Pressured deer behavior question?

[rybohunter]

Part 1
In your observations & experiences, when deer are bumped by a hunter under the following conditions, how far do think they will go before stopping or feeling safe?

I bring this up because in trying to formulate a game plan for bowhunting the rifle season, I have not done very well in picking a location where the deer come into and feel safe enough to stop. Time and time again I"™ve seen deer come from hundreds of yards away into a thicket and just keep on moving thru it. These are places that are normally bedding areas so its safe to assume the deer feel somewhat safe there. Yet once they get bumped around they refuse to stop. It seems very odd. Does anyone have a feel for this? I"™ve buried myself in isolated thickets, 300-400 yds from the nearest person. Deer run in, maybe slow a little but 90% of them just keep on rolling with out stopping. Some will at least stop & go their way thru but they still go thru.

Part 2 is if there are deer already bedded in said thicket and they have deer come zipping past, will they join them or stay there?

[PreacherTony]

rybo ..... you might think this is crazy, but thick thick thick areas near food areas ... get yourself a tri-pod and put it in the thick stuff ...... getting a shot can be difficult, however. They will stay in there ..... you'll hear them when you cant see them .... at least in one of our set-ups .....it's a wild way to hunt

Bedded deer will join deer that come into the area, in my experience ..... now I am talking shell shocked deer ........

[Rick James]

I've yet to see a bumped deer join a calm one. If anything I'd imagine the norm to be the calm one now goes too, I've seen this several times. From what I've seen at my place is the deer when bumped run immediately to the sanctuary areas on the property and stay there. I've never pushed them once in these areas and rarely hunt them there, only maybe 1-2 hunts per year and only during the last week of PA archery, so I'm guessing this is why they stop there and don't continue. I'm guessing this doesn't help you a ton because most people don't have access to a property where they can create and make a sanctuary that's off limits, but it's what I've seen.

Normally in my experience with areas that have no sanctuary the deer run around like maniacs the entire time when pressured and there is no rhyme or reason to the movement.

[Buck Magnet]

Hey Ryan,
I think the ticket is to actually get out of the "big woods". When rifle season is on, I have found the smallest pieces of brush seem to hold the most deer. Just today I took my grandfather out hunting and I did a little drive through a piece of brush that was probablly 3/4 of an acre in size and I bumped 3 bucks and 5 does out of this piece alone. It is just a nasty little thicket full of grape vines and green briars with some big oaks mixed in. These are the type of places that the rifle hunters forget about and don't mess around in, and thats where the deer seem to go. Bowhunting these areas will be tough, pushing impossible, but you gotta hunt where the deer are.

As far as the running deer go. I havn't noticed deer ever really slowing down or stopping inside the woods when they are spooked. I usually see them hit grown up fields and stop. I know that I have seen deer that were spooked run right through some great bedding areas, across somebodies lawn, across a road and into a grown up horse pasture where they just stop, mill around a bit and bed down.

[Germ]

I think the ticket is to actually get out of the "big woods". When rifle season is on, I have found the smallest pieces of brush seem to hold the most deer.

Gospel right there

Second part, they run farther than most think during gun season, and less the n most think during bow All I got, LOL

[dukemichaels]

Second part, they run farther than most think during gun season, and less the n most think during bow-Germ

Right on Germ.... right on!

I'd also like to second the notion that a deer spooked and running through a bedding area will not cause the other deer to run too. However once again each situation is different. But mature bucks don't for the most part.. in fact I have seen many a mature buck bed.. right then and there if he does not know where danger is. After about 45-60 minutes of silence.. he'll rise and cautiously continue.

But again... each situation is different.. every deer has his or her own agenda and I really don't think their is a magic formula.. you just have to adapt and adapt quickly sometimes.

[AF Hunter]

I've noticed in my few years of hunting, that deer will either run out into the middle of a large open area where they can see danger coming for some distance or they runthrough an open area into another wooded area before stopping. My best luck has been to place myself inside the edge of a wooded area across from the wooded area being hunted and bingo here they come and then stop usually within a few feet of me. Good luck.

BTW small draws in open fields are a great place to put a ground blind when guns are blaring too.

[mauser06]

tough questions...really no "set in stone answers" as im sure you know...

in my expiriences, deer seem to stop/slow down at different times, depending on what they seen/heard. if they SEEN, heard and maybe even got shot at, or are continually being trailed, or smell danger, they arent likely to stop. but, if they just THINK something is wrong, or maybe just heard something or winded something they precieve as danger, they dont tend to go too far. really depends IMO...

2, i would venture to say that when deer come blazing through, its not uncommon for others to join. all too often in our rifle and flintlock drives we put out a single, or double or small group, to have the standers or other drivers say they seen the deer but there was MORE than what was originally put out...if you saw 20 people in your work building running for saftey, your not gunna sit at your desk...lol.

my hat is off to you trying to bowhunt during a PA rifle season...heck, 4 or 5 years ago i joined a crew that drives and havent looked back...stand hunting, even in the thick nasty stuff on smaller woodlots, is about fruitless, even with a rifle..if the crew im with doesnt come through, another crew DOES come through, or other guys are in the area. houses and such places where rifle hunters cant get save ALOT of smart deer year to year in my area...not uncommon for deer to bed in the jagur patch or thicket just behind the houses and lay there till dark...one of our best spots to push is such a spot...but its a fallen down, abandoned house..not an occupied dwelling. the other crews see a "house" and stay away...its on my buddies farm and that jagur patch almost always has a goodun hiding in it..just hard to push it because the woods below it is a pumpkin patch lined thick with boomsticks...i really think deer in the area know houses generally mean saftey...that particular house is half falling down and noones been there in YEARS, yet the deer know to go there....i guess besides my crew though, noone really gets within 100yds of them though..

good luck rybo....my hats off to you...your trying to do, what IMO, is next to impossible...but your doing it right..with planning and proper tactics, i bet it can work well....and dont forget, suck up that extra 100yd saftey zone you as a bowhunter has!! heck, get permission and hunt the jagur patch thats right behind the houses...

[atlasman]

ORIGINAL: Germ

Gospel right there

Second part, they run farther than most think during gun season, and less the n most think during bow All I got, LOL

Yup.