Deers behaviour

rhino519

rhino519

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an interesting question was asked last night at a deer camp: how long after hunting pressure relents do deer go back to their usual patterns?
how much time should an archery hunter give in an area that has a lot of camps doing drives for two weeks straight
 
Sometimes you have to wonder...

Just before the season I built a new elevated blind, steel roof needed to be cut with a Sawzall, Spray paint fumes, chainsaws, me and a buddy making all sorts of noise, impact drivers, and circ saws...

Deer came out to the cameras an hour and a half later.

Some times they care about every new scent... other times will walk over to the guy the chain smokes in his stand...

This year I shot a big Doe, scattered four or five more, they waited 10 minutes, and calmly walked away.

Came back that night...

Deer behavior is just so unpredictable.
 
Years of hunting the same small woodlots has led me to believe smaller lots that don't have standing corn around them deer take longer to come back to. Sometimes up to a week. If the area has access to swamps or scrub bush and standing corn odds are they'll come back faster. However day time movement is reduced. They become more active thru the night and move during twilight hours more

That said rutting bucks will keep their territory for instance this year my buddy saw a nice buck 2 nights in a row use the same draw. His buddy missed the second night. The 3rd night I set up on a scrape line inside the bush and shot a massive 8 point. Buck still used the same scrape line but approached it from a different way. They don't always move out if there's heavy cover they just change how they move thru it
 
I remember seeing an article a few years ago that found within about 5 days the majority of the deer were back to normal after human disturbance. Of course you'll always get some outliers who never go back to normal or who don't react in the first place though.
 
just depends on how use the deer are. Public spots that get weekend pressure, I've seen studies that say Tuesday is back to normal. I'm sure the big woods that don't see much takes a bit longer but deer need to survive, if pressure isn't around I bet its just a few days
 
Daver_II said:
Sometimes you have to wonder...

Just before the season I built a new elevated blind, steel roof needed to be cut with a Sawzall, Spray paint fumes, chainsaws, me and a buddy making all sorts of noise, impact drivers, and circ saws...

Deer came out to the cameras an hour and a half later.

Some times they care about every new scent... other times will walk over to the guy the chain smokes in his stand...

This year I shot a big Doe, scattered four or five more, they waited 10 minutes, and calmly walked away.

Came back that night...

Deer behavior is just so unpredictable.
Click to expand...

Many years ago, probably 35 at least, I was with my dad, another camp member and his son and we were building a stand and a deer came up to us as we were doing so, probably no more than 15 feet away..
 
Two rules of deer hunting thar I have learned.

1. When ever someone says;" deer never..", they will!!
2. When ever someone says; "deer always...", they won't!!

You can generalize, but deer will react depending on their accustomed surroundings and experiences.

I was leaving the bush after turkey hunting and decided to take a piss. Mid stream I heard a noise, I turned around just to see a deer jump over a fence next to me. from 10 feet away the deer looked at me, I swear I heard it laugh, and walked away on the same trail I just came from.
 
A couple of things to think about: 1) disturbance within a deer’s range that may or may not pose a threat to deer, 2) hunting pressure that harasses deer directly such as a deer drive. In the first instance, a deer might be bothered by human intrusion but not overly threatened so it might be inclined to resort to normal activities in a relatively short time period. However constant harassment could create avoidance behaviours associated with the intrusion. A hunter going to the same treestand 2-3 times per day might result in the deer avoiding that area for several days.


Deer that are constantly preyed upon by wolves quickly learn survival techniques such as seeking refuge in thick cover and slinking off silently. It’s my belief that when a deer population is in a downtrend, the surviving deer become more cautious,

Basically it will come down to the size of the local deer population and the frequency and intensity of the disturbance.
 
What I've found is that they seem to know when you're hunting. When I'm hunting, they're super skittish and wily. When I'm doing yard work or out for a hike (even in hunting season), they couldn't care less about me and walk right by me as though I'm not even there. ... somehow they seem to be able to sense what you're up to. Animals are weird that way. My dog can tell when we're going to camp - even before we start packing up lol. He sits by the back door of the truck all day waiting to jump in.
 
It is true that deer can be unpredictable. That being said, they are creatures of habit.
I have noted that bigger bucks will go nocturnal if pressure is on.

I agree that chainsaws seem to attract them. I have shot 2 decent bucks who came to
see what was going on when I was cutting firewood. EE
 
all those first hand stories of deer 'knowing' makes me wonder if we radiate an energy that ticks off deer of our presence and intent

the area i was hunting last week was under intense pressure, two deer camps with excess of 10+ hunters, pushing/driving different parts of the woods every day, now im interested in hitting the same woods, hopefully before snow comes in, during archery season, but im afraid the window is very small, im hoping the deer will calm down and start venturing during the daylight hours
 
Good question. I suspect hunting pressure is different from other activity. It doesn't seem to take long for hunters wandering through the area I hunt, to drive the deer into the deeper, less accessable regions.
 
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