my big fear is raising the alertness level of the deer.....i can understand maybe stopping a buck trailing a doe..his mind is elsewhere...but when you have a deer calmly feeding and make a noise to get it to freeze, he is going from feeding to full alert and doesnt know why...chances are way high that hes going to bolt at the sound of your bow...

ive had it happen...20yd shot...i was at full draw as he came by..."Bahh" the second he froze the arrow was loose....it was QUICK. still managed to duck as he went to bolt......


if they are feeding and milling around i'll wait for them to stop...or maybe even shoot them walking. but if someone jumps them and spooks them and they come trotting by my stand, im not going to try to stop them and shoot instantly. i may stop them and wait and hope they freeze and hang out and calm down, but thats unlikely to happen...but worth a shot maybe. my view is a deer that barrels by but doesnt know your there is more likely to show up later that hunt or that season than a wounded deer or a spooked deer....