Is scent and pressure really that big of a deal?

[oldfella1962]

I guess it just depends on how much activity is normal. In places that humans never go 9 months out of the year then all of a sudden show up, yes deer will change patterns, especially mature deer.

I totally agree. If deer are used to seeing humans then they don't fear them. Deer that live next to subdivisions are almost like outdoor pets. Also food is a strong motivator. If you use feeders then I imagine deer would be very tolerant of your scent & presence. But sure, if the only humans they observe are trying to hunt them, of course they are on edge.

For some reason every deer I've seen this year whether scouting or hunting didn't seem alarmed at all. None of them ran away at full speed or "blew the alarm". They just took a few jumps to get some distance then stood there. Some wouldn't even move - they just stared until I left or moved along at their leisure.

 

[leftystar]

I'm good for about 1 easy deer kill at each spot I have then they go in a gopher hole. I still get pictures but not near as many during the day. Now before I got my squirrel hounds & beagles and they cleaned up the pines for straw behind the house I had a spot I kept fed up. And I could walk up on deer almost everyday.

 

[Kujo]

Here's the best article (links to 4 different K9 smell test links) that I've found on scent.

https://www.fieldandstream.com/arti...l-products-and-practices-vs-a-drug-dog#page-2

To sum it up, rubber boots don't make any difference, scent elimination methods are a waste of time, cover scent is not and may buy you time, and ozone stuff works.

 

[IIICrkRepr]

We currently have a crew of palmetto berry pickers on our lease. 30 to 40 of them roaming around the woods for the last month. There is no doubt the pickers have changed the travel patterns of the deer herd. The bears have completely moved out. On cameras where I had steady activity prior to season, once the pickers came through it would take up to a week before they slowly start coming back. Nothing is back to normal yet.

 

[Kujo]

We currently have a crew of palmetto berry pickers on our lease. 30 to 40 of them roaming around the woods for the last month. There is no doubt the pickers have changed the travel patterns of the deer herd. The bears have completely moved out. On cameras where I had steady activity prior to season, once the pickers came through it would take up to a week before they slowly start coming back. Nothing is back to normal yet.

They'll come back:
https://www.qdma.com/logging-habitat-work-push-deer-away/

 

[HunterJoe24]

I agree with tree cutter 08. I live among my deer. They watch me come and go. If I am where they expect me to be doing what I normally do they pay little attention. If I am in the thick stuff in the creek bottom they pay lots of attention.

^^^There have been numerous studies proving this. So to say you don't know if you agree with it when someone shows you a study? Deer are also very curious, that's why they come around the area you've been when you leave. We are like skunks to them, you know when one's sprayed in the mountains, but you can tell a difference when it's in your backyard. They know when we go where we normally don't

 

[Chattooga River Hunter]

I guess it just depends on how much activity is normal. In places that humans never go 9 months out of the year then all of a sudden show up, yes deer will change patterns, especially mature deer.

Spot on.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Yep, it's things that are different than what they are used to that make deer uneasy. In general, they are not nearly as supernatural-acting as some hunters make them out to be, though. These are the same animals that walk right out in front of cars on busy highways by the hundreds of thousands every year. I shot a buck last Saturday, and had a nice eight-pointer walk up five minutes later looking around like the rifle shot made him curious and attracted him. I've had this happen countless times.

 

[spurrs and racks]

there was an old owl

who sat in an oak.....the more he heard... the less he spoke.....the less he spoke ....the more he heard....wasn't that a wise old bird.

Old mature bucks did not get that way by doing dumb stuff. So, I guess that depends on what you intend to kill.

Young dumb stupid deer, or old and wise mature bucks.

I promise you a mature buck knows anything around him out of place, and he uses all of his resources to help himself on those facts.

scent, noise.....anything and everything.... I told a group one time "best thing that ever happened to trophy buck hunting was the atv 4-wheeler.....that's why I don't use one....I walk....as quietly as possible....everywhere.

s&r

 

[NCHillbilly]

One of the biggest bucks I ever saw walked out into the middle of a field about 10:30 one morning while three of us who had just come down from our stands were standing there leaned up against a truck talking about 50 -60 yards away. One of my buddies picked up his rifle and shot it.

 

[coltc]

It depends on what the deer are conditioned to.
Example, for years on one of my feed troughs, I slap it with my hand 5 or six times (loud) after I fill it up. Within 5 minutes I'll have deer on my camera eating out of it. They've been conditioned that it's feeding time.
We have a couple of house dogs and they know where everything is in the house. If you bring something different in and put it up somewhere, they will notice it immediately. It's something new. Deer are the same way. If anything is different, they will notice it it in the same way because it's something different in their living room.
I work on the hunting land year round and the deer have become accustomed to me out there and my scent. If I take someone with me to help out, at some point I will usually hear deer start blowing. It's probably because his scent is different than mine and they aren't use to it.
There are many variables in why animals act and react the way they do.

 

[elfiii]

I agree with tree cutter 08. I live among my deer. They watch me come and go. If I am where they expect me to be doing what I normally do they pay little attention. If I am in the thick stuff in the creek bottom they pay lots of attention.

Yep. If they are used to you they won't pay you any nevermind. You're just part of the scenery. If they aren't used to you, you are a major problem when you show up.

 

[Possum]

who sat in an oak.....the more he heard... the less he spoke.....the less he spoke ....the more he heard....wasn't that a wise old bird.

Old mature bucks did not get that way by doing dumb stuff. So, I guess that depends on what you intend to kill.

Young dumb stupid deer, or old and wise mature bucks.

I promise you a mature buck knows anything around him out of place, and he uses all of his resources to help himself on those facts.

scent, noise.....anything and everything.... I told a group one time "best thing that ever happened to trophy buck hunting was the atv 4-wheeler.....that's why I don't use one....I walk....as quietly as possible....everywhere.

s&r

I think it was the first link someone posted on this thread, after studying the bucks using GPS, there was no noticeable difference between 1.5 yr old and mature bucks as far as how they reacted to the hunters. Both mature and immature deer avoided the pressured area for 3-4 days and then went back to normal. Could it possibly be that we assume that the mature bucks have superior intelligence because they are so much more rare than the immature deer we see so often? Could it be that we didn’t make them nocturnal but that they are just sometimes more nocturnal than the other deer we see and that is why they lived to old age and got big?

 

[elfiii]

who sat in an oak.....the more he heard... the less he spoke.....the less he spoke ....the more he heard....wasn't that a wise old bird.

Old mature bucks did not get that way by doing dumb stuff. So, I guess that depends on what you intend to kill.

Young dumb stupid deer, or old and wise mature bucks.

I promise you a mature buck knows anything around him out of place, and he uses all of his resources to help himself on those facts.

scent, noise.....anything and everything.... I told a group one time "best thing that ever happened to trophy buck hunting was the atv 4-wheeler.....that's why I don't use one....I walk....as quietly as possible....everywhere.

s&r

Generally speaking that is absolutely true and I'm a firm believer. On the other hand the big ones I have killed were killed because they did something stupid you would expect out of a forkhorn 4 pointer and I just happened to be there when they did it.

 

[spurrs and racks]

the avantage we have is knowing

the same thing kills buck deer that kill all male species of the animal kingdom.

I've said before I would rather be lucky than good, but luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Most bucks that survive past 2 1/2 years old (3rd hunting season) become by and large nocturnal for a reason.

They really don't like you very much and they prefer not to be fooled with.

Will they make a mistake, sure....but most times it is a rare thing indeed.

s&r

 

[Possum]

the same thing kills buck deer that kill all male species of the animal kingdom.

I've said before I would rather be lucky than good, but luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Most bucks that survive past 2 1/2 years old (3rd hunting season) become by and large nocturnal for a reason.

They really don't like you very much and they prefer not to be fooled with.

Will they make a mistake, sure....but most times it is a rare thing indeed.

s&r

How do you know they “became” nocturnal and weren’t always pretty much that way. There is no such thing as a 100% nocturnal anything. Bats, owls, coons, etc will at least for a small percentage of their life be out before the sun goes down.
It you look at all the 1.5 yr old spike pictures on your camera and pay close attention, there is a small percentage (maybe 1 out of 20) of them that move 99 % percent at night. I’ve got a few now that I have hundreds of night pictures of but not a single day picture. Most people over look this because who cares if a spike is seen in daylight! Is that spike smarter than the rest, or was he just born a night owl? Most likely he will make it to 2.5, then 3.5 and be considered a shooter to me. But it’s not because he was smarter than his spike buddies that moved during daylight a lot more and got killed by someone. If I kill him in a couple years I’d like to take credit for outsmarting the smartest buck around but in reality I just happened to be at the right place when he was out for a rare daylight excursion.