No, seriously. I was watching a video of a guy in the midwest somewhere and he stopped a mature buck 3 different times with his mouth and the deer stops all 3 times giving him a broadside shot.. he was also moving a lot in the tree to get better position..I know for a fact that would happen here..The does here truly walk around paranoid and look up the trees constantly. Bucks, mature ones rarely move in daylight. Now, understand that I hunt on land that deer dogs are used from mid november-first week of Jan so they are psychotic anyways...and then of course, from Jan -Sept dogs "get out of the pen" and run the piss out of them...But I am curious, hunting out in the midwest or north are deer more tolerable of such things? Exclude PA, those northern rednecks hunt hard and Im sure those deer are educated..
I've said for years it depends on what they are exposed to. So no they are not stupid. They also have varying " personalities" as it were. You described the deer here at home once season opens. Before that I can walk past them and they just watch me. Yesterday I stood still after spooking a bunch, to have a doe and two fawn walk to within 5 yrds of me. Then they turned and fed under one of my oak stands 15 yrds away. Still when I continued walking they trotted off maybe 50 yrds. Now down at camp they are not use to people. You slow a car down and they are in the valley before you can blink. They tolerate very little. Though a rut crazed buck is the dumbest critter in the woods.
I can tell you this..a mature doe with her fawns down here is a true challenge.. They will pick u off and blow the woods out!
Here as well but during season when everyone , his brother, uncle and grandfather are out sneaking around in the woods. I'm in our woods daily these resident deer know my smell and are use to my movement. One reason I don't want to be in the woods when the buck are dispersing and moving in. The doe will tolerate some scent and even movement early season, new bucks won't. So I like when the doe don't alert the buck. . Now this is ground level only once in the air all bets are off and they are sirens. They sure know the trees don't normally have huge lumps hanging off the side of them.
The deer in the woods I hunt are as spooky as deer get! Public land is like that. There's none of that watching you from a distance stuff with these deer. Once you're spotted they are history, at least for a time. They are hip to the tree stand thing too, and look up accordingly.
I wouldn't say the deer are stupid, but I have gotten away with a few slip ups. My first mature buck with a bow came in to literally 7 yards, almost stand high, but had a small branch in the way so kept holding. He looked at me, tensed up, blew and took a couple bounds away. Stopped again and I drilled him at about 19yds. Hindsight, I should have shot when he was at 7 yds, I think I was scared/nervous and just froze when I watch ths video now I've had mature does peg me in the tree for no apparemt reason, head bob and all then start browsing, even had them come to the base of the stand eat some browse from the shrubs. I've never audibly stopped one that I didn't shoot though amd doubt I could ever get one to stop 3 times in a row.
I agree with the above mentioned points. Every deer herd is a little different. The more you can control year round on the ground you hunt, the better opportunities you will get. Private Ag land with little human intrusion vs. pressured public tracts are 2 entirely different styles of hunting.
How about if it is during the rut. There are times when I feel you can get away with a bit more. Also, backyard feed buck seem to not care as much. They are not tame but, have a different level of snook threshold. The woods I hunt, like most...be quiet and don’t move or your busted. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
No comparison, deer in the NE and SE compared to the Midwest are different scale in regards to wariness. Not even close.
Will see this year hunting the farm how dumb they are, I banked on them being tame and dumb at the ranch, they act like that till you try to draw on them.
If deer were really dumb, we would have success rates of 100% each season. Bucks that carry 160+ antlers didn't get that big by being dumb. Interesting for the various experiences posted here.
My deer must be dumb how else can I explain killing them! J/K Only time deer are dumb is during the rut IMO. In my area it seems that pressured deer are on high alert all the time and un-pressured deer a little bit less.
I get the whole lack of caution in the rut, but to stop a buck that age 3 times in 15 seconds? Just wouldn't happen here. Plus moving in the tree...I think it's just a matter of little to no pressure.
The deer on public land that I hunt are smart. They look up in trees, if they see you or smell you, they are gone, blowing and letting the whole woods know that there is an idiot up in a tree again.
I have pics of other day. I loc my phone so had a hard time getting it unlocked and set to take pics un detected. Blurry but one walking away, see white tail on far rt., And under my oak stand eating.
In my area of Ohio, they only stand still if your about to hit them on the harley In the stand, they run if a leaf falls too close
Now I have hunted stupid deer. I used to have a 1500 ac farm in the mountains that I would go to every year first week of bow season...tghey were stupid is as stupid does....
Anyone who has read any of my posts about hunting Kentucky farmland deer knows I've said they're stupid. When I say they're stupid, it's just a joke. Sort of. They are just totally uneducated. Oh, they will still blow and run off if they catch my scent at all, but at the same time I've seen them do some things I thought was insanely stupid. My best example is this one: Quite a few years go I was hunting with my muzzleloader in the T woods there in Kentucky. Four does came out of the woods about 100 yards away. I knew they would feed my way in the picked corn field so I waited until they got to 40 yards. The lead doe turned and gave me a shot and I hammered her with a magnum charge of 150 grains of powder. That gun roared. She jumped up, kicked and sprinted a big circle to the wood edge and crashed. All three of the other does at 40 yards just stood there and watched all of this happen, then they kept on feeding. It was like they were thinking "Hmmm, what got into her?" I managed to reload my TC Encore with three does within 40 yards and was about to take the second biggest one when an 8 point came out of the woods right by the dead doe and then walked right to me. He died 5 minutes later. Those does were still in the field when I got down.
