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