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How far do you think a deer can see.

MattMan81

MattMan81

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How far do you think a deer can see? If your in a tree or on the ground with some cover. How far away do you think a deer can spot you? If your not sky lined. What do you think their vision of sight is?
 
I think they see about like we do, but in black and white for the most part. I think they see better than we do in low light, or dark. I also believe they see movement at a higher "frame rate" than we do, like they are viewing things in fast forward. I think they see the world more 2D than we do, since we have binocular vision. I think that is a lot of what that head bobbing is when they see you and are trying to make up their minds. I think it is a way for them to see an abject in 3D by looking at it from slightly different vantage points.

These are all generalities, thought. I am sure some deer see better than others just like some humans see better than others. The big difference is there aren't any deer optometrists.

If you are not skylit and don't move, they have to be pretty close.
 
No doubt they can see several hundred yards. I often have deer in my fields on my side of the road/vally and I watch them key in on hunters walking through the neighbor's fields 20-300 yards away.
And im 99% certain that we get sky lighted from longer ranges far more than we realize, especially in hilly terrain. I've seen it with my own eyes. Set up in a stand, and I catch movement a couple hundred yards above me on the ridge. Only to realize it's a guy in a tree. Sight angles are huge when we choose our trees. Sometimes it doesn't matter depending on our back cover in relation to where we expect deer to be. But in general, and in hilly country. Deer down slope from us are in a good position to sky light us. Camo patterns can be another aspect to this conversation .
 
Allegheny Tom said:
No doubt they can see several hundred yards. I often have deer in my fields on my side of the road/vally and I watch them key in on hunters walking through the neighbor's fields 20-300 yards away.
And im 99% certain that we get sky lighted from longer ranges far more than we realize, especially in hilly terrain. I've seen it with my own eyes. Set up in a stand, and I catch movement a couple hundred yards above me on the ridge. Only to realize it's a guy in a tree. Sight angles are huge when we choose our trees. Sometimes it doesn't matter depending on our back cover in relation to where we expect deer to be. But in general, and in hilly country. Deer down slope from us are in a good position to sky light us. Camo patterns can be another aspect to this conversation .
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So you would think 300yrds sky lit they could see you no problem. Let's say 200yrds in a tree with back cover? How much movement can you get away with you think?
 
I have had deer seem me on a access road 300 yards away.
I have been told that deer see horizontal movement quicker then vertical movement.
 
MattMan81 said:
So you would think 300yrds sky lit they could see you no problem. Let's say 200yrds in a tree with back cover? How much movement can you get away with you think?
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Loaded questions.
Hunting pressure is probably at the core of the discussion.
30 or 40 years ago deer didn't look up. You could climb 12 feet up a telephone pole and deer paid no attention to that blob in the tree.
This topic is deep. What we used to get away with is a pipe dream now.
Hate to always bring up my age and my experiences but a lot of the younger guys (and "younger" is subjective) just don't realize how much deer hunting has changed over the last few decades. Deer are different. Hunter knowledge and behavior/tactics have changed. Access has changed, meaning we often hunt smaller properties which means fewer feasible stand sites. Lots of this stuff is easier for us...ONX type apps, crossbows that allow a whole new discussion on ethical distances, climbing methods and stands, books, magazines, and forums like this. Hunting, how we do it, and the critters we chase, ain't what they used to be.
Take every situation on it's own terms and adjust accordingly.
What a guy does in PA, MI, NY, etc is gonna be very different than the guy in Iowa, Illinois, etc.
Deer can see a long way when they need to. Choose stand trees and move like you are under a microscope.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
30 or 40 years ago deer didn't look up. You could climb 12 feet up a telephone pole and deer paid no attention to that blob in the tree.
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This is absolute truth. It wasn't legal to hunt elevated in Michigan at all until the late 1960's, maybe even 1970. The deer just didn't have to deal with danger from above. They never looked up. It was a great time to be a bow hunter. :)

Now I notice when deer cross my footpath the first glance is up scanning the tree line. They have definitely adapted to hunters being elevated to the point that is the first place they look now. That said, as long as you're not moving and not completely sky lined I think they have a tough time picking you out. Their visual strength is picking up movement, not pulling detail out of the big picture. They may still flee even if you're not caught moving but it mostly feels to me like its "a caution is the better part of valor" deal than being really truly spooked.
 
1992 was the first and only time I hunted Michigan (Sanillac County). I was told you couldn’t use a stand to climb a tree and gun hunt. They all hunted from what was basically an ice fishing shack drug out to the woods. That wasn’t for me, but I was a guest so I went where I was told. Wound up sitting on a stack of telephone poles waiting to be turned into corner posts and damned near froze my butt off.

They all left around 0930 so I eased into the woods (where none of them hunted) and started looking around. Found a spot where a giant tree had fallen and taken down a section of fence and, of course, there was a nice crossing there. I walked up the trunk and found me a suitable perch.

I had a steady flow of deer the rest of the day and not a one saw me or even looked up. Killed a decent buck late that evening after seeing 20+ deer.
 
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dalton916 said:
1992 was the first and only time I hunted Michigan (Sanillac County). I was told you couldn’t use a stand to climb a tree and gun hunt. They all hunted from what was basically an ice fishing shack drug lit to the woods. That wasn’t for me, but I was a guest so I went where I was told. Wound up sitting on a stack of telephone poles waiting to be turned I to corner posts and damned near froze my butt off.

They all left around 0930 so I eased into the woods (where none of them hunted) and started looking around. Found a spot where a giant tree had called and taken down a section of fence and, of course, there was a nice crossing there. I walked up the trunk and found me a suitable perch.

I had a steady flow of deer the rest of the day and not a one saw me or even looked up. Killed a decent buck late that evening after seeing 20+ deer.
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It was 2000 before elevated firearm hunting was adopted but between approx. 1970 and then archery hunters were allowed to hunt elevated. I started bowhunting in 1974 and in those days, because nobody hunted elevated, there were very few treestand/climbing stick options available.

In fact, I can draw some strong similarities between the adoption of treestands in those days and the adoption of saddle hunting today. I still remember people looking at me like I was crazy when I said I hunted out of a tree in those days. It just wasn't a mainstream accepted way to hunt.
 
My brother made me my first stand up/sit down climber in the late 70’s. All of my stand hunting has been from a tree starting with a Baker then the climbing stands my brother made. They were revolutionary at the time!
 
Ill never forget the opening day of bow season I hung a tree stand that afternoon and hunted it. Had a buck come in about 40 yards and he saw the sticks. Watched his head follow them up the tree to me. He turned and cautiously walked away. Unfortunately for him he walked away at about 20 yards.
But that has stuck with me. He saw the sticks.

A few times I have had bucks 180 + yards away across a field. I can't tell if they are looking at me, or just scanning the field. Not sure how much movement I can get away with. Probably less than I think is the answer. I should video tape what it looks like. Might get me a better idea.
Might depend on what else there is to look at out there.
 
MattMan81 said:
Ill never forget the opening day of bow season I hung a tree stand that afternoon and hunted it. Had a buck come in about 40 yards and he saw the sticks. Watched his head follow them up the tree to me. He turned and cautiously walked away. Unfortunately for him he walked away at about 20 yards.
But that has stuck with me. He saw the sticks.

A few times I have had bucks 180 + yards away across a field. I can't tell if they are looking at me, or just scanning the field. Not sure how much movement I can get away with. Probably less than I think is the answer. I should video tape what it looks like. Might get me a better idea.
Might depend on what else there is to look at out there.
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Saw your sticks, wow. What sticks? Do you thing doing some camo covering would have helped?
 
As stated previously, movement is key. I’ve still hunted within feet of deer before they understood what I was or didn’t see me at all. I’ve been 300/400 yards away across a field and have had deer see my movement along a cover strip. I will say that winter camo or camo that is more open makes it more difficult for them to see you but movement is huge for deer who have prey eyes on the sides of their heads instead of in the front like predators.
 
I think this is a tough question to answer. They can clearly see movement far away; they can survive in close cover like deep swamps, as well as open country on the plains. How much detail can they see at distance? Can they differentiate between a wolf and a doe at 800 yards, or do they just recognize movement, and move to cover? If they can differentiate between a wolf and a doe, how do they do that, gait, movement, shape, size, coloration, something else? At what distance can they differentiate between benign and threatening movements? At what distance can they differentiate nutritious plants they want to eat from unpalatable ones? How much detail does a deer want to see before it spooks? Do they want more detail far away, or will they bolt with less detail up close?
 
I think a lot of our confusion about deer eyesight has to do with our own perceptions. Eyesight is our primary sense, probably followed by touch, hearing and then smell. That's not the case with deer. Smell is definitely their primary sense presumably followed by eyesight, hearing and touch (at least that's how I'd perceive it). Their sense of smell is so much better than ours that we can't even begin to conceive what they pick up through their nose.

Because we can't comprehend that we may often mistake a warning from a stray waft of odor as being "seen". In reality that may not be the case.
 
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