I'm at the beginning of my first winter, and I received a quest from Sven to hunt some deer for him. He says there are deer to hunt in the woods to the north of the Whistling Fields. 

Everywhere I've tried to go north from the Whistling Fields says that area hasn't been implemented yet. Also, what am I supposed to hunt with? I don't have any weapons. Do I jump on them? Whack them with my axe or shovel?

Anyone have tips for this quest?

Sorry about that, seems you’re a victim of the quests I added. I think there are only 2 that you can obtain and not complete right now. That hunting quest is one of them. The other involves Brock who doesn’t exist yet. So, hunting is not in the game yet. It’s planned as one of the larger systems in the game. Technically, it was supposed to come after archeology (which I’m working on now) but I think alchemy might get pushed ahead of hunting since so much relies on it.

TLDR, hunting isn’t in the game yet. Also I’ve added to my list of things to put a marker on that quest to explain hunting isn’t implemented yet.