 Also, as with hunting, deer stalking has long been considered a sport.Stalked deer are commonly shot with a high powered bow (in countries other than the UK; in the UK it is illegal to hunt any animal with a bow) or centre-fire rifle; prior to the invention of the modern rifle deer were stalked with the aid of a sighthound, such as the Scottish Deerhound.Stalking sticks are often used to steady the aim of the rifle and to steady the binoculars when scanning the ground.