5 Fallacies in Deer Hunting

5 Fallacies in Deer Hunting

By Jason Smith

While brainstorming on this topic, I had so many different items jotted down that I almost didn’t know where to start. I’ve thinned them down as well as I could, by picking out and sharing just a handful of my favorites.

1: Bucks Contribute More to Offspring Genetics than Does, and Cull Bucks Exist
If you’re a deer hunter, it’s easy to tell a mature trophy buck when you see one. Walking through the woods, feeding in an open field, or chasing a doe across the road in front of your car, etc., it only takes a quick glance to recognize their dominant size and stature, and the majesty of their antlers, like a large crown upon their heads.

If you’re anything like me, you might find yourself pondering to yourself, if he’s THAT BIG, I wonder if his older brother, father or grandfather is alive, and what they must look like. Then I immediately go to hoping he’s spreading along his good genetics to the does in the area. Followed soon by, I need to find out who owns that land.

We see the big antlers and immediately think that those trophy genetics came solely from the male’s lineage, and we’re, well, wrong for thinking that. Just like in humans, it takes two to tango, so to speak. It takes the combination of male and female DNA to make a baby, and the genetic contribution to do so is roughly a 50/50 split, so body size and antler mass can just as easily come from mom’s lineage as it can from dad’s lineage. Have you ever known a young man that took after his mother’s side of the family in looks and/or physical build? The same thing happens with deer too.

Genetics can also lay dormant in a parent, but be passed along to their offspring. Think about a family that is generally tall. Say, mom’s 5’11”, dad’s 6’4”, three of their four children are between 6’1” and 6’9”, but one of their children is 5’6”. That shortest child moves away to a different area, where nobody knows their family, and begins a family of their own. People tend to be shocked when they marry a spouse who’s also 5’6”, and they have a child who grows up to be 6’10”. Just because mom and dad aren’t all that tall, doesn’t mean they aren’t carrying genetics to create tall children.

The same can be said for a so called ‘Cull Buck’. You have no idea what dormant genetics that buck has potential to pass on to their offspring. Also, unless the buck is clearly old (on the back side of the downward slide), severely injured or sick, there’s also no way to say if that buck won’t one day mature into trophy, but I’ll talk about that in more detail later on.

2: Once Spooked, Mature Bucks Run For the Hills, Never To Be Seen Again
Mature bucks can be a bit reclusive, anti-social, and spooky or extremely alert. All of these qualities help them to survive and thrive to grow into the magnificent animals that they become. With this said, if they didn’t ever return to an area that they were spooked out of by a coyote, falling tree branch, ATV, or human hunter, etc., they’d quickly run out of ‘Safe Spaces’ to go.

Deer snort, raise their flags and run off due to being spooked by one thing or another on a daily basis. It’s a common occurrence that is hardwired into their instinctive fight or flight response. It wasn’t instilled in deer by human hunters.

Now, I will say that there is a difference between a soft bump and a hard bump, being, soft bump equating to lightly spooking deer as you may be quietly walking through the woods where the deer trots off waiving their tail, stopping to look back every few bounds, and hard bump equating to deer turning inside out to get away from you in a full out sprint as soon as they’ve spotted you or you have taken a shot at them, etc. In either case, if it’s the deer’s home turf, there’s a good chance that they won’t completely relocate. It usually takes repeated and constant pressure to push deer completely out of their home territory. But, if a big buck has busted you in your favorite stand, there’s a good chance he’s going to eyeball that spot heavily every single time he comes into that area again, until the day he dies. He may even go as far as staying even more recluse, moving about sparingly and doing so during the cover of darkness.

3: Deer Are Color Blind And Can’t See Blaze Orange
While it is true that scientific examination of deer eyes has revealed that deer probably don’t see as many colors as, or to the degree humans do, they can see a 12”X12” patch of solid blaze orange. It doesn’t stand out as vividly to them as it does to humans, but they can still see it. Big patches of solid blaze orange does not occur naturally in nature, so they see it and are alerted by it.

Part of this is due to the color, obviously, but other equal or greater parts of this is due both to it being a solid block of color with a solid outline, and the reflectiveness of the material. In short, if hunters dyed all of their blaze orange another solid color, e.g. red, blue, black, and even green or brown, etc., they would find that deer would still be able to pick them out, simply by the new solid colored object sitting in their living room.

4: Moon Phases Dictate Deer Movement
Every year, leading up to the rut, I read several forums and articles that talk about the best days to hunt, based on the moon phase. Every year, I swear that I won’t, but I get excited when I read them. And every year, I experience first-hand, once again, that these predictive models are complete wastes of time and energy to both produce and consume.

Fuller and full moon phases do provide more light at night for deer to see better as they feed and look for dancing partners, it does little to nothing else to affect rut activity.

The length of daylight is what triggers the rut. That’s based on the date on the calendar, and it remains the same year in and year out. Specific date ranges can often be hot in one local area and not so hot in another local area. Once you figure out what date ranges are hot for what properties etch it in stone and hunt those properties on those dates every year, unless or until it possibly changes.

Cold snaps and driving rain can affect the rut a bit by a day or two, but that’s it. Mother Nature can only put a short pause on the reproductive cycle of whitetail deer. Once daylight hours get to a certain point, the clock starts ticking and there’s no stopping it. The moon could fall out of the sky and deer would continue doing their thing within the same hot date ranges they’ve always done them in.

5: Peak Rut Is the Best Time to Harvest a Mature Buck
I won’t lie. I LOVE to hunt the rut. Especially peak rut! It’s an absolute blast. The deer activity is nonstop some days and it’s a neat experience to witness it. Bucks of all different ages and sizes pushing does around like kids chasing each other on the playground. It’s intense.
However, just because multiple deer are on their feet and moving around during the daylight hours, you may not see a single mature buck amongst them. This is not uncommon. Mature bucks tend to dance to the beat of their own drum. They may be active at night and resting during the day. They may not be in the area at all. Heck, they may not even be interested in the rat race.

Personally, I have been harvesting mature bucks in late October and early January these past few years. I still schedule a majority of my vacation time to coincide with the rut, and I see a ton of deer, but haven’t sealed the deal on a mature buck during the rut for a few seasons now.

Honorable Mention
Only Big Properties Produce Big Bucks, Thick Cover Is Required To Hold Deer, and Big Mature Bucks Don’t Live Close To Human Traffic.

If you’re passing over small properties that don’t have big thick patches of ground cover or are butted up against or even within a populated area, you’re not taking advantage of some great hunting opportunities that may practically be just a few minutes from your garage.

Small draws and thin travel corridors are often overlooked, but they can produce nicely. Often, you can get to and setup undetected in these areas in comparison to bigger thicker timbers. Also, small patches of structure restricts or shrinks the area that deer travel within, so if you setup correctly, you can actually have a higher percentage shot at deer in the area, because they’re almost guaranteed to travel within your shooting range.

Bucks can be and are everywhere, including within city limits. As long as they feel relatively safe, they have access to food and water, and does are around, (especially during the rut), then bucks will be there too. Going back to talking about genetics, some bucks are genetically blessed to be predisposed to wall hanger characteristics, no matter where.

The spookiest deer I’ve ever hunted are the ones that rarely, if ever, encounter people, and the big mature bucks in those areas are usually wound up tighter than the rest. In my opinion, these ‘Big Country’ deer are the hardest to hunt. They may not even know what humans smell or look like, so as soon as they smell or see one for the first time, they bolt.

Deer that live in a relatively close proximity to towns, cities, roads, bike paths, parks, etc. tend to be much mellower, cool, calm and collected than ‘Big Country’ deer. They smell and see people on a regular basis and in time determine that we aren’t a predator or a threat to them.

Sure we’re noisy, stinky, and move around a lot, but we’re not pursuing them. They become comfortable, accustomed to human sights, sounds and smells.

And if you don’t think deer populations are very high within or near residential areas, I recommend you qualify for and participate in a local urban hunting program. I will all but guarantee you will change your mind after a single season. Plus, there’s a good chance you’ll see a big ol’ bruiser or two that you had no idea resided just a few blocks away from your front door.

The biggest thing to remember in the world of hunting whitetails is there is no magic bullet that will work each time. What works for some hunters may not work for other hunters. That is what makes this sport so much fun. We are pursuing an advisory whose sole purpose is to evade danger and survive. Whitetails will do so how they best see fit on an individual basis. Some of their moves may coincide with common hunting knowledge or quite possibly some of their moves may leave you scratching your head thinking “they were not supposed to do that.”

Sometimes it is best to think outside the box and go against the grain when hunting whitetails. Believe what you see, not what you hear!