OHHHHH YEAH

Call me optimisticbut I think everything i hear in the woods is a deer.

I'd say 80% of the time i can usually tell if its one or the other, i didget busted this year though thinking it was a squirreland boy was i wrong! Pheasants to me sound exactly like a deer when walking.

I can usually tell... because all i usually see and here are squirrels.
Deer have a different cadence... but sometimes I am fooled.
The turkeys get me alot though...

On the flip side... I have shot 5 squirrels vs 2 deer this season!

I always find that when I hear a squirell/rabbit/armadillo, part of me is hoping that it is a deer, but the other part knows that it isn't, but I check anyway.

But, when it is a deer, somehow, I always know that it is a deer. I've never mistaken a deer for anything else.

The best way I can describe it (forgive me if someone has already covered this) ,,,,is the rustle of the leaves. Does it sound like someone tip toeing or sort of dragging their feet..

sometimes i know its a squirrel but i have to look anyway b/c times I havent looked and it was a deer...

I thought a squirrel was making noise this year and by time I turned to check to make sure, a pretty nice buck had already passed through myshooting lane. I check every sound now!Filed that under "Lesson Learned".

No squirrel where I hunt, but lots of hogs. Its easy to tell the difference in a deer and a hog. A hog sounds like a bull dozer and a deer sounds like a squirrel. lol.

Years ago I would have voted 50% but now I never get fooled. I hunt mostly timber and heavy forest and I can just tell the difference between the two sounds.

If you hear them enough they are really quite different.

I voted 100% because I have yet to be wrong in I cant remember how many years. Don't get me wrong, I ALWAYS look to see what's making the noise but I have yet to turn my head and be surprised at what I see (different from what I thought) maybe one day I will.........then I'll pull up this post and amend my answer.