The real reason some hunters don't see deer

I likely see more deer than average but it is not because I am a better hunter. It's not that I sit longer, or have better food plots. Fact is that I have become lazy.... because I can still see deer being lazy. If I did not see any then I would have to get more serious. The reason i see what I do is less pressure. I once took on a guy to pay half the lease. He was young and had never hunted a good place. He actually hunted 6 out of 7 days the entire season. That year, i could hardly see a deer. LOL, the neighbor complained about him hurting hunting by hunting so much.

Triple C said:

I'm 0 for 5 with recurve this year. Confidence is waning. But...I'll be chasing em again this weekend. Switched to single bevel broadheads on advice of more experienced trad guys and haven't hit one since the switch.

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I played that game for the last several years. I can no longer pull the recurve back due to my elbow. One thing about it, your property becomes huge. Hunting with a rifle, a cutover gets small. LOl, a recurve makes my land feel like Texas.

If a really big buck represents about 5 or 10% of the buck population and half or less of the deer are bucks then only about 5% at most are really big deer.

If you are shooting the other 95% every time you see one walk in front of you then you've automatically eliminated your shot at ever killing a big deer 9 out of 10 times at best.

They aren't completely stupid. IF they see 5 dinks get creamed when they step "out there" then pretty soon NO ONE is going to step out there.

I'm a firm believer the big ones don't get big by doing what every one else is doing.

This year I still have meat from last year to the point I don't even have room in the freezer so I don't plan to shoot any "meat". I'm looking for antlers that make it worth making room for the meat or sharing it so I'm doing some things differently than I have before. Last year I had a couple bucks and some does wake me up in the middle of the day making so much racket I was positive someone had seen me sleeping and were playing games to pass the middle of the day slack time. It went on so long and was so obvious I started going along playing every call and horn rattle in my own trick back. I was so fed up after an hour or so I was about to just pretend I could see them and yell out to get lost, "I see ya, I know you joker..." I almost missed the shot I was so convince that it was other hunters jerking my chain when all of a sudden a couple bleating does dived down the brush covered hill side I'd been desperately trying to pick out some blaze orange from. My jaw was still gaping wide open when a pretty darn nice buck was grunting like a hog every leap of the way down and just stopped long enough to gather up for a jump at the fence when I got my senses enough to get the gun and shoot.

This year I'm working that scenario heavily. Over and over, never staying in one tree more than a couple hours at most and moving the "set" to another completely different area where I've seen big horns the last month or so, or at least signs of big horn.

I'm using a LOT of scent, two flavors. Two pads of Tinks, two pads of Code Red. Set out at the best shot I've got, usually an intersection of at least two trails with the stand 25 - 50 yards as best I can figure down wind from. With a leaf tree or cedar behind me to break up the out line from that one main shot. I've started carrying a turkey feather on a string and hang it from a limb 2-3 feet off the ground, prefer it to be in little bushy cover or something to blend in with if it stops moving. I figure at worst, it shouldn't spook any body and it gives them something to look at besides me. At best it flashes a little white like a tail or ear would look from 50 - 100 yards away. If they are looking for something they are smelling or hearing, they are going to expect some moving and better this feather than catching me taking a drink or scratching something or rattling. IF they see me move a little from 200 yards away they won't spook from it and as they get closer I figure they'll just shift to the feather just like humans would.

This is the first year I've put a full effort in to this theory but I've used an arrow stuck in the ground to stop deer in a trail where I wanted to shoot before. Any thing new but none threatening, I've seen them pull up to a dead stop like it was a snake and stare at it before they walk closer and sniff it.

Wish I had a big dead one by now to go with the story but not yet. May be not at all, but if I ever had a year to bet on it, this be it.

So too much calling, too much gimmicky scent products, rattling, moving, won't sit long, and not gonna get up at the crack of dawn every day just hunt when I darn well feel like it, never put much faith in any of that before. Never used any of it very much before, but all of that is my main plan this year.

#10 - You are color blind.

I have hunted since I was very young (51 yo now) and although I have been successful on and off throughout the years I have always been at a disadvantage because of my color blindness.

Ever since I was a kid I can remember my folks or brother and sister on a road trip and say "see the deer over there" ..... I was always the one that could never see them unless they were moving.

To this day still, every deer I have ever killed has been on the move. I have never been able to seperate a deer out of the rest of the woods when it is sitting still.

No telling how many deer have been off in the distance that never made it in close enough for me to see the movement. I am fairly certain that there have been some nice bucks that avoided me quite easily.

color-blind-test

Some folks don't even know they are color blind.

Just my two cents.

The main key is hunt where they are deer if you have lots of deer pretty much anyone can kill one. The less deer you have the more skills needed. If you have no deer I do not care who you are you will not kill one. (same goes for a big buck)Just facts!

I hunt way more than most and have proof of deer I kill and I am very selective. I do know I have a lot less deer than I use to. Most people are limited to the land they hunt and can't just wonder off on other peoples land. So you have to take advantage of what you have. Sometimes people don't have the same opportunity as others and you can't compare a person hunting with 35 deer per sq. mile as one with 10 deer per sq. mile. Just another fact!

Maybe some of the great hunters on here and I pretty much can name them would donate some of their time to help some of the less fortunate. Honestly can I tell you anything about the way you hunt without going to your property and observing. Not really!

I promise you if you have a deer and tell me he stays on my property but I can't kill him. You say I give up call me and let me kill him.

excellent

lets see.....I have a club full of hunters who want to build a food plot in a log landing on a road that traverses threw the club will regular truck traffic and place a 15' buddy stand in the wide open without any cover and expect deer to walk out in it with no regard and stand still long enough to kill a 170" booner ....

I think I covered it....oh yes...they drive their 4 wheeler all the way to the stand as well.....cannot omit that.

s&r

madisoncounty said:

#10 - You are color blind.

I have hunted since I was very young (51 yo now) and although I have been successful on and off throughout the years I have always been at a disadvantage because of my color blindness.

Ever since I was a kid I can remember my folks or brother and sister on a road trip and say "see the deer over there" ..... I was always the one that could never see them unless they were moving.

To this day still, every deer I have ever killed has been on the move. I have never been able to seperate a deer out of the rest of the woods when it is sitting still.

No telling how many deer have been off in the distance that never made it in close enough for me to see the movement. I am fairly certain that there have been some nice bucks that avoided me quite easily.

color-blind-test

Some folks don't even know they are color blind.

Just my two cents.

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I can't see them unless they're moving either or if they're out in the open. But I'm not color blind, they're just hard to see.

A blind man could kill a deer before a deaf one.

Jack Ryan said:

A blind man could kill a deer before a deaf one.

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Hahaha!

Must be the reason that to be Infantry or a Sniper in the military you are required to have perfect hearing. Oh ..... wait a minute ....

Other Requirements for Award of MOS 11B:

(1) Color discrimination of red/green.

(2) Correctable vision of 20/20 in one eye; 20/100 in other eye.

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Most people don't even have a clue what color blindness really is like. They think a person that is affected can't tell the difference between Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams.

Gee. I've been hunting all these years and never knew I didn't know how to hunt. I'm glad someone came along to school me.

Why would anybody care how somebody else hurts as long as they're getting out of it what they want..... As long as it is legal

madisoncounty said:

Hahaha!

Must be the reason that to be Infantry or a Sniper in the military you are required to have perfect hearing. Oh ..... wait a minute ....

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Meh, I took the quote directly from a deaf guy quite a few decades ago. I just took his word for it but I've thought it over a lot while I was sitting in a tree a lot over the years.

For myself, how, and where I hunt, I think it holds water. My set ups are ALL for archery shots regardless what weapon I'm using.

madisoncounty said:

Most people don't even have a clue what color blindness really is like. They think a person that is affected can't tell the difference between Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams.

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That ones easy. Robin Williams is dead.

Hunting over corn all the time.
Playing on that dang phone I'm very guilty of this.

Off season scouting and the ability to read deer sign have been key in my success bowhunting public land. Just this past season I saw 63 does and 3 bucks in three sits during opening weekend on a very heavily hunted WMA opening weekend, before Irma hit.

All of those deer were found in January-March.

Looking at my phone cost me a stud 8pt mid October, now I hardly ever look at it. Scouting also found him...

If you're tired of not seeing deer, try walking the woods with your dog/buddies in the off season.

"The real reason some hunters don't see deer"

The spot light they are using is not powerful enough???

To drunk to see the deer much less shoot it???

The truck has a bad exhaust leak so they deer hear you coming???

Sitting on the couch looking out the window but can't see the deer due to the windows have never been washed???

I could go on .........

Almost a year later and........

Nicodemus said:

I try not to let whatever game I`m hunting know that it`s being hunted. I have right good luck using that method.

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elfiii said:

Almost a year later and........

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From following his FB posts and seeing the pics of the monsters he's let walk the last week or so I'm not convinced Nicodemus even knows he's there.

elfiii said:

Almost a year later and........

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It still works.

Miguel Cervantes said:

From following his FB posts and seeing the pics of the monsters he's let walk the last week or so I'm not convinced Nicodemus even knows he's there.

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I`m waitin` on a real big buck. I`ll get my does for the freezer on in December.

I am kinda-sorta regretting not killing that one yesterday morning.


Edit....I just found out that sometime between day before yesterday morning when I saw him and last night, he got in a fight and lost part of his left main beam and broke a point off.

I Phones have really helped our deer population.