Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Whitetails are stupid.

Whitetails (including trophy bucks) get hit by vehicles, hung in fences, die of starvation when there's plenty to eat and will even mount a styrofoam decoy (Even my buddy John wouldn't do that).

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />hmmmm...every big buck I never saw I always thought was kinda smart...or else I was kinda dumb...whichever way it goes it adds up to the same thing...also I watch that show where people do things...I think it's called JACK ASS or sumpin'... any ways those people don't look to smart neither...Is you friend John on that show?

Maybe they are stupid, but they've outsmarted me on more occassions than I care to remember <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I doubt you will find any self-respecting whitetail voting for John Kerry.

i guess i'm more stupid than them, since i haven't got a trophy mount in a while
sambo

Stupid like a Fox!!!
Droptine

I'd put a Mature Whitetail buck, especially in the SE, against any big game aninal in the US for leader in the smarts dept. Wiley, cagey, crafty, adaptable against hunting pressure, you name it they've got it all..

Mike

They are dumb until you try to hunt them !

And your point is??? I have people in all of the above situations, well if you count out the decoy and include a blow-up doll.

Be carefull guys. Comparing animal intelligence to human intelligence is comaparing apples to oranges. Animal intelligence if of a different order.



Deer are a heck of a lot smarter knowing what a scent on the wind means than any of us ever will be.



They can see and hear a lot better than any of us can and only fail in interpretation but get a lot better with experience. A five year old knows and understands a lot more than and 18 months deer.



Do they appear, to us, stupid at times. Sure, because we are not deer and do not act like deer. They are not stupid in their own world.



BCR

I'm not sure about that Boggy...the wind seems to be bringing me the scent of a TROLL from the original post. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Dale

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ROTFLMAO Well said Sir!

HHmmmmmm.And lets think, Men will get drunk and drive, chase woman and get veneral disease or use one hand and a magazine, supersize everything and ignore heart disease, Use a 300 ultra ultra magnum on a 100 lb doe and take shots at 1000 yards. Hmmmmm...... And your point is? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Oh, I would say they are much like men, pretty smart until they start chasing after p*$$y... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />AMEN TO THAT

If the hunting season was ended before the rut most of the big whitetail bucks would never be harvested.

As the original poster, I do not know what a TROLL is! (I was not a cheerleader.) I did know this would bring about a lively conversation, as it always does around the real campfire. Suck it up guys, whitetails are just GOATS! I live to hunt them, and have for 30 years. I think deer hunting 365 days of the year. Please don't be so offended. They do not outsmart you. They out"sense' you, as in sight, smell and hearing.

How smart are deer?

Deer can do a pretty good job of figuring out the big things in life, like where to go find food, water, shelter. They know the difference between a predator that wants to eat them and one that does not. I frequently stop the car and roll down the window and talk to deer beside the road. They just stand and watch me. This is different from turkeys, which will flee from a human at 500 yards.

Little things escape them. I had a doe wind me the other day. It was one of those 20-30 mph days where you keep checking your safety belt. She came in on my precise downwind side and snorted and stamped for several minutes before running off. An hour later, she came back with her friend in tow and entered the area from a crosswind angle and never bothered to think about what she�d smelled before.

What is really interesting is what happened after I shot the lead doe. Her buddy completely ignored the cloud of acrid smoke that blew over her from my muzzleloader and casually walked over and stood around her friend, taking a serious dirt nap. I watched for a full 20 minutes, while she waited for the dead deer to get up and move. Meanwhile, I was rummaging around, getting my gear together and calling for the truck to come pick me up. In the end, the doe just flicked her tail and walked off munching stuff as she went.

I�ve seen deer walk over gut piles, and snort at stumps with arrows sticking in them. I�ve shot a doe in the chest only to have her walk directly over to my stand and take a second and then a third shot. Mortality is not a real clear subject to them.

Deer live in the moment. They can deduce that if they wind you several times in one spot, they will avoid that area, or be very wary when they come through. However, they will not write off a stand site from one season to the next. I have missed a deer one weekend, and nailed the same deer a week later.

Deer do not see the big picture. If deer could deduce what we were up to, they would be un-huntable. They see us as a nuisance. When the orange army descends on them, they retreat. However, I have never seen that pattern last for long. We had muzzleloaders going off all weekend. The week before was youth season, and there were rifle shots from morning until night. Have the deer figured out yet what is going on? I doubt it. I am sure I could go back to the stand I went to three weeks ago or two weeks ago, and see deer.

On the other hand . . . I�ve seen a smart old doe run from my muzzleloader as I raise it and then suddenly stop, letting the bullet pass in front of her nose. She then went back to eating grass and flicking her tail. How she knew I was no longer a threat is beyond me. Perhaps she was too stupid to realize what was going on, or perhaps she was trying to draw me out and miss. Who knows?

Yep, them deers are pretty smart. See `em at the library all the time reading books. Or, working in the labratory peering through microscopes, building bridges, designing space ships to send probes to distant planets.

Come on! get real. Deer are stupid compared to humans. It's more than just opposeable thumbs that keep them sleeping on the bare ground and eating twigs and acorns. When did a deer ever write a poem or figure out how to make steel out of iron?

They're just pretty tough to sneak up on is all.

If you only got it one time of the year you'd get a little stupid. Hey wait a minute who am I kidding, it is just like being married! As soon as the anniversary is knocking I get stupid to, couple close calls with cars, fences and other hurdles.

Seriously though all animals have the ability to be almost stupid like and then be ghost like. Since were talking whitetails of which I scout a ton and can tell the regulars on the block. I can't tell you how many times I have utter the words "hey have you seen that buck before" or "where did he come from". Heck same can be said for "where in the heck did he go". Have witnessed bucks both Mule and Whitetail crawl or vanish into nothing in the prairie's of Saskatchewan they aren't no fools. One buck I have been hunting in the ML zone the past few years is an example; he lives in a large lot(for the area) of dense willows which is located 1/2 mile from a old well travelled highway due to all the acreage development. I have seen him duck, yes duck when he hears or sees a vehicle. I have watched him cross the highway but only under nightfall, I had him at 30 yards last fall but it was 30 minutes to late. The farmer sees him all the time running does in his pasture but doesn't hunt or allows hunting. I hunt his field where the deer eats and I'm sure chases does but I have yet to have a crack under legal times. I have even seen him jump a fence and stand directly behind a "No hunting sign" during the summer. You swear he could read but is so aware of his surrounding and knows where to be/when. Obviousily he makes few mistakes, as with any mature animals. He will make a mistake and most likely it will be his dimize but will it be me, another hunter, deer, car...I don't know. The wife calls him snuffabuckless, she doesn't believe he exists nor a deer can be that elusive to this wiley hunter. He ain't human smart but he has outsmarted this human so far, same can be said for a number of deer, elk, moose..whatever. With every easy hunt I have ever had, many more are work and with every mistakes on their part many more have been made up the upright stupid guy. Utmost respect for the game I chase and I think that is what fuels my passion for the sport. Curve ball after curve ball they always show me something new and just how little I know about their world!