
       Sounds logical.
       
       Now for the fun part.  You need an IBM-compatible computer, modem
     and communications software to telecommunicate.  If you're not on
     CompuServe, get a start-up kit from your local dealer.  It will 
     explain how to subscribe to the network.   [see NAMES log in Hunting
     Log section of this program for an 800 number to call to get the
     start-up kit]
       
       Once your set up, at any system prompt type "Go Outdoors" and 
     join the Forum.  Then leave a message to "All" to let us know you
     arrived.  You can find the program DEERHU.EXE on file in library 6.
     Once you get it into your computer and type DEERHU the program
     unpacks itself into program files and a document file.
     
       The Deer Expert System is "shareware," or programs that are posted
     in bulletin board style on the Forum menu.  If you like it the
     author asks for a one-time $20 registration fee.  And there's good
     reason to do this.  When you register, you receive version 3, which
     upgrades the program's technical level by adding more conditions
     to distinguish the large whitetail buck's environment from that
     of other deer.  A new question asks, "After Big Bucks?"  A "yes"
     answer will branch to a logic base specific to big deer.  A "no"
     answer will go to the present base.
     
       "Under some conditions, big bucks are more wary than small bucks.
     You have to look for trophies in secluded, wooded, high-country
     areas," Ceille said.
     
       If you send in $28, you automatically get version 4 when it comes
     out.  It will include version 3 plus tie-ins to safety precautions
     you should take on your hunt.  For the "drive" method, it will 
     remind you about particular concerns for this method and details
     on equipment.
     
       "I plan to elaborate on the menu and perhaps add one or two other
     new sections," Ceille adds.  "They might be on deer scents, scouting,
     tracking, cleaning the deer- this would be information added 
     primarily to stimulate the planning of the hunt."
     
       "If you would like more information about the Deer Expert System or
     how to receive Outdoor Forum, contact Chester Ceille at 
     Strat-Tech, Inc., Box 1957, Milwaukee, WI  53201 (414-271-0980).
     [800-783-9544 - toll free]    
                      
       The program now in the forum library is an improvement over the
     first one I used.
     
       "We include some technical niceties.  We now have a color display
     and printing of results,"  Ceille says.  "And we changed the data-
     base to improve some of the conditions as a result of situations
     pointed out to us by users of the program."
     
       Many's the time on hunting trips that I've chatted with locals
     to learn the techniques they use.  It's nice to be able to ask
     so many experts all at once.                                   
     
     
     Reprinted with permission of Clare Conley - Editor in Chief -
       Outdoor Life and Bill Clede.
       
     [] comments added to original article  