They're no smarter.If they were,we wouldn't be harvesting such a high perentage of 2.5 year old bucks.Besides,regardless of how smart any animal is,they still leave sign,something that is non-existant in many places.I went out for a little while yesterday.As I snuck up to the side of a ravine,I caught a huge buck bedded down on a small bench on the opposite side.My buddy hunted this buck hard all archery season,he has at least a 24 inch spread.Unfortuanely for me,I killed a buck in archery season so all I could do was watch as he got up to stretch not 75 yards away.I still hunted in the wet leaves until 1:30 and neer saw another deer until I got to within 200 yards of my house.Two doe stood there not 30 yards away but the shot wasn't safe.

I've heard every theory on why guys aren't seeing deer this year.So far the mast crop,weather,failure to hunt new areas and now increased IQ level are the reasons for less deer.I would say 4 years of greatly increased allocation not to mention 9 more days to use those tags has greatly reduced the deer herd.Imagine that,less deer does in fact =less deer.