FlaBoy18

I chose to write my major college paper of the semester on whitetail deer myth's. I know that many hunters have their own myth's about deer and was wondering if you all could share some with me. For instance, deer can see color. What other myth's about deer are their?

Thanks you for the help.

iSnipe

I can't help but want to criticize the grammar mistakes I see in your posts. I won't. I do think it's important though. Many myths I see are the products out there claiming to keep the deer away from people's yards. People are having their plants and shrubs dined on by deer and they fall for products to help eliminate them:

1.) Hanging soap bars from trees
2.) Hanging human hair from bags
3.) Place a decoy of a dog or coyote
4.) Hanging white sheets in trees nearby
5.) Peeing around the shrubs (LOL!)
6.) Pouring commercial coyote urine around

The list goes on. Yes, some of these methods work, but only for a very short time because deer around people's homes are already acclimated to human sounds and smells. If you add something nearby to the plants being eaten, the deer may notice, but quickly get use to it and back to munchin' they go. LOL!

The myth? That these products are effective as a deterrent to keep deer away from people's valuable plants.

Things that work: Erecting tall enough wire fences around more valuable shrubs. Planting only shrubs that aren't as appetizing to the deer. Well placed shots with a suitable weapon. LOL!

Good luck on your paper.

iSnipe

iSnipe

Another myth is: Only bucks leave large clumped droppings.

Yet another: Only bucks leave the large tracks. Contrary to that, is that many a hunter found the track maker of the large track to be a large doe. LOL!

More: That deer have 5 senses. Au contraire, mon amie. Many a hunter here can attest to the fact mature bucks have a 6th sense. They just seem to know something is wrong and are quicker to high-tail out of an area... and for no apparent reason. Yeah, there's a reason, they can mentally sense it.

iSnipe

WVCritter

Here's one of my favorites..."Bucks are smarter than does." I think that's a bunch of bull. First of all, almost hunting areas have less bucks than does and so naturally bucks are going to be harder to find. I hunted an area where and old mature doe would seek me out and stand off at a distance and warn other deer by snorting and blowing and all the while staying out of range. I can't say I've ever seen a buck do that. Come the rut, an old mature buck lets his guard down and gets as silly as a button buck. That ain't smart. Does tend to herd together and their safety is in numbers because of more eyes and ears to detect danger. I think wisdom comes with age and does probably live longer on the average than bucks.

teedub31

6th sense my arse. they are just a helluva a lot better and quicker at processing the stimuli that their 5 sense pick up. They no something is up not because of magic, but because one of their highly tuned 5 senses has put them on edge.

As for the paper topic, sure you might find it interesting and all, but you really need to evaluate the topic for the ability to write a major college paper about. I just have a feeling that this will be a difficult topic to acquire enough info on as anecdotal evidence from hunter will acceptable can't be your only source of research. Plus, the audience you are writing for will be largely unfamiliar with the myths you are writing about and will make the paper harder to read and evaluate. There are plenty of topics related to deer and deer hunting that will be easier to wrie about and maintain your interest will also giving you a much better opportunity to get a better grade. I wrote my W132 college reasearch paper on the need for deer hunting. It was twenty pages long. Profressor said it was one of the best ametuer research paper she had read (my brothers prof said the same thing 3 years later when he submitted it to his proff at a differnt school). The topic was clean and directed to my prof that had no understanding of anything deer other then they hit her care last fall. Personally, I feel you got to get your audience to see the need for hunting deer in a pro veiw before you jump them into reading evidence (myths fact fiction?) that you as a hunter will use to your advantage to harvest deer. Not trying to discourage you on the topic cause I would find it neat (but then again I am on this forum so what does that say). Just offering you my opinion based on my college experience.

Good Luck!

PS I don't have the paper anymore so don't bother asking (heheheheheh!!!)

teedub31

I am pretty sure statistically there are just about as many bucks as does. Not exactly sure of that, but am pretty confident that the ratio is close to 1 to 1 or 1.5 to in the natural order of things (also counting button bucks as bucks).

WVCritter

Not in West Virginia pal. The ratio here is about 10 does to 1 buck. They just recently changed the law on the bucks you could take here to 3 per season. It used to be 5 or 6. Hunters were and still are killing way to many bucks and not enough does.

iSnipe

That's right. It just may beyond something you are not willing to believe. Be in the woods as long as me and foiled many times over when there's no way any of their 5 senses could of beaten me and you'll quickly see why it leaves more questions than answers. Yeah, sure, there may have been times I swear I couldn't have been detected with their normal senses and it was. But to have it happen several times in a scenario that doesn't seem right, then those experiences start to leave questions. Leaves a man thinking "how the ****" could he have known something's up?

My experiences with mature bucks are not out of the ordinary. Hunters like Raglin, Mark and Terry Drury, Alan Altizer, the Wensel brothers, Jay Gregory, Nabors, Shockey and Greg Miller have all talked about bucks having an uncanny ability to sense something's not right. Go ahead, call Greg Miller and ask him why he doesn't like to stare at a buck when it's coming in. Matter o' fact, there are several hunters here who have experienced the same things and don't know why... and may not want to bring up their thoughts for fear of someone accusing them of believing in magic. I don't, but if someone else, that's their thing.

Plus, like I said clearly, many hunters know their experiences to be true and appears almost unexplainable. For a non-believer, it's like saying the Holocaust never existed... for some believe this, but it's the survivors, the ones who were there to experience it first hand, are the ones who know it to be otherwise.

With the big buck hunters I know and talked to, many of them have out-of-the-box thinking strategies that have gotten them bucks they probably wouldn't have got if it were not for their open-minded thinking.

Yeah, "my arse" alright. LOL! Like I was about to call someone I haven't talked to in a long time and I get a busy signal, only to find out they were calling me at the same time! Yeah, that's just a coincidence, right? Especially when it has happened several times.

iSnipe

teedub31

I still chalk it up to their superior senses. As hunters we think we know how good their sense are but it is a guess at best. All rections are are the result of stimuli. deer just can process those stimuli more accurately then we can.

And Halocaust denier (spelling stinks)??? You just linke with that nutjob in Iran. Not cool.

iSnipe

That statement in itself is a guess at best. LOL!


Rections? You aren't talking about what I think you are, are you? If so, then of course they are a result of stimuli. LOL!

Yea! By George, I think you've got it. I agree!

LOL! What? !!

That's fine. Your opinion is noted and nothing wrong with that...

...except when I'm straight downwind of where they are...
...and I haven't made a sound walking in that even I couldn't hear...
...and I haven't stepped near where they are...
...and I haven't moved a muscle...
...and I haven't made a sound...
...and I blend in the treetops like a pine cone...

...and somehow they exude an uneasiness about them with obvious body language they are not comfortable at all, then all of a sudden start buggin' out like they can't get away fast enough...

...then I believe it had nothing to do with their "superior senses". I just chalk it up to "coincidence". NOT.

C-yah.

iSnipe