Originally Posted by
Boonechaser
If they didn't learn, remember and pattern us humans. Everyone would have a large set of antlers on the wall, instead I have read only about 1% of hunters will kill a deer larger than 160".
I hear guys all the time say, we just don't have deer that big here. All I can say is just cause you do not see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. They have out patterned you and know where you are.
Yes, the rut changes things but, that is with all males. throw it in front of us and we loose all thought and reason.
We have plenty of deer over 160" here, I have been fortunate to get a few of them. We see them at night and hope there going to be somewhere close in the mornign but bu then there either where they cant be hunted or in the Red Brush, the red brush is so thick and covers many acres that even if you try and drive them out they'll just run circles around you in that stuff, they know not to come out of it because if they do there in for it. So insted of messing with them we wait em out, and wait and wait, they never show. They live and die of old age. Sure a few are taken every year around here by lucky hunters, but 99% of them are only pictures on trail cams. That's why I love to hunt them, if it was easy then it would be no fun. I respect them big old bucks, but dang even in our early archery seasons they go nocturnal and only breed at night. Im still convinced that they have gotten smarter over the years, there is a smart gene and there passing it on, think of it the smart ones live and the unlucky ones or dumb ones die. They do have a memory reguardless of what others think. You take a Deer in a corn field filled with deer, then after that the deer know that it's not safe to be there, then they no longer come to that place again, if they do it's after dark. Smarter yes.
(BP)