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But exactly how good are a deers ears?

Better then you think.
Some of you are going to shun me for this, but it is my opinion.
If you feel the need to read a book, listen to music or a football game while hunting, stay home!
I can recall several times I heard a deer first before I ever seen him. Could be grunting, crossing a dry creek bed or just racking over a tree. Several times I would have never seen him if I did not hear him first.
I have too few hours to hunt to waist one moment.
OK let the lead fly.
 
GeoFish said:
Better then you think.
Some of you are going to shun me for this, but it is my opinion.
If you feel the need to read a book, listen to music or a football game while hunting, stay home!
I can recall several times I heard a deer first before I ever seen him. Could be grunting, crossing a dry creek bed or just racking over a tree. Several times I would have never seen him if I did not hear him first.
I have too few hours to hunt to waist one moment.
OK let the lead fly.
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Since posting this I’ve been thinking and thinking hard of how many times I’ve actually heard a deer before seeing it and I can’t recall many of at all any times where I heard them first. Again my hearing is **** I have inner ear issues. For a guy with a full time job a wife and a kid I get an astronomical amount of hunting time. I guess I’m luckier than I thought picking the woman to spend eternity with haha but my go go go life style 5 days a week causes me to be extra fidgety so your idea of “if you have to read or listen to something stay home” is rather crap because some guys simply can’t sit in pure silence it will drive us insane. Back in the day when I took a weeks on end off to hunt I never read a book I never hardly took a phone. But your life style changes with time and that’s all it is. The next time you want to say “stay home!” Think of how many hippies tree Huggies and liberals that could potentially create because I’m sure you’d complain about that as well.
 
Tim0712 said:
Since posting this I’ve been thinking and thinking hard of how many times I’ve actually heard a deer before seeing it and I can’t recall many of at all any times where I heard them first. Again my hearing is **** I have inner ear issues. For a guy with a full time job a wife and a kid I get an astronomical amount of hunting time. I guess I’m luckier than I thought picking the woman to spend eternity with haha but my go go go life style 5 days a week causes me to be extra fidgety so your idea of “if you have to read or listen to something stay home” is rather crap because some guys simply can’t sit in pure silence it will drive us insane. Back in the day when I took a weeks on end off to hunt I never read a book I never hardly took a phone. But your life style changes with time and that’s all it is. The next time you want to say “stay home!” Think of how many hippies tree Huggies and liberals that could potentially create because I’m sure you’d complain about that as well.
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I wouldnt tell anyone to stay home but I get his point. Your pointing out your hearing issues has merit too with regard to using ear buds. If I were in your shoes, I very well might use them as well. As I see it, 2 entirely different conversations. There are tons of folks that get on this and other forums that do not consistently have the hunting success they would like to have. Many do not have hearing issues but are also the ones that will ask questions about being a better hunter in one thread and post about good books to read or podcast to listen to while in the stand in another. If one is already successfully filling the tags they want, rock on with however you enjoy hunting. If one is new to hunting or trying to learn ways to improve and also does not have hearing impairments, I would encourage leaving any distractions at home and learn to use all your available senses. I will use @Nutterbuster as an example, he stacks bodies on a pretty regular basis and he likes listening to stuff while in the woods, keep on keepin on. But we cant always tell or know if the other person in the thread is at that level or maybe well below nevermind if they have a sensory limitation.
 
I spend quite a bit of my life with a ear bud in my right ear. Use it for audio books and podcast and phone calls. I started using it hunting and haven't seen any downsides. I'm used to it enough that I can completely tune it out if necessary. I feel like it has helped me stay still and stay out longer and don't feel like I've ever had an experience that I regretted having it in. I keep it quiet enough that there is no way a deer could ever hear it.
With that being said there are times in the woods I would never listen to anything. Some peaceful mornings when the woods is waking up, Primetime, or any of those times when you just need some peace and quiet. That's what hunting is all about and filling it with distraction just seems wrong. But those long mornings when the wind is blowing and it's cold it can be a nice distraction to keep me in the tree.
 
HuumanCreed said:
What brand/model are you using?
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Aftershokz Aeropex. Wearing them now.

They've become as essential to my day-to-day as a pocket knife and a pair of polarized shades. They're awesome. You can listen to whatever you want and still function around other people. Or hear deer walking around in the woods.

I realize I'm fortunate in that I get to spend pretty much every day enjoying the peace and quiet of living in the swamp. I guess I do have time to "waist."

To me, having the option to learn something new or listen to some tunes while in the woods or on the water is nice. I can still hear 99% of what's going on around me with them on, or I can turn them off with a button press.

I hear deer coming just fine. If anything, I see more deer because having a talk to listen to calms my scrambled little ADHD brain a little and makes it easier to sit perfectly still. I go from making an effort to sit still to sitting still for 2 hours at a time almost by accident.
 
I use bone conduction headphones. You don't any escaping noises from those. If you drop them, you almost have to be on top them to hear the buzzing coming from them if you drop thrm.

Plus they dont interfere your normal hearing. I started wearing these after a radio host, one Doc Thompson got killed by a train that he didn't hear coming.


As for how good their hearing is, its very good. The bigger question is how much and what noises will put deer on alert or spook them. We all talk about trying to be quiet climbing.. but the deer around here don't seem too mind climbing noises. Too many times ive got deer under me before i get the chance to pull my weapon of the day up.
 
I also have bad hearing, I couldn't hear a garbage truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant. I never hear deer coming so wearing some ear buds wouldnt hurt my hunt at all. My kids bring tablets with ear buds out in the blind and we have deer come in all the time, they cant hear anything if the bud is in your ear. I wouldnt worry about it.
 
I typically don’t bring the buds or listen to anything other than the woods, when I’m in them. I did start using them for a while to listen to Rush, God rest his soul, or I’d get back to the truck in time to catch his show. I don’t really listen to the radio or podcasts at all.
I can appreciate totally what @Jammintree is saying.Fo sho!
 
I don't need them to be in the woods; it's not a matter of having to be entertained, it's just trying to fit everything in. There are only about a dozen games a year, and about the same number of weekends to hunt, and they happen to overlap by a significant amount. Of three options, stay home, go hunting, or go hunting and listen to a game, I'll often choose to listen in my stand. I'd love to get to hunt three or four days a week, but that just doesn't work with family obligations and such. I'm lucky to get in two hunts in a normal week, and at least one will be a quick three hour sit. And I won't ever use them to listen to music or a podcast. It will always be something that's "listen now or not at all".
 
There have been times where I try to stop a deer by making the ubiquitous "bawp" noise, and it takes two or three tries before they finally hear it and stop. Other times, I barely brush a leaf and their head snaps right to me. I think their hearing ability really depends on if they are cued into something that put them on alert to begin with...not unlike people.

Just to add to the commentary on to wear or not to wear headphones, I never do and probably never will. I rely on my ears as my outer limit of observation while hunting. That is probably due to the terrain where I hunt (wooded mountains in VA). 9/10 times, unless it just rained, I can hear deer coming way further than I can see them. Not a great habit, but I pretty much never carry binos because of this.
 
cville_bowhunter said:
There have been times where I try to stop a deer by making the ubiquitous "bawp" noise, and it takes two or three tries before they finally hear it and stop. Other times, I barely brush a leaf and their head snaps right to me. I think their hearing ability really depends on if they are cued into something that put them on alert to begin with...not unlike people.

Just to add to the commentary on to wear or not to wear headphones, I never do and probably never will. I rely on my ears as my outer limit of observation while hunting. That is probably due to the terrain where I hunt (wooded mountains in VA). 9/10 times, unless it just rained, I can hear deer coming way further than I can see them. Not a great habit, but I pretty much never carry binos because of this.
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That's the beauty of the bone conduction earphones like the aftershokz. They don't really even touch your ears really. They just sit on the top of your ears and the "speakers sir against you skull just in front of your ear canal. They don't interfere with your hearing at all. Might distract you if you're listening io something.

They're also be very easy to take calls with if you have to be in contact due to work/business/family/etc. Don't have to worry about your phones ringtones/notifications going off and spooking deer either as all that goes your headphones. Ive got a very alerting ringtone ( crazy train by Ozzy).. I've had full blown conversations with deer in bow range with no issues.
 
cville_bowhunter said:
There have been times where I try to stop a deer by making the ubiquitous "bawp" noise, and it takes two or three tries before they finally hear it and stop. Other times, I barely brush a leaf and their head snaps right to me. I think their hearing ability really depends on if they are cued into something that put them on alert to begin with...not unlike people.

Just to add to the commentary on to wear or not to wear headphones, I never do and probably never will. I rely on my ears as my outer limit of observation while hunting. That is probably due to the terrain where I hunt (wooded mountains in VA). 9/10 times, unless it just rained, I can hear deer coming way further than I can see them. Not a great habit, but I pretty much never carry binos because of this.
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i think, because we can't see it, we don't realize how complex sound is

we know all sorts of things influence how nicely lit a room seems to us

but sound, not as much for me

i've had experiences where people weren't that far away and were talking and i couldn't hear anything and sometimes you hear it clearly at a farther distance

not proud of this, but when i was around 12 years old, a couple was parked in a car well over 100 yards away and talking in a normal voice about their marriage being in trouble.....it was a clear night, i was up on a hill over them, clear shot, and their car was parked in front of a wall of glass windows at a factory.....i sat and could hear every word they said easily!
 
My hearing is really poor (too much handgun shooting without hearing protection as a foolish youth) but I still think I hear 80% of the deer I see before I actually see them. It may be a function of the terrain/cover that I hunt in but it really is rare for me to have a deer just appear in front of me with no warning. If I thought I could find a hearing enhancement that really worked I would certainly give it a try.
 
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