• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Deer hunting myths

Grayson Everett

Grayson Everett

New Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
3
Location
New York, NY
What are some ideas you had that took years for you to change your mind on? Mine would be mortally hit deer always go downhill. I've seen several travel the same elevation and a few go uphill. My guess is there are places they feel safe they are trying to get to even if it means going uphill.
 
My biggest one was that deer hunting is easy. I thought i would have one down by 8.a.m. on my first hunt ever. We do have a lot of deer in our area and I see deer quite often.
Well,turns out it is different when you go into their living room with a gun in your hand.
 
I'm not sure these are myths or not, but here are a few common ones that I've always wondered about:

1. Deer hunting sucks the day after a full moon. Like their up partying all night in the full moon so they don't move around the next day?
2. Deer move around less when it's windy. I shot my best buck on a really windy day and they were moving that day for sure.
3. The October lull in general. IMHO, it's just a lull if you're still sitting on field edges through October.
4. Moon phases impact the rutting activity?? Not sure of that one....guess that ties into #1....
 
1. Clumped droppings are a big buck, NOT. I've watched does drop logs that looked like bear turds. Diet is everything.
2. Deer don't move in wind/rain. I've had some of my best days when the weather is trash.
3. Bucks won't budge when it's hot out. BULL, my top 3 were killed in 70+ degrees, timing is everything and the rut controls the movement.
4. People completely blow deer out of pressured areas. What a joke, it takes an insane amount of pressure to move deer. I've had people walk by my trees all my life just to watch a buck slip around them without them knowing and go about his business. Sit back and relax, they are there still.
5. Human urine spooks deer. Uhm no, sorry, it doesn't. I pee in all my scrapes with cams and it pulls 15x the deer that over priced lures do. Don't waste your money. The only time I have seen a deer get weary is when you pee out if a tree and it is steaming fresh. After 20 mins or so they don't care AT ALL.
 
HuntNorthEast said:
1. Clumped droppings are a big buck, NOT. I've watched does drop logs that looked like bear turds. Diet is everything.
2. Deer don't move in wind/rain. I've had some of my best days when the weather is trash.
3. Bucks won't budge when it's hot out. BULL, my top 3 were killed in 70+ degrees, timing is everything and the rut controls the movement.
4. People completely blow deer out of pressured areas. What a joke, it takes an insane amount of pressure to move deer. I've had people walk by my trees all my life just to watch a buck slip around them without them knowing and go about his business. Sit back and relax, they are there still.
5. Human urine spooks deer. Uhm no, sorry, it doesn't. I pee in all my scrapes with cams and it pulls 15x the deer that over priced lures do. Don't waste your money. The only time I have seen a deer get weary is when you pee out if a tree and it is steaming fresh. After 20 mins or so they don't care AT ALL.
Click to expand...
I agree 100% on everything but one.
the rut does not control movement.
Food sources , pressure on the surrounding areas of food sources (to and from bedding) , and finally the girls
The girls gotta eat so they gonna hang near seasonal food.
Pressure effects all deer movement ,
So really imho from my experiences of 30 years of deer hunting food and pressure dictate movement.
Deer live to eat and breed.
also i do not believe deer sre 100% nocturnal
I think they avoid certain areas due to pressure especially bait piles and preset stands.
This is why people think of the october lull as bad hunting time.
ive killed some great bucks during the lull
Just gotta be in the spots the deer are using to avoid hunters.
 
Robert loper said:
I agree 100% on everything but one.
the rut does not control movement.
Food sources , pressure on the surrounding areas of food sources (to and from bedding) , and finally the girls
The girls gotta eat so they gonna hang near seasonal food.
Pressure effects all deer movement ,
So really imho from my experiences of 30 years of deer hunting food and pressure dictate movement.
Deer live to eat and breed.
also i do not believe deer sre 100% nocturnal
I think they avoid certain areas due to pressure especially bait piles and preset stands.
This is why people think of the october lull as bad hunting time.
ive killed some great bucks during the lull
Just gotta be in the spots the deer are using to avoid hunters.
Click to expand...
I didn't mean at all times. I should have clarified. But at peak rut most conditions don't matter at all. I walked behind a buck chasing a doe this year on the way into my stand for 30 minutes within 60 yards and as close as 15, and have footage to prove it. My pressure simply did not matter at all to either deer. Oh, and it was 75 and blue bird skies.
 
HuntNorthEast said:
People completely blow deer out of pressured areas. What a joke, it takes an insane amount of pressure to move deer. I've had people walk by my trees all my life just to watch a buck slip around them without them knowing and go about his business. Sit back and relax, they are there still.
Click to expand...
This ^^^^

While I understand it may vary from area to area depending upon where you're hunting, where I hunt there isn't a piece of ground that's not stomped thru by some sort of outdoors person at some point during the season. I don't know where they'd go if they vacated an entire area every time a bird hunter or hiker walked through their safe zone. Deer around me have developed the ability to just shift and circle and filter back as necessary.

This brings me to the one thing I'd put on this list that I've picked up listening to you hunters from all over the country. There are very few hard and fast rules for whitetail behavior that apply across the board coast to coast/north to south. A deer's reaction to any stimulus will probably be different depending upon the local issues it has to deal with. What works in Alabama may be entirely different than what works in the hills of Pennsylvania or the suburbs of any metropolitan area. Whitetail are very adaptive to their specific environments and the individual challenges of that environment. That means the approaches that will work to harvest an animal most likely will be equally different.
 
Last edited:
HuntNorthEast said:
2. Deer don't move in wind/rain. I've had some of my best days when the weather is trash.

3. Bucks won't budge when it's hot out. BULL, my top 3 were killed in 70+ degrees, timing is everything and the rut controls the movement.

5. Human urine spooks deer. Uhm no, sorry, it doesn't.
Click to expand...

I agree...from what I've experienced in the woods deer move more on windy/rainy days

On a 100+ degree day in August I caught 9 different bucks on my tail camera in a 2 hour window between noon and 2. I don't know what that was all about....magic day or something

I agree again..... I've seen on a numbers of occasions deer walk up to my pee spot and curiously investigate
 
blacktail cant be hunted from trees to unpredictable thy never use the same trail twice . thats true but another buck may use it.you have to cover ground.its the only way.harvested first buck from a saddle
 
one of the greatest old timer blacktail hunters in marion county used to move his treestand 2 or thee times in a one month season acording to tracks.perfect for saddle hunting
 
HuntNorthEast said:
I didn't mean at all times. I should have clarified. But at peak rut most conditions don't matter at all. I walked behind a buck chasing a doe this year on the way into my stand for 30 minutes within 60 yards and as close as 15, and have footage to prove it. My pressure simply did not matter at all to either deer. Oh, and it was 75 and blue bird skies.
Click to expand...
I should clarify that myself.
Your right probably a young boy out on the prowl.
In my areas i hunt pressure dictates most mature deer movement.
Bucks and does.
If it Diddnt they die. Lol.
im saying my areas not sure how they react in yours. It really is different everywhere.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
This ^^^^

While I understand it may vary from area to area depending upon where you're hunting, where I hunt there isn't a piece of ground that's not stomped thru by some sort of outdoors person at some point during the season. I don't know where they'd go if they vacated an entire area every time a bird hunter or hiker walked through their safe zone. Deer around me have developed the ability to just shift and circle and filter back as necessary.

This brings me to the one thing I'd put on this list that I've picked up listening to you hunters from all over the country. There are very few hard and fast rules for whitetail behavior that apply across the board coast to coast/north to south. A deer's reaction to any stimulus will probably be different depending upon the local issues it has to deal with. What works in Alabama may be entirely different than what works in the hills of Pennsylvania or the suburbs of any metropolitan area. Whitetail are very adaptive to their specific environments and the individual challenges of that environment. That means the approaches that will work to harvest an animal most likely will be equally different.
Click to expand...
I agree a million times with you and imho I believe where i live bucks especially older ones have actually seasonal core areas.
Multiple core areas.
back in south jersey where i grew up hunting and gun clubs drove every inch of ground there is proved to me years ago that multiple core areas are definitely a thing.
You drive and drive and drive a piece of ground over and over. The deer are not gonna stay there. They will die.
Id love to see The big you tube influencers , come to cape may or cumberland NJ county and kill the deer they do.
It wouldnt happen.
Maybe early season and i even doubt that. Especially when December hits . Lol.
Not happening.
Not taking anything away from anyone but it just a different world here than the big deer states of the mid west country.
4 year olds down here are almost non existent.
when you drive deer and shoot everything with a flash of bone its nit a good long term outcome.
 
These are the ones I hear most:
You have to be in a tree stand
The only times to go out is first thing in the morning and right before dark, midday is pointless
Deer don’t move during [insert weather event here]
12 gauge is the only way (no rifles in Illinois)
 
You shouldn’t hunt the same tree or spot more than once. First sit best sit. Complete BS! Most of my biggest bucks have been taken after I hunted the same tree for several days in a row.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top