deer behavior question?

B

bamaranger

New member
Was in a tree the other AM, early, and heard the distinct pig like grunt of a rutting buck, say 75 yds away. I grunted back in hopes of attracting same but no luck. I briefly glimpsed the critter as he passed through an opening on the opposite side of the hollow. Deer then obliqued down the slope in my general direction, but it was obvious he was trailing and not coming in.

I grunted again and again, louder, and finally the deer paused. He was barely visible at 50 yds or so in the brush. I would judge him (by antlers only) as a 3-1/2 yr old, scoring under 100.

The wind "did something", as he whirled and, as he bounded off, BLEW or SNORTED repeatedly. No way that buck saw me. It had to be scent. NO other hunters about, no other critter to spook him.

So..this is contrary to how a "mature" deer should act in my experience and belief. If he winded me, he should have dropped his head and sneaked off, just like, I might add, another buck did the day previous (darned variable winds!!!!!). Instead, he blew several times and made a real scene.
The buck was fortunate that there were not other hunters w/ rifles about, rather than frustrated ol'me w/ my sticks and string .

So anybody else witness a "mature" buck blow when obviously detecting a human predator, instead of being sneaky, like their supposed too!

BTW, this is on a relatively busy deer lease, with steady, but not obnoxious, pressure, and we are 2/3 rds through our season.
 
Well, I have experienced that while squirrel hunting. In fact, i was loudly walking around in the woods with a rifle, and heard a buck grunt at me. When i got sight of him he wasnt but 40 yards to my west. it was somewhat frightening, tbh. Don't know what it means in deer talk though.
 
My experience, repeated snorting is when they sense something is off and are trying to get a scent. Sitting on a stump once and a group of does came walking by. mom stopped 10 feet from me stared right at me and snorted like crazy stomping her foot, trying to get me to move I guess so she could figure out what I was. Deer see movement well I figure she had seen me move a little but when i froze up with no wind she couldn't see me. Always learning something - enjoy.
 
Was in a tree the other AM, early, and heard the distinct pig like grunt of a rutting buck, say 75 yds away. ... He was barely visible at 50 yds or so in the brush.

The wind "did something", as he whirled and, as he bounded off, BLEW or SNORTED repeatedly. No way that buck saw me. It had to be scent. NO other hunters about, no other critter to spook him.
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Given your fixation on watching this buck and the obviously occluded and partially occluded views you have of the immediate area, I don't know how you can be certain that there were no other critters around to spook the buck.

So..this is contrary to how a "mature" deer should act in my experience and belief. If he winded me, he should have dropped his head and sneaked off, just like, I might add, another buck did the day previous (darned variable winds!!!!!). Instead, he blew several times and made a real scene.
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What you describe is what I have witnessed when deer respond to sound or movement most commonly. It is quite possible that the buck saw or heard something that you did not.

So anybody else witness a "mature" buck blow when obviously detecting a human predator, instead of being sneaky, like their supposed too!
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How bucks are "supposed" to act is just general or commonly recognized behavior, but that doesn't mean that it is the only behavior. I would not be too sure that the buck wasn't responding to other influences unbeknownst to you or that you did something other than scent that got his attention.

Also, more experienced older animals often have gotten that way by being more vigilant about their safety. They may be more apt to take flight sooner rather than later when sensing something strange or known to be a threat.

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Sitting on a stump once and a group of does came walking by. mom stopped 10 feet from me stared right at me and snorted like crazy stomping her foot, trying to get me to move I guess so she could figure out what I was. Deer see movement well I figure she had seen me move a little but when i froze up with no wind she couldn't see me.
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This sort of goes back to the comment about what deer are "supposed" to do. As hunters, we come up with some rationalized explanations for prey behavior, though they may not actually reflect reality. The doe in your story most definitely could see you, even after you froze up. Being still does not make you invisible to the deer. What being still may do is not attract the deer's attention and keep you from going from the category of unrecognized strange object to being a threat.

If deer could not see stationary objects, they would forever be running into trees, houses, big rocks, etc. Instead, it isn't that the deer could not see you, but that the deer did not respond to you with flight after you became totally still.
 
When you have enough years in the woods you will see everthing you can see from a deer and many thimes it won't be what someone wrote about in a book. Seen them blow just to test the air again and go on like normal .
Watched bucks and does both in and out of rut or estrous walk by and see me but maybe can't deside if i am a threat or not and blow ,stomp,gunt and do the snortwhess and still finally just walk away. Then like the one you saw ,one that just finally bolts for no real reason to you and it is seemingly to far away to smell you. Could have been a smelly old farmer down range ,a bobcat , coyote or bear odor that it smell'd but you did not see. Thats hunting. If you want a deer closer ,,,just fall asleep. When you wake up there more than likely will be one or more looking at you makeing a noise they had not heard before.. All you can do is watch your odor, move slowly, control uv pick the right spot and hope to get luckly.
 
Actually, your story seems fairly typical to me. Deer, mature or otherwise, generally do one of two things.

1)Sneak away silently.

2)Make a racket to warn other deer in the vicinity.


The most likely scenario, IMHO, is that there was another deer nearby of which you were not aware but that the buck was warning of your presence. Wouldn't be too kindly of him to sneak away quietly and let his buddy get shot, now would it?
 
Art is correct, I seen them do about everything, even when I dont think they knew I was there. No doubt there is the norm on what they will do but they dont follow a book, sounds like you done your part perfect but just did not work out for you. So I think you done the correct things but he just did not respond like you hoped he would have. Also it does seem like lots of the time even though they dont know your there they just have that sense about them.
 
It seems like a doe that has you dead to rights just runs. If she gets a whiff, but doesn't know exactly where it is coming from she may blow her guts out for several minutes and not move far at all.

Bucks for whatever reason are less likely to blow. They do sometimes, but it is rare.

I wondered if it was the doe's protective instincts to warn the fawn that is usually close by.

I have seen doe blowing to beat the band and other doe less than 100 yards away pay absolutely no attention to it.
 
DN Spy

"If deer could not see stationary objects, they would forever be running into trees, houses, big rocks, etc. Instead, it isn't that the deer could not see you, but that the deer did not respond to you with flight after you became totally still."

but i do believe based on the position of their eyes, they have a blind spot dead ahead and have to move their head to cover everything in front of them.
but yes if she did see me she certainly didn't "see" me as a threat. (now if they're carrying a white cane...;)
 
but i do believe based on the position of their eyes, they have a blind spot dead ahead and have to move their head to cover everything in front of them.
but yes if she did see me she certainly didn't "see" me as a threat. (now if they're carrying a white cane...
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Deer do not have a blind spot in front of them. If they did then they'd always look at something that caught their attention with their heads slightly turned. The only blind spot that they have is directly behind them and they only have to turn their heads a small amount to eliminate that one too.

Source material here.


This guy can see you, I promise.

white_tailed_deer_buck.jpg
 
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I have had deer look straight at me literally hundreds of times from as close as 20 yards. If you do not move and they do not smell you, they usually can not make any sense of what you are.

I have heard it said that with a deer every hunter is just a knot on a tree, and with a turkey every knot on a tree is a hunter.
 
rest of the story

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

After reading same, especially the ones about other deer, I remembered that a smaller, 4 pt came by about 15-20 minutes later. It was from the opposite end of the hollow, on another trail, but there was another deer. Who knows where it was in the whole episode?

So the comment (maybe it was Peeza) about warning other deer makes sense now.

I WAS fixated. He may have ONLY scored 100, but I would have much liked to loose a shaft at that rascal.
 
As many have said, there is no always. I have seen bucks blow when they are supposed to just run. I got out of my truck one morning this year and neared the tailgait. I heard a deer start blowing. I grabbed my Surefire and lit it up. It was a big buck. One that I know for sure is at least 4.5 years old. Actually the one that I was going to run an arrow thru that morning. He was blowing as he ran, and he didn't stop till he got out of ear shot.
 
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