ORIGINAL: HuntingBry
ORIGINAL: atlasman
ORIGINAL: HuntingBry
I am going to use the Drury's as an example again. On their managed property, the only way those bucks got that big was because they were passed as 2.5 and 3.5 year olds. During that time they have winded those guys while hunting, they have smelled where they have walked in, and surely noticed stands being put up. Those deer have seen pressure, maybe not what a buck in my area or your area would see, but still they know human=bad.
Do they??............that scent they smelled and the sights they saw posed no threat to them whatsoever. (Besides, I thought they couldn't smell the Drury boys due to all that carbon
) "Forget the wind".............just kidding man.........but seriously if those sights, sounds and smells never=danger before why would they fear them next time?? When a deer smells a human and then gets 5 slugs whizzing past his head I would think the effect is more lasting
Brucelanthier made the same point above, and to be honest, I never thought of it that way. To me, deer would just have an inheirent fear of humans, especially in their core area, but I guess it stands to reason that while that instinctive fear may be there that learned behavior through nothing bad happening may have them less skittish than the deer that run 5 miles through PA getting away from the orange army.
I'm still not letting go of my belief that all big bucks are a challenge, but you are making some good points that their behavior may be different in areas with less pressure. I can't speak to that since I've never hunted the "big buck states."
I can say this, while living in Florida I hunted a lease in Georgia that was on a peanut farm. Those deer were not heavily pressured by PA standards and there were some nice deer on that property. They were SPOOKY. I've never seen deer react to scent and little things that I could get away with in other areas. So, while geographic influence probably does exist, it is not necessarily directly linked to pressure.
So, while the pressure you and I know will most certainly affect behavior it is not the only factor there. Age, and some unknowns are there as well, at least from my experience.
Don't forget about all the feeding either, they associate human scent with food. Do they have anything to be scared of if a human is feeding them and not shooting at them. It's a pretty easy concept and it's a 100% true unless the deer has hunting pressure (slugs wizzing by)