Deer travel in relation with wind

[BHC]

I listened to Dr. Grant woods give a talk on whitetail deer. Part of which was on there behavior. He said deer a very conditional specifies. And gave pavlov's dog as an example. He said he has no doubt on 'his' property that he could store corn with his dirty close and regularly feed deer the corn. After time the deer would show no fear of his scent and may even become somewhat attracted to it. He went on to say that he he would consider that practice as unethical, and would never do so.
I myself have hunted a neighborhood setting. We walked down the street to get to stand locations. U could pass within 20 yrds of deer from the rd, and they would not spook. However you step inside the woods, they became as finicky as any deer I've hunted..

 

[BSK]

This discussion sure flies in the face of the current commonly accepted advice of staying out of the woods except for hunting season...

I generally do not give that advice. I believe that by totally staying out of the woods until hunting season, the hunter creates a situation where ANY introduction of human scent during deer season produces a far great avoidance reaction from deer. Other than always trying to stay out of sanctuaries, outside of hunting season (winter, spring, summer) I do a lot of work on foot in the woods I'm going to hunt in the fall. Now I'm not wandering around everywhere scouting, but I'm doing timber hack-and-squirt work in given locations.

I'm not suggesting hunters wander all over their hunting property all the time, but I believe the idea of staying completely off the property except to hunt can be counter-productive. It makes the deer extra jumpy about human scent.

...and using only an ATV to approach trail cameras for fear of leaving a bit of human scent in the area, doesn't it?

Depends on where the trail-camera is. If it is in an area of high natural human traffic, foot approach doesn't really matter. If it is in an area of low human traffic, it can matter a great deal.

For example, my late-summer salt lick camera locations are on main roads very near high human traffic food plots. I'm not in the least bit careful about my scent around those salt-lick cameras, and with black-flash, I can get the same mature bucks coming back to the salt day after day. But during the season, if I have a camera over a scrape on an old abandoned skidder trail, way back in the woods where I don't travel often except to hunt, I'm DEFINITELY riding an ATV to the cameras and trying not to leave any scent. Through years of experimentation, I've found I can continue to get pictures of older bucks at these "out of the way" camera locations for a much longer period of time if I ride an ATV to the camera rather than walk to the camera. I believe it is the scent left on the ground by walking that produces this observed difference.

 

[BSK]

I myself have hunted a neighborhood setting. We walked down the street to get to stand locations. U could pass within 20 yrds of deer from the rd, and they would not spook. However you step inside the woods, they became as finicky as any deer I've hunted..

Another great example. Time and again I've seen just how "spatially" aware deer can be. In an area where human traffic is a regular occurrence, and has never caused them harm, deer will learn to ignore that human scent. However, very nearby (and I mean only 50 yards away), if human scent is suddenly introduced into an area where it normally doesn't occur, the same deer react VERY negatively to it.

 

[diamond hunter]

BSK,Im trying to send you a pm and you are full........

 

[BSK]

BSK,Im trying to send you a pm and you are full........

OK, I'll clean out the PM box.

 

[woodsman87]

I have also hunted in a neighborhood a time or two. They started to allow bow hunting because of over population, and habitat loss.

Pedestrians, horseback riding, hiking, vehicles, you name it; you could almost pet deer. Get in a stand, they gone!

 

[diamond hunter]

I sent one in the other message from before..thanks a lot..

 

[benellivol]

I myself have hunted a neighborhood setting. We walked down the street to get to stand locations. U could pass within 20 yrds of deer from the rd, and they would not spook. However you step inside the woods, they became as finicky as any deer I've hunted..

Another great example. Time and again I've seen just how "spatially" aware deer can be. In an area where human traffic is a regular occurrence, and has never caused them harm, deer will learn to ignore that human scent. However, very nearby (and I mean only 50 yards away), if human scent is suddenly introduced into an area where it normally doesn't occur, the same deer react VERY negatively to it.

An older man told me he put corn out all summer and banged on a piece of metal with a stick as he was doing it. He could walk in, bang on a piece of metal and have deer surround him.

I laughed, but he may have been serious.

 

[Nealmeally]

I myself have hunted a neighborhood setting. We walked down the street to get to stand locations. U could pass within 20 yrds of deer from the rd, and they would not spook. However you step inside the woods, they became as finicky as any deer I've hunted..

Another great example. Time and again I've seen just how "spatially" aware deer can be. In an area where human traffic is a regular occurrence, and has never caused them harm, deer will learn to ignore that human scent. However, very nearby (and I mean only 50 yards away), if human scent is suddenly introduced into an area where it normally doesn't occur, the same deer react VERY negatively to it.

An older man told me he put corn out all summer and banged on a piece of metal with a stick as he was doing it. He could walk in, bang on a piece of metal and have deer surround him.

I laughed, but he may have been serious.

I believe him...

 

[BSK]

I laughed, but he may have been serious.

Very plausible. I've seen human-deer interactions similar to that.

 

[benellivol]

I laughed, but he may have been serious.

Very plausible. I've seen human-deer interactions similar to that.

You never know what to believe out of 70 year old men

 

[BSK]

I laughed, but he may have been serious.

Very plausible. I've seen human-deer interactions similar to that.

You never know what to believe out of 70 year old men

I've seen food conditioning turn wild deer into near pets to individual people, yet those same deer remain as jumpy around other humans as any other wild deer.

 

[bowriter]

Bang on a piece of metal?? Why not? I have seen horses and cattle called in by banging on a metal bucket. Why not deer? After all, they come to the sound of a feeder coming on.

 

[Winchester]

Its all about conditioning! If you take the time you can condition the deer, especially younger deer to accept lots of abnormal things. Not many of us have the time to do such things to the extent of being very successful. I will have to travel the route of trying to go undetected to the best of my ability in most places I hunt. As for the wind, which started this thread, you sometimes have to take what your given. Which many times means im hunting a cross or quartering wind to gain what little advantage these older deer give you. Rarely can I ever set up with the wind in my face and say yep he will walk in with the wind at his back! Ha maybe never would be closer to true.