Do Deer Look Up?

[Kingsnake]

I don't know if the rest of the gang with her knew what exactly the threat was, but they sure followed her lead in getting the heck out of Dodge!

Kingsnake

[Scarne]

Originally posted by BowHunterGA:
Happened to me a couple weeks ago and I still have not figured it out. Ol' Doe was walking quartering away from me, wind was in my face. She slammed on the brakes and snapped her head right up at me. I swear sometimes they have a 6th sense.

I think they call it a "back draft".  Hunt the wind is easy.  Manage the back drafts and the thermals in the terrain...not so much.

[Night Wing]

Busted!    

[olddogrib]

I've seriously considered putting a "dummy" (other than myself) in my treestand as a decoy and digging a pit blind.  Actually, I've killed more than one nosy old doe by putting up a second treestand and killing them while they're looking for me in the first one.  Use their superior intelligence against them!

[Lost Arra]

Kingsnake: how soon are you going back to that stand?
Around here that stand would be off limits for at least two weeks. For some old does, that stand would be cursed forever.

+1 on the 6th sense especially old does.

I think one doe even knew my truck and just made a tour of my stands until she found me!

[Roy from Pa]

Oh ya and once they see you, they will look up at your stand every time and start going way out around you.

[D]

If I get busted like that I'll stay out for a while and then usually move trees.

[Kingsnake]

I won't be back in that stand for a while  . .but that's more because I won't be able to get back to that property for at least a week.  Even then, I have a few other stands on that property that I can hunt instead.

The problem is . . .the lone white oak in that creekbottom is dropping acorns NOW.  This property is primarily pulp-wood pines.  Only the creek bottoms have any mast crop at all. Unfortunately, most of it is red oak.  This little white oak was key to my successful hunts with the wheelie . . .

Kingsnake

[lawman]

She is diffently educated. Maybe she sky lined you? Try a different tree next time. Lol. Good luck lawman

[GreyGoose]

Yep. especially if I make noise.

[jsweka]

I got busted big time this morning by a wise doe.  The wind was right and I was motionless. All I can figure is that she saw a 240# squirrel hanging off the side of a tree and knew something wasn't right with that picture.  Some foot stomps, a couple snorts, and she and her brood were outta there.

[Sam McMichael]

Sometimes they pattern us better than we pattern them.  Seems this old girl may be familiar with the dangerous places on your hunting tract. I truly believe that experienced does teach their young to look up.

[ChuckC]

A few years back I had a VERY nice buck walk into the woodlot I was hunting.  I couldn't shoot him cause it was earn a buck rules.  I watched as he took a few steps and very obviously looked around (up) into the trees ahead and repeated the process through the woodlot.  No doubt what he was doing.
ChuckC

[SELFBOW19953]

An old "horsehead" doe is a trophy!!  She taught that cagey buck everything he knows.  I've had them walk headon into range trying to locate me in a tree, blowing nearly every step, and then, whirl and be gone, along with every deer in the field-never offering a decent shot.  A week later all the deer still checked out that tree and gave it a wide berth, not even the fawns would get within range of it (I knew what would happen and had already moved my stand).

[30coupe]

A couple years ago I had a nice buck trailing a big old doe. She came by me at about ten yards. The buck was going to pass into my shooting lane at about 15 yards. I waited for the doe to get by me before I tried to draw on the buck. She was about five yards past me to my left. The buck stepped into my lane and I started to draw. Out of the corner of my eye I caught movement to my left, then I heard that dreaded sound you heard on the video. She blasted out of there and so did the buck, even though he never knew just why.

The next weekend, I was in the same stand. I saw a big doe coming down the fence line upwind of me. About every ten yards or so she would stop and look up into the trees. When she was about forty yards away, she found what she was looking for...ME! I was sitting dead still, but she still picked me off, snorting and flagging across the pasture.

Those big old does don't get that way by being stupid or forgetful. If you want a true trophy, try killing one of those old donkey-faced does. They make the bucks look like amateurs!

[rick7]

yes they do. seen them do it many times

[sweeney3]

I've noticed they are almost like dragon hunters: one eye on the sky all the time.      :rolleyes:

[Kingsnake]

Well, I have other stands to hunt, but if she tries that during muzzleloader ...      

Kingsnake

[Jim Rocole]

I have a simple rule. If a deer looks at me in a tree. I will either shoot them right then or hunt them until I do. A trick I've used is to leave the stand in palce and put another 20 yds away. This has worked for me on big does. It took me two yrs to take one out. It did not matter if the wind was right , where she came in from no matter what she would stop 10 yds from the field edge and look at that tree she busted me in stmp,snort and raise holy hell clear the field and walk away. I finally got her using a ghillie suit and a brush pile.I also think they past that trait of looking up to the young deer.

[Mint]

On Long Island they walk through the woods looking up. I've been busted 45 yards away during October when the leaves are still on the trees and really brusehed in. Unbelivable.