oh the myths that surround hunting.

I was telling a guy at work the other day that I saw deer tracks in the local sandpit, he said, well, deer walk in the sand because it feels good on their feet..HMMM>..I have to wonder about that one.
 
In Iowa thousands of deer cross gravel roads every day (and night). Sometimes their timing is off and they are killed or injured by trucks and cars. Our urban deer also spend a lot of time on asphalt or concrete.
 
My Old Man

I was 14 when I first went deer hunting, and Dad did everything he could to avoid going. But about 1/2 hour before the sun dipped below the hills, I talked him into walking with me to an alfalfa field where deer fattened up at our expense. There was a small bunch of deer at the other end of the field, and I picked one with horns and shot it. Dad became came to life and we paced off the shot. When we started to dress out the animal Dad did the work and talked non-stop. First thing, he cut off the testicles, and gave them a toss-said they can make the meat taste. Then came the scent glands on the inside of the hocks. He sliced them off with the same explanation. He had done this before, because it only took a few minutes and we were ready to load it up.

The scent glands and testicles story---any of you heard that one? I still do that out of habit, I suppose. :D
 
The scent glands and testicles story---any of you heard that one? I still do that out of habit, I suppose.
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I don't know about it making the deer taste bad. Some people eat those. But it would encourage the deer not to come back to life.
 
testicals? I doubt it, the scent glands. those are filled with stinky little ooze and pheromones which I have had the misfortune to cut into, and it's not fun. I've never cut them off on the spot though. they're exocrine, not endocrine, meaning that they don't link to the blood system, simply removing the leg will remove the gland as well.
 
One of the urban myths in south central Indiana leans towards the idea that deer know when deer season starts and will populate the state parks during deer season. FYI, they had designated hunting days for state park deer during the 70's. I don't know about today's rules. Deer are a nuisance in that region. Lots of deer hit by cars.
 
I don't know about migrating to places they can't be shot but I do believe that they do have a concept of hunting season. I see deer at all times of day the other 10 1/2 months of the year at varying distances and most of the time they are majestic and beautiful and worthy of some tourist's camera, most of the time they give me a respectable distance and move off somewhere else. once hunting season starts they become borderline nocturnal, only moving about in the early early morning and not coming out until just before illegal shooting light. this even occurs where I like to hunt in a draw directly across the road from the public rifle range where they hear gunshots year round, and are familiar with farmer's pickups and equipment. I don't believe they move to someplace they know they're safe, but I do believe that they know when they have to worry about human predation and when they can relax. I think that myth may just stem from the fact that the deer on national parks haven't ever had to deal with hunting so they are active at all times of the day, even during hunting season where the other deer may be laying low due to human activity.
 
Much of what I read in the OP is not myth, but misinformation or misunderstanding of the law. Myths are something that generally cannot be readily proved or disproved(such as a Wild Turkey can see the slightest movement from 200 yards away), while the hunting regs of any state are readily available. But tahunua001 makes a good point, that many folks enter the woods without knowing the laws of their state, instead relying on barroom banter, internet gossip and what grandpa told them 30 years ago. On top of that, they insist on telling others the same misguided information.

Read and know the present regs of your state. Rules change every year here in Wisconsin and most of the time, the new rules are outlined in the pamphlet that comes with your license. Still every year I'm amazed at the amount of folks I come across in the woods that want to argue about what is legal and what isn't. I've come to the point of carrying that little pamphlet in my pack with me, not to show them how much more I know than they do, but to inform and teach. Much like when I reffed youth Hockey. Showing the coach the new rule as written in the book generally ended any argument over the call.
 
One of the urban myths in south central Indiana leans towards the idea that deer know when deer season starts...
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When those public ares that typically see a car or two a day suddenly have heavy traffic, and car doors opening and closing just before daylight, and all even before all kinds people walking through the woods, if they were around the prior year, they know what time it is!
 
My little sister has bought into the myth of "if you are hunting Georgia whitetail you must dress head to toe in camouflage enough to make the guys at the AMU lose sight of you"

Seriously, she did the "puppy dog face" to Pops at Bass Pro and bought enough camo to hold a Duck Dynasty themed costume party.
 
The one I like is that wounded deer always head to water.........
That guy myst have been a pond dam builder.
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I have heard that a variety of animals run toward water. Psychics often claim that bodies will be found near water.

I am fairly certain that on the places that I hunt, an animal can run in just about any direction and be heading toward water. If you just based it on the 4 cardinal directions, there is water within a half mile in each of those directions on each place I hunt.

With that said, wounded animals will eventually go to water, but maybe not immediately after being wounded. Of course, non-wounded animals will head to water as well. Interesting.

I think where this idea may have come from is running animals ducking down into creek bottoms for cover and then succumbing to their wounds...near water. It wasn't that they were heading to water, but trying to get away.
 
The one I like is that wounded deer always head to water.........
That guy must have been a pond dam builder.
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I believe this come from examples of gut shot deer, and the thirst created by the fever associated with a gut shot.

My experience with mortally wounded deer is they often stop and bed when they get to a body of water because they do not have the strength to cross it or they do not want to go out in the open. Thus you find them dead, near water. :D
 
Over the years, I've found many decomposing deer or skeletons, sometimes accompanied by arrows in very thick brush, briars and high weeds. I've always assumed that when they couldn't run, they found the thickest cover to hole up and then died there. In Ohio the thickest places in the woods are ravine and creek bottoms. I don't believe the run to the creek. I believe the run to the cover growing beside, around, and over it.
 
Hmm how many unwounded animals head toward water at least once a day? Just about any direction from where I hunt could be construed as running toward water.
 
Tim, funny you should say that. I have had to use loppers to cut out hogs from thick briar, hogs buried so deep in the stuff they were hard to spot on thermal.
 
Tim, the other way to look at it is that you found all those carcasses in the nasty stuff because the animals that died in more open areas were found by the shooters. I've seen hunters give up way too easily when the brush gets thick.
 
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