Hankfan I have always been of the understanding that deer see in a black, white and gray world. But the catch to that is the brighter the color, the brighter white they see. White fletchings would be very bright white to a deer. Now there eye sight is nowhere near as good as a turkey's but they will see them. I I think movement plays a big part in it. If you move a lot I think bright fletchings will be like flashes of lite to a deer. Thats why I take my quiver off when in the stand.

My personal opinion though is that at the cost of good carbon shaft's, I still use at least one white fletching with 1 or 2 {just depends on my mood when I have arrows fletched} Flouresent fletchings and always white nocks.

I've been using 2 white and 1 white/black barred with a white nock on my shafts for years and i've never had a problem with deer spooking because of my colors.

I don't know about a deer's ability to pick up the color white specifically, but it does make sense to me that brighter colors will help a deer detect your movement. If the thing you're moving (arrow) blends in with what's behind it, that's good, but if it doesn't, it's going to stand out more. Period. I think movement is the key though. If it doesn't move, it shouldn't spook 'em.

I use brighter colors too (white and orange for early season when there are leaves on tth trees, and white and green for after the leaves have fallen). I want to see where my arrow hit, and that means using bright fletch/cresting.
I also want to recover my arrow whether it is shootable or not for these reasons...
-Arrows are expensive
-It can show evidence of where you hit the deer
-if it was a killing shot the arrow has sentimental value to me
-I don't want to have an animal or hiker get injured on my broadhead because I was too lazy to pick it up

I take the following precautions to keep deer from picking up my movement...
-arrange arrows in quiver so that the colors are mixed and it won't appear to be a big patch of the same color from a distance
-remove quiver from bow while on-stand so it doesn't move when I do
-when a deer is nearby, I move as little as possible, preferably only when the deer is not looking my way or his view is obstructed
-when I don't think there is a deer nearby and I have to move, try not to move the bow/arrows any more than necessary

Predator Camo and New Mossy Oak Break Up camo have large patches of white in them. The "Nuge" or ole Ted shoots a completely white arrow. Believe it or not, white is a natural occuring color in the wild. ie...Whitetail.

Don't worry, be happy.[8D]

They may be able to see it, but probably only if your moving. I use white with bronze bar, and i havnt had any problems. But, like everyone has said, the main reason you use white is so you can see it better, so im sure they probably can to.

[quote]ORIGINAL: VAhuntr

KY_BOWMAN

What you are not taking in to consideration is how nervous or "on edge" the deer is. The sound from a noisy bow will be much faster than any compound bow. Maybe someone with a physics background can give a better answer but I seem to remember that the speed of sound is over 1000 fps. I'm sure this can vary with temperature, altitude and probably many other things as well but it is still much faster than a bow! The deer do not "turn and run away" as you say, they actually drop their body or duck causing the arrow to pass over them. This can and has happened to people inside of 30 yards. I used to have a video of close calls showing this. It was pretty amazing to watch what these animals can do.

WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS THAT I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A DEER WILL HAVE TIME TO MOVE COMPLETELY OUT OF THE WAY RUNNING AWAY MIND YOU BY THE TIME THE ARROW HITS WHERE IT WAS AIMED AT.

I KNOW THAT DEER CAN DUCK THE ARROW AND I KNOW THAT THIS IS A NATURAL THING FOR A DEER TO DO. I JUST DON'T THINK THAT A DEER IS GOING TO HAVE THAT MUCH TIME TO RUN AWAY AND BE OUT OF THE SIGHT PICTURE BY THE TIME THE ARROW GETS THERE.