To and from the stand

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

If anything I've noticed light helps. They have the disadvantage and usually hold still.

If you hunt postage stamps like me, take a steel rake and get your trail clear into your stand, then wear flat soled sneakers.

[Guru]

Originally posted by gregg dudley:
After many years of playing this game, I have come to believe that light has negligible if any measurable impact on deer.  I do not think that deer can reason a relationship between light and people/danger.  On the other hand, light will sometimes keep you from busting deer in the dark.  Light will also keep you from stumbling around in the brush.

[wingnut]

I use a red lens filter and they don't even react.

Mike

[Got2strum]

In my experience, deer seem to be very curious animals. In the dark they may spook, but chances are if you hear one snort, you were probably just as surprised as the deer because you were right on top of it. Unless your headed right for them and get very close, they'll just watch you walk by. In either situation, usually the deer return after daybreak to investigate what they saw. I usually try and be as silent as possible, but also get to where I'm going without messing around. I don't think the light affects them other than spark their curiousity. I've gone "spotting" before season since I was a kid. I can't recall a deer ever bolting off as soon as it saw the light, and thats one big flashlight. Seems to me they can be pretty bold in the dark ?

[frankwright]

I walk in and out with a green headlight. I have walked right up on deer and if I stand still, they go back to feeding.

I was hunting a food plot from a ladder stand and had a couple of does right in front of me. I wanted them to leave but I did not want to climb down and spook them into the next county so I just turned on my green light, they finally looked up at me and went right back to feeding.

I would rather walk in the dark, avoiding rattlesnakes and copperheads, and get in my stand and settled well before first light, so a light is needed for me.

[yekrut]

Use a red led! light it works!

[PeteA]

I use a green light headlamp going to my stand. Like to get in and sitting about 1 hour before day light. On this one occasion I walk in and heard some deer moving out just a head of me as I got to my ground blind, a big triple tree. Deer did not bust out but you could hear them moving. I killed my light put down my bow and pack and grabbed my rattling antlers. Is was pitch black, no moon. I proceeded to rattle and crunch and stamp around in the leaves and brush outside my blind. I stopped and jumped inside the blind again. Within seconds you could hear the deer busting through the brush. But the deer was now coming directly toward me. I could not see a thing but this deer put the breaks on no more then 10 yards away grunting like crazy. I was huddled into the triple tree as far as I could get in. This deer walking in a circle 10 yards out, all around me grunting until he got 18o degrees down wind. Then he snorted and busted out to the next zip code. Never saw anything it was pitch black. Later that day I heard another guy got a shot at a larger 8pt in the area a few days earlier. It could have been him. He wasn't too happy other bucks were sparing on his turf.

[painthorse]

White light didn't seem to bother the doe that walked out in front of my wife's car last night.The bumper and hood did.

[wollelybugger]

I just bought a  light that shines green, white and green and lazer dot. Hope the flo. green shows up blood in the dark.

[maineac]

I don't think lights bother them in the dark.  They are much more bold after dark.  I had a buddy looking for a fork he shot after dark and had a big mature buck walk in and hang around as he shined the light on the deer as he walked around.

[Sam McMichael]

I have never noticed a light having any detectable effect on deer. I try to get to my stand a half hour to forty-five minutes at least before it starts to get light. This gives time for the woods to "settle back down". Besides, if I get busted on the way in, I figure I probably would also have gotten busted if I waited till it got light. That's just a risk that is a part of deer hunting, or to put it figuratively - somtimes you get the bear; sometimes he gets you.

[Roy Steele]

I walked in the dark for years.But for the last 5 or 6 years I wait to I can see.You can be more quit and watch rubbing against brush.But what really changed my mine was me and a friend.Walked down a fence line a good 45 min. before first light an a guy took about a 50 year shot at us.Good thing he was a bad shot.Stiil close enough that we heard the feathers go by.

[waknstak IL]

I always use a light even if I can see to navigate without it. Most public ground here is pretty crowded and I've witnessed some pretty dumb stuff. Even if it does bother em a little bit. I haven't seen a buck yet worth getting shot over. There are just too many idiots out there as Roys story above describes.

[GingivitisKahn]

Not sure if it's better to wait or to get in in the dark (think GFA advocates waiting until light - for what it's worth) but *especially* on public land, you really ought to use a light when traveling in the dark.

There probably aren't that many idiots out there (in archery season anyway) that will shoot at sound, but it really only takes one.  I'd rather spook deer than get feathered by some silly, sound-shooting noob.