Cyber Deer is an interactive Hunter Education Software produced by The Quality Deer Management Association in partnership with BASS Pro Shops. Cyber Deer allows a computer user to “shoot” an anatomically accurate whitetail from any user-selected height, distance or angle, using bow or firearm settings, and then analyze the shot’s internal path through the deer. After “firing” the user’s shot-path is highlighted and remains on the screen while the user zooms in and rotates the deer to see the entry and exit path up close. Then the user can strip away layers, starting with the skin, to see how the shot-path affects the skeleton and internal organs of the deer. After stripping away the skin and skeleton, a user can then individually remove the stomach, diaphragm, liver, lungs and heart to study which organs were affected. Meanwhile, continue to rotate the image or zoom in and out for detailed analysis. Additionally, while the Cyber Deer program will allow you to take a shot from any angle you want to try, it will also tell you when a shot angle you have chosen is not advisable and less likely to be effective.
Veteran hunters will benefit from Cyber Deer, and it will also be a fantastic tool for anyone teaching others, adults and children alike, about ethical hunting and effective shot placement. Cyber Deer can easily be shared with groups by using a PowerPoint Projector.
This was the official definition of Cyber Deer. My take on it is, there should not be a Hunter Education class taught where Cyber Deer is not a part of that class. It is an invaluable tool to teach good shot placement and shot selection. I had fun playing with it myself.
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Start out with a normal looking deer.
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The deer with just the skin removed.
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The deer with the skin and all organs except the heart removed.
The fact that you can shoot at a normal looking deer and then strip away the skin and the rest of the layers and organs, to see exactly where your shot went thru the animal, is extremely important to show inexperienced hunters where they need to aim at an animal. And the ability to adjust the height of the hunter and angle of the deer makes it that much more realistic, teaching that you need to adjust your point of impact as the angle of the animal changes to hit the same organs with the shot.
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Aiming on a 29 yd shot from 21' up on a hard angle.
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Heart and lungs were both hit by the arrow.
For anyone teaching a Hunter Education class, I highly recommend looking into getting a copy of Cyber Deer. Not only is it very educational and helpful, it is a lot of fun and will really help to keep the kids interest on the class. It’s almost like a real life video game.
