The only analogy I see to chess, Duke....is "sometimes" (through our own dumb actions).....he/she DOES know they're playing the game. Most times (if we do our homework and hunt smart)......they never know the game is on.

Playing the game smart v. dumb is the key. The key to being successful is him never knowing he's in the game.

Duke, Duke Duke, you are so very right!! It is not a game to them for sure, I think most on here know that though, but still, like I said many times before, deer are the masters of woods I hunt, every so often on lets his guard down for whatever reason and I may be the lucky one there to capitalize on it or I may not.

Low profile. Low Education. Low Impact.

A sound strategy fo sho.

I agree

When it comes todeer hunting, most kills are ambush kills. To outsmart a deer it has to know that you are after him. Sitting in a tree and shooting an unsuspecting deer is not out smarting it at all. Its just called sitting in the right spot.

I'm having a tough time figuring out some of these responses with the people who don't think your out smarting the deer. For example, The buck I shot this last year I rattled in. I was trying to imitate 2 bucks fighting with each other, 20 minutes later he came to the exact tree I was rattling from. To me I outsmarted his butt, I fooled him into thinking there was 2 bucks fighting in his territory! That to me is out doing him. How can it not be??

Schultzy.. you answered your own Q. You fooled him.. he thought you were 2 bucks fighting.. he didn't think "hey that noise is either 2 bucks fighting or a freakin' human setting up to take me".

He didn't even know you were there. That's not out-witting him at all. You duped him Schultzy.. nothing wrong with that.. duper..

Totally agree

Sometimes you lose and you don't even know you've lost.

Schultzy I agree. How ever it is worded ultimately the deer is dead.Let's ask the millions of deer put into freezers this year if they were outsmarted, duped, lured, tricked, ambushed, etc. I'm sure they don't care what termwe use to describe their demise it's really all semantics. I agree with you,your buckwas tricked, outsmarted, fooled and he paid. Other than home court advantage and an amazing survival instinct centered around great senseswe have every advantage, the most important one being intelligence. I mean let's face it they are deer they have pear sized brains and this isn't rocket science as much as some would like to make it out to be.

I don't view it as outsmarting a deer. I look at it as using thier behavioral strengths & weaknesses in such a manner that allows you to kill them. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.