Anybody Think Whitetails are Stupid?

[fishhawk2700]

My great nephew is a cop for a department in SE Michigan. This is a pic from INSIDE the department compound.

 

[snapbang]

When I worked "in the city" we new of several places where big deer lived. All they need is an abandoned lot or two, a drainage, a power line, a swamp, and they will thrive. But the Police compound seems like an especially clever place to survive.

 

[deermanok]

I don't think they're stupid but sometimes they can get into some weird places. I've seen pictures of deer in people's homes and in stores. What were they thinking

 

[Underclocked]

Not that one.

 

[4stringdude]

I don't think they are stupid. Although they may do stupid things. Especially when the rut is on.

I think they can learn where a safe place is located and make a home there. Even in a city.

 

[rangerod]

Deer are certainly smart and no how to avoid danger. However, I think we tend to give them credit they don't deserve because of our belief in old myths. I once heard many years ago that a big buck will travel into the wind.Over the years I've probably seen100's of bucks traveling down wind.Another old myth has to do with the wonderful pee bottle.We assume anything that a deer smells that's somewhat foreign to it will spook it. Ain't so.Back in the 70's I remember lots of hunters using vanilla as a cover scent.I totally refuse to pee in a bottle and hall it around with me. Makes me wanna heave up just thinking about it.

 

[4stringdude]

Deer are remarkably adaptable. Even adapting to urban life.

Myths about deer do persist. I feel that the whole urine smell thing has been debunked. However, I still hear people perpetuating it. I know from experience that it doesn't spook deer. I have created mock scrapes and urinated on them. Trail cam photos from the same day show deer willingly coming to them and sniffing around even scraping some themselves.

 

[fishhawk2700]

This population or Whitetails are in the middle of a densely populated suburban area. They travel up and down a creek bed a drainage into several small wooded areas. There are three or four bucks of the same class in this area along with a bunch of does and fawns. The locals and the cops keep an eye out for them. Buck of that quality will bring out the a$$&=#es that are willing to poach anywhere.

 

[rangerod]

Deer are remarkably adaptable. Even adapting to urban life.

Myths about deer do persist. I feel that the whole urine smell thing has been debunked. However, I still hear people perpetuating it. I know from experience that it doesn't spook deer. I have created mock scrapes and urinated on them. Trail cam photos from the same day show deer willingly coming to them and sniffing around even scraping some themselves.

I have a friend who always pees in a scrape if it's being used. It's been my experience that bucks often will make a scrape and never go back to it.

 

[rangerod]

I wonder if I could save up my pee and sell it as a scrape lure.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I wonder if I could save up my pee and sell it as a scrape lure.

You definitely could. I can just picture some guys spraying it on themselves opening day.

 

[sheriffjohn]

Studies have shown in areas where leash laws prohibit free-running dogs, deer populations explode. Dogs chase 'em and vehicles hit them - simple stuff for a critter with no natural predators around.

Only time they're stupid is during the rut. Old guys know how that gets males in trouble. Same goes for Bucky. Burglary call with one room smashed - china cabinet, TV, etc. - buck charged his reflection in a glass door, got in and couldn't get out for a while. Stupid deer.

 

[alternate]

I use a pee bottle in a tree stand and would never consider not using one. Sure deer have come to root around human piss but how do you know how many bucks were warned by the smell and you never saw them. Anyway, I've never heard of a deer that was spooked by a lack of human pee smell so I'll keep using my bottle.

 

[bronko220002]

Stupid is a relative term. Whitetails as well as many other animals can figure out where they can go to be safe just asthey can to get food, water and shelter.
My son is a CO at a federal prison and I had to pick him up from work one time. It was crazy. Huge B&C class buck just laying beside the road watching the vehicles go by!

 

[bronko220002]

I use a pee bottle in a tree stand and would never consider not using one. Sure deer have come to root around human piss but how do you know how many bucks were warned by the smell and you never saw them. Anyway, I've never heard of a deer that was spooked by a lack of human pee smell so I'll keep using my bottle.

No need to pee in a bottle. Urine is urine no matter what animal it comes from. Pee in a hot scrape sometime and come back a day or 2 later and see how its tore up.

 

[alternate]

No need to pee in a bottle. Urine is urine no matter what animal it comes from. Pee in a hot scrape sometime and come back a day or 2 later and see how its tore up.

Like I said, deer will often tear up a spot where you peed or even pooped but I don't know what happens with deer I never got to see. Here in Ct there's plenty of hunting pressure and if you drop a few branches at the base of your tree even a dumb young spike will often look up at you to see where they came from. Everybody should do what works for them. My sons and I do a lot better than our peers here in good ol' New England so I'm not changin' nuthin'. Good luck this season!

 

[Squeeze]

All those deer myths have root in truth. I have made fake scrapes and peed in them myself and saw deer go right up and sniff.
I have also poured pee around the garden and noticed much less damage done to none for the time it was fresh. (By both deer and rabbit)
So it kind of both proves and disproves either theory.. I guess its situational

 

[GBG]

Anybody Think Whitetails are Stupid?​

About 20 years ago I read an article by a retired game warden who had once been assigned to a "coyote population survey" over the entire 9000+ square mile Chicagoland metro area.

He said coyotes knew all the Federal, State and City firearms laws and zoning ordinances better than any member of animal control or law enforcement (no offence, he also said the sheer size of land area plus the number of rules was beyond normal human memory capacity). I guess being shot at would boost my learning curve and memory too.

Whether instinct or intelligence, I've long thought that many animals are far "smarter" than most people - including me - initially give them credit for. JMHO.

 

[bronko220002]

About 20 years ago I read an article by a retired game warden who had once been assigned to a "coyote population survey" over the entire 9000+ square mile Chicagoland metro area.

He said coyotes knew all the Federal, State and City firearms laws and zoning ordinances better than any member of animal control or law enforcement (no offence, he also said the sheer size of land area plus the number of rules was beyond normal human memory capacity). I guess being shot at would boost my learning curve and memory too.

Whether instinct or intelligence, I've long thought that many animals are far "smarter" than most people - including me - initially give them credit for. JMHO.

I laughed at this because I was on an archery hunt in Texas several years ago and while up in a tree stand had a coyote come trotting past. I "smooched" at it to try and get it to stop. Instead of stopping it took off like a scalded dog! The outfitter said that the coyotes here have learned that that sound means danger. He actually said they've been smooched at many times before.