The Urban Deerslayer

NO TROPHY, NO DINNER Nick Chaset helped found a hunting society for urban neophytes. He shot the deer above in Virginia.
(Michael Temchine for The New York Times)
SEAN PATRICK FARRELL, The New York Times
Published November 25, 2009

THE call to forge deeper connections with the food we eat has pulled thousands to the nation’s farmers’ markets, sprouted a million backyard seedlings and jump-started an interest in scratch baking, canning and other county-fair pursuits.

Now add hunting to the list. Novice urban hunters are forming classes and clubs to learn skills that a few generations ago were often passed down from parent to child.

Jackson Landers, an insurance broker by day, teaches a course here called Deer Hunting for Locavores. Mr. Landers, 31, started the classes earlier this year for largely urban adults who, like him, did not grow up stalking prey but have gravitated to harvesting and cooking their own game.