Wind howled on top of the ridge. One by one we separated, first my old hunting pal Bill Anderson, then my wife, Jeri, each looking for a place that offered shelter from the wind.

Shelter even took precedence over the best place to watch for deer. I took the farthest stand where two draws on opposite sides of the ridge formed a saddle, or low area on the ridgetop.

Walking had kept me warm. On stand, the wind cut through my heavy parka. Soon I broke some of the low, dead limbs off a hemlock tree and built a small fire. That improved my attitude, if not my actual body temperature.

Gunshots were unusually scarce for the first day of deer season in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF). None were close. Deer were not moving on their own, and no one in my vicinity was moving enough to get deer moving. I pondered the notion of still hunting in a loop around my hunting partners in an attempt to push deer toward them. I have always preferred still hunting over stand hunting. But our plan had been to stand until noon, then meet for lunch. It was too early in the season to break from our game plan.

Hunting pressure on the ANF, like most public land in the East, is quite heavy. Most of the deer hunters harvest are pushed to them by other hunters. Generally, if stands are well chosen, it is the hunters with the most patience who get their bucks, and those who give up their stands soonest who do the pushing. On that frigid morning, I expected someone would start moving soon.

My stand was chosen because a saddle is a likely place for deer to cross a ridge when they are harried by hunters. Reading the topography is a useful element in hunting the rugged hills of the ANF. Trails used by deer to reach feeding areas often ignore the shape of the land. But when deer are trying to escape hunters, they use the terrain to hide their escape, and they tend to take the easiest routes. They cross ridges at the lowest points, and climb or descend ridges along the gentler slopes.

The first shots in my immediate area echoed about 10:00 A.M. My eyes focused in the direction of the shots. Minutes later, I heard the distinctive sound of deer hooves moving toward me, because the wind muffled the sound, only seconds before they came over the ridge into view. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven, all bald. They stopped in front of me and looked back. Then I heard another deer coming along the same trail. It was a buck, but just a spike. I had no desire to end the season so quickly with a spike.

The waiting game began again, but it would not be so long this time before more deer passed. As expected, the cold wind was doing me a favor, encouraging other hunters to move about. During the next hour, I counted 11 more deer -all bald.

The 20th deer I saw, a loner, was another matter. It was getting to be nearly time for me to head toward our lunchtime meeting place. A few inches of snow had accumulated on the ground, but the wind had subsided. I heard the deer moving several minutes before seeing it. The first part of it I saw was its antlers. Perhaps if it had been running I would have passed this buck also. But it was walking, giving me too much time to think. It was just a four-point, but a nice one. When it stopped broadside, barely 30 yards away, a 140-grain 7mm Nosler Partition bullet traveling about 3,000 f.p.s. filled my tag.

The ANF is not the place for trophy hunting, at least not in the record book sense. The odds of finding a big, old buck are slim. In close to 40 years of hunting the ANF, I have only killed two or three bucks that I figured were more than 1 ½ years old.

If your idea of a trophy is a top-end buck for the area you are hunting, any buck with eight or more points and a spread of 14 inches is a dandy in the ANF. It will probably be 2 ½ years old and weigh roughly 130 pounds after field dressing. A buck that scores more than 100 points by the B&C system is exceptional. It will probably be 3 ½ years old, and only a few in this class are taken from the ANF each year.

Deer are not evenly dispersed. They tend to be concentrated where food is most abundant. Scout for acorns, beech nuts and recently timbered areas. Beech nuts and white oak acorns are among the most highly preferred foods during fall. Productive apple orchards, many descended from those planted by Johnny Appleseed, will attract deer, especially during years when apples are scarce.

When pressured by hunters, deer, especially older bucks, often seek refuge in thick cover such as blow-downs, laurel thickets and other brushy areas. Many of the best bucks taken off the ANF during the past several years came from tornado blow-downs. Maps showing the locations of major tornado blow-downs are available from the ANF headquarters, in Warren. Hunt along the edges of refuge areas to catch deer coming in.

Hunting pressure is heavy on the ANF during the first couple days of the buck season and on Saturdays. Stand hunting is best when other hunters are in the woods to keep the deer moving. At other times, you can have the woods almost to yourself. Still hunting and driving work best while there are few other hunters to interfere with your plans. Antler rattling and grunting may also draw deer out of refuge areas.

Since few places exist where you can get more than a couple miles from roads, you cannot get lost if you carry, and know how to use, a compass. You can also get out of the woods by moving downstream. Topographic maps are available at several area sporting goods stores.

If you want good deer hunting in a big woods setting, and if you want an inexpensive hunt with more than half a million acres of public land, the ANF is one of the best deer hunts in the country. The ANF has an excellent deer population, with as many deer per square mile as any public land in the Northeast.

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