Do deer know when it's hunting season?

I've had this conversation several times and I want some different opinions. Do y'all think deer know when or around the time hunting season is? I personally think it depends on hunting pressure in the particular area.

 

They know when the pressure increases.

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They figure it out pretty quick early opening day.

 

as soon as everyone hits the woods they know we are in there

 

Some places yes, others no. It's all on the general hunting population.

Deer by our cabin in WI know when it's rifle season!

 

I don't know about deer but geese sure do. Last several years I would scout early season geese for a week straight in the same field. Opening morning, not a one.

 

Yes they do.

 

Mature deer do! It doesn't help that in MN the small game season opens the same day as bow season. Sounds like a war is going on in state land. I'm not kidding. All day. Glad i'm not a squirrel that day.

 

They are 100% a survival minded animal. That causes them to react to any trigger or detection of predators. Obviously come hunting season their triggers get alerted far more often, resulting in some conditioning occurring as to how they move and interact with the habitat they live in. However, that said they still don't have the ability to analyze and create a plan of attack. They're driven by primitive instincts where survival (food, water, pro-creation are the three players after just surviving) drive their steps not logical thinking, although at times mature deer make you question whether they have a whiteboard, wind gauge and the weather channel streaming into their beds. If they had the logical cognitive ability to analyze data and plan based on we'd never kill one...we simply have to utilize the fact we can do that, and they are simply reactive creatures. Granted the more mature they get the more sensitive and reactive they become, and the less prone they are to mistakes like tailwinding, not scent checking their beds before approaching, circling a suspicious decoy and so on and on.

 

No. But, if they are pressured, they will change their patterns. How much pressure that takes depends on the area and the deer.

 

Absolutely.

 

If someone or something came around and tried to kill you the same time every year, I think you'd know it, lol! Seriously, they must become conditioned to the same pattern year after year. Stimulus and response.

 

This is a serious question? Yeah, they mark it on their calendars.... just like us.... they check the rules, regs, and dates....

 

i think so cause ive seen them run and hide on opening morning.hahahaha

 

Go scout your areas ahead of time. You'll see lots of deer. Come the season they disappear. I think they all take a vacation together.

 

This coincides with someone saying that they don't see deer anymore..... yet you ask them how much they go out, and they answer: "a lot". You then ask how long, they reply: "like a half hour before sunrise and stay in the stand for a half hour or hour, and then at half hour before sunset..... because that's the only time they are out, because they bed all day....." riiiiiight.........says Doctor Evil

 

it seems like they do. is it just like how deer learned to look up into trees for hunters? they learned how to do that right? LOL
I think it has to do with an abundance of abnormal scents being broadcasted into the woods all at once. depending on the hunting pressure. deer in my woods could careless about my scent. public land though...different story. happens every year when the leaves start to fall... they know its time to get out!!

 

I think most, including us hunter, grossly underestimate a whitetails nose. The nearing season and season start means increased human activity in areas we seldom go. The scent we leave behind lasts for days and deer react accordingly.

 

I also swear that the "scent blocker spray" has a scent that deer relate to hunters....

 

That's how I feel about the earth scent I love the smell, but I am always hesitant to buy it