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Deer ducking bow shots

A

arrowchukker

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2020
Messages
78
Sitting around today, watching some of the YouTube stars bow hunt deer. Now, a lot of things go into whether a deer ducks at a shot or not, but one thing I thought I noticed was deer in the open, like an Ag field, or the meadows of the mountain states, seemed to duck more often than say a deer shot in thicker woods/timber. Anyone else notice this?
 
In my opinion I think in most circumstances it really depends on 2 things. 1 being probably the most factor how much pressure there is on the deer
and the other being the personality of the deer.
I really think a deers personality can be compared to dogs.
some deer are super skittish yet some deer are brave as hell.
some are energetic snd outgoing when others are just chill and slow paced.
 
I Believe a heavier arrow helps to make your bow quieter too. Shooting a faster bow to beat a deers' senses is just silly since sound travels @ 1156 FPS I think, and our 340 FPS bow is a little slow. My Widow shoots @ 186 but is pretty quiet. They usually don't even react unless of course they have already sensed something amiss. A guy at work claimed his bow shot so fast they couldn't react in time. I just smiled and told him to study a little more.
 
Blacksmith said:
I Believe a heavier arrow helps to make your bow quieter too. Shooting a faster bow to beat a deers' senses is just silly since sound travels @ 1156 FPS I think, and our 340 FPS bow is a little slow. My Widow shoots @ 186 but is pretty quiet. They usually don't even react unless of course they have already sensed something amiss. A guy at work claimed his bow shot so fast they couldn't react in time. I just smiled and told him to study a little more.
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Maybe his bow is a rifle.
 
Deer Ducking Bow Shots would be a great name for a bluegrass band.

I’ve seen em turn inside out when it’s perfectly calm and an akern, yes akern, hits the ground and then stand there and not move a muscle till the arrow hits while they’re staring right at me on high alert.

They’re goofy critters and you’ll go def composer mad trying to figure them out.
 
Blacksmith said:
I Believe a heavier arrow helps to make your bow quieter too. Shooting a faster bow to beat a deers' senses is just silly since sound travels @ 1156 FPS I think, and our 340 FPS bow is a little slow. My Widow shoots @ 186 but is pretty quiet. They usually don't even react unless of course they have already sensed something amiss. A guy at work claimed his bow shot so fast they couldn't react in time. I just smiled and told him to study a little more.
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2AC01A47-5BA2-4A65-A0C7-731CE0251BA4.png
 
I believe that the number one factor in a deer dropping is hunting pressure. Whether it's just you pressuring them or a very heavily hunted area doesn't matter but if they know there being hunted then there much more likely to be skitterish and duck at the shot. Heck, I've actually walked up to within 15 feet of an adult doe in the wide open after 2 shots were fired at the buck standing next to her. This was in a clear cut in a remote section of northern Maine where some deer have never even seen a human before. My father in law once had a buck turn inside out when he turned his head and his 2 days of beard stubble brushed up against his collar. That happened in late November on an island he and his friends had been hunting all season.These 2 extremes are why I'm convinced that it has more to do with how much the deer are pressured than anything else.
 
GCTerpfan said:
start at 2:00 to skip the target ads.

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Dang. I don't shoot a prime.. I guess my deer are gonna duck.
Love the content. Hate the name dropping that goes on in hunting videos like this. I get they are trying to pay the bills.
 
Plebe said:
It's from an experiment conducted by Dr, Grant Woods, (same who did the Head Up or Down video posted by @GCTerpfan.)

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Interesting experiment, thanks for sharing.

I still feel like there are too many variables to take into account to apply this to hunting in any meaningful way: temp, wind direction/speed, the direction the deer's ears are facing, all would play into whether or not a deer jumps a string, right? On top of that, two deer given the exact same circumstances could react in very different ways. This is anecdotal, but the buck I shot last year didn't even flinch when my bow went off. I don't think he heard it, and I don't think I will be aiming off vitals in the future in the hopes that a deer ducks into a shot.

Also, maybe I missed this, but why did they decide on the average reaction time of olympic runners? I don't get what that has to do with a deer's reaction time. Why the speed of gravity for the deer "falling?" I see an animal engaging its muscles to move, not a suddenly legless, falling object. I get they had to come up with variables that they could control for the sake of attempting a sound experiment, but I think those variables are a bit unrealistic. IMHO, I think a meaningful take on this experiment is way too complicated, perhaps impossible...

Again, just my opinion... I'm not an engineer/scientist/expert...just a dude on a forum!
 
cville_bowhunter said:
Interesting experiment, thanks for sharing.

I still feel like there are too many variables to take into account to apply this to hunting in any meaningful way: temp, wind direction/speed, the direction the deer's ears are facing, all would play into whether or not a deer jumps a string, right? On top of that, two deer given the exact same circumstances could react in very different ways. This is anecdotal, but the buck I shot last year didn't even flinch when my bow went off. I don't think he heard it, and I don't think I will be aiming off vitals in the future in the hopes that a deer ducks into a shot.

Also, maybe I missed this, but why did they decide on the average reaction time of olympic runners? I don't get what that has to do with a deer's reaction time. Why the speed of gravity for the deer "falling?" I see an animal engaging its muscles to move, not a suddenly legless, falling object. I get they had to come up with variables that they could control for the sake of attempting a sound experiment, but I think those variables are a bit unrealistic. IMHO, I think a meaningful take on this experiment is way too complicated, perhaps impossible...

Again, just my opinion... I'm not an engineer/scientist/expert...just a dude on a forum!
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Oly runners react to the sound of the gun to start the race. But they are waiting for it and anticipating it.

As far as the gravity issue with deer falling, that’s exactly what they are doing when they flex/close the leg joints rapidly to load for extension and execute the GTFO of here maneuver. Gravity causes the rest of the body to drop making them at that point a leg less falling object. They aren’t doing air squats for a Murph challenge. They are preparing to run if needed.

Hope that makes sense as I see how it can be confusing.
 
cville_bowhunter said:
Interesting experiment, thanks for sharing.

I still feel like there are too many variables to take into account to apply this to hunting in any meaningful way: temp, wind direction/speed, the direction the deer's ears are facing, all would play into whether or not a deer jumps a string, right? On top of that, two deer given the exact same circumstances could react in very different ways. This is anecdotal, but the buck I shot last year didn't even flinch when my bow went off. I don't think he heard it, and I don't think I will be aiming off vitals in the future in the hopes that a deer ducks into a shot.

Also, maybe I missed this, but why did they decide on the average reaction time of olympic runners? I don't get what that has to do with a deer's reaction time. Why the speed of gravity for the deer "falling?" I see an animal engaging its muscles to move, not a suddenly legless, falling object. I get they had to come up with variables that they could control for the sake of attempting a sound experiment, but I think those variables are a bit unrealistic. IMHO, I think a meaningful take on this experiment is way too complicated, perhaps impossible...

Again, just my opinion... I'm not an engineer/scientist/expert...just a dude on a forum!
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To paraphrase the concept, deer aren't pulling themselves to the ground, they only can drop as fast as gravity will allow them to freefall so the maximum vertical downward distance they can move is how far gravity will let them fall in the time it takes between arrow release and arrival.

Now if the shooter is elevated the angle narrows the margin of error on the target which in turn means less movement is required to get under the arrow's trajectory for the same travel time.
 
Most deer drop because they are alert plain and simple Gripes my behind to see these TV hunters meh calm deer to shoot and low and behold the deer reacts The worst part is that young guys see it and now every deer in the world drops LOL CMON MAN
 
enkriss said:
You are never going to beat a deer’s reaction time with bow speed. Dont shoot at alert deer.

A quiet bow will help more than a fast one.
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Is there data on this?
 
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