Suffering, like many local hunters, the end of the Massachusetts deer season, I eagerly accepted a recent invitation to hunt across the pond in England. I discovered there are many surprising differences between hunting England and New England.

From the start, one notices their different clothing. I never thought I’d stick out wearing camouflage. Plain browns and greens predominate in Great Britain. Flat wool hats, ties and wellies (boots) are the norm. Occasionally, one sees waterproof, windproof, oiled leather pants from Germany. But those are only surface differences. There is a different hunting mentality that pervades deeply even into their society and vocabulary.

I came to hunt deer, but was quickly informed that we would not be “hunting.” Properly speaking, using a rifle, we would be “stalking” deer. Hunting in England is a term precisely reserved only for the pursuit — preferably on horseback — of game like foxes, stags, boar or hares with hounds. “Shooting” strictly refers to bird hunting. “Wildfowling” is the pursuit of ducks and geese on the coast. I was, for the first time, introduced as an American deer stalker.

Brits, like good friend and deer authority Kevin Downer, with whom I hunted/stalked, are amused by American hunting laws. In England, we used his low-recoil, flat-shooting .243 rifle with a suppressor (silencer). What a pleasure to eliminate ear-damaging percussion. In England, the environmental and health benefits of less shooting-noise disturbance to others and the prevention of costly hearing damage to thousands of shooters far outweigh concerns for a degree of concealment that a silencer might afford a poacher.

Because there is no public hunting land, Brits have no fish and game department. There are no game wardens, either — just private game keepers. Police may be called in to sort out particularly serious problems. Armed trespass on private property is considered an egregious offense, with prison as a consequence. For safety, stored firearms must be locked in a cabinet that is checked by police.

Philosophically and practically, the public does not own the country’s game; the private landowner does. There is no limit on harvest numbers, except what he might impose. With no public land for hunting, their tradition is exclusive, much the domain of an elite and moneyed society with class distinction.

What rules there are — like a specific season — are determined by The British Deer Society and enumerated in the country’s Deer Act. Deer guns must be a minimum 6 mm or .243 caliber.

Shotguns are surprisingly prohibited for deer hunting because most red stags, fallow and roe deer are taken in fields at considerable distances, generally beyond the effective range of shotguns. Night hunting and the use of spotlights are prohibited, too. Sunday hunting, though, always has been a long-accepted tradition.

Being accompanied by a licensed “stalker” and using his gun, I needed no license. One can also borrow a shotgun for bird or clay pigeon shooting without holding a shot gun certificate, but only from the owner of the land on which you’re hunting. Bringing my own gun to the U.K. would have proven a nightmare of navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth.

To get their license, British stalkers first must provide written permission to hunt specific private lands, along with a physician’s letter basically confirming they’re not crazy. Deer stalkers must also pass a shooting competency test.

From a prone position, they must put three consecutive shots in a target at 100 yards, and three more shots taken freehand, or on sticks at 50 yards. But shotgunners have no accuracy tests to pass. The five-year certification fee for possessing a rifle or shotgun is 30 pounds (about $50).

Despite being the home of the legendary Robin Hood, the U.K. prohibits bowhunting. When the 1956 Deer Act laws came out, then-current equipment was deemed inadequate for accurate and humane kills. Bows were also thought of as silent, potential poaching tools on private properties.

Considering the fear of poaching by big landowners, the predominance of typically long-range field shooting conditions, and an absence of both the traditional and British bow production, there is neither sporting nor commercial motivation to jump-start bowhunting in the foreseeable future.

All side arms are totally banned, too. Even police — except for special forces — are prohibited from carrying them.

The greatest difference between our two traditions, the one we Americans should be very thankful for and staunchly protective of, is the privilege of having a wealth of public lands on which we all, regardless of our bloodlines or wealth, can legally hunt.