Thread: Spooking Deer

Originally Posted by mucko

@Ryan_Songhurst @bigbear very low hunting pressure. ie im pretty much the only human with in 1km

Low pressure is 1km? Gee what would high pressure be? 1 hunter every metre

Originally Posted by Gibo

Low pressure is 1km? Gee what would high pressure be? 1 hunter every metre

That sounds like hunting heaven to me...
Where we go locally on doc the last time we were there we arrived at the hut and within two hours six more hunters turned up wanting to hunt same area. Bit nerve wracking that when you're sneaking through the bush and here a twig snap and think was that an animal or am I about to get shot at.... We obviously has a meeting to discuss who went in which direction but around there you never know how many others will turn up while out on the hill who don't know you're already there.

Originally Posted by Ftx325

That sounds like hunting heaven to me...
Where we go locally on doc the last time we were there we arrived at the hut and within two hours six more hunters turned up wanting to hunt same area. Bit nerve wracking that when you're sneaking through the bush and here a twig snap and think was that an animal or am I about to get shot at.... We obviously has a meeting to discuss who went in which direction but around there you never know how many others will turn up while out on the hill who don't know you're already there.

THAT sounds like hell to me!

Honestly mate it is. I'd pay just to have access to some private land purely for my , and the missus's , sanity as she paranoid I will get filled with holes one of these days...

I think deer are a bit like humans - having different temperaments. Some will be nervous and run a long way. A great strategy if the predator has a long range rifle. Some will run a short way and save themselves a lot of energy. I don't think this is entirely heritable either as deer would get warier and warier over a few generations but they do seem to revert to placidness if not hunted for a while. I'm not sure that much abstract learning as we know it goes on. With random behaviour, the predator has some uncertainty whether to pursue the prey in expectation of finding it again or whether to just cut their losses and look for another one. With reds, I've often heard them barking apparently nearby for quite a while, perhaps trying to intimidate you or luring you into wasting more time and energy. But I can't recall ever seeing or shooting a deer that has barked at me. Sika on the other hand quite often run just a short distance, squeal loudly and then let themselves be seen and shot. Reds often move about restlessly for a minute or two before trotting off, so you have a chance of a shot even after they are a little spooked.

You wouldn't expect that deer would change their flight behaviour much after a death experience either. Two deer are standing together and one gets shot dead and its mate runs off. One of them never gets a chance to learn and do it differently in future. But does the surviving deer become accustomed to gunshots and easier to hunt next time. Great scenario !! Goats and pigs are very vocal before they die and warn the rest of the mob something has gone badly wrong but I don't think deer do ? A rifle shot is a bit startling up close but some distance away, certainly not the most alarming thing a deer could hear (eg dogs barking). Most likely there are some instinctively alarming signals that make deer more nervous after repeated encounters and they modify their behaviour to avoid them: stealthy footfalls and twig snapping (so different from the louder noises deer make moving around), human smell, voices, perhaps deer blood ? Would finding a deer carcass make other deer sh*t bscared and vacate the area ?

Originally Posted by Gibo

Low pressure is 1km? Gee what would high pressure be? 1 hunter every metre

cheeky shit theres too much supplejack to be any closer lol. the closet humans to where i was would be the baitline guys, the odd pig hunter but his tracks stopped 1 1/2 hours before this area im the only one hunting there and im there 8 hours in a week. i would say thats low pressure. i dont have a nest like your spot. after 2 months of learning the area this is the first time i have encountered deer which are 1 km east as the crow flies of where i started to learn the area.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

I think deer are a bit like humans - having different temperaments. Some will be nervous and run a long way. A great strategy if the predator has a long range rifle. Some will run a short way and save themselves a lot of energy. I don't think this is entirely heritable either as deer would get warier and warier over a few generations but they do seem to revert to placidness if not hunted for a while. I'm not sure that much abstract learning as we know it goes on. With random behaviour, the predator has some uncertainty whether to pursue the prey in expectation of finding it again or whether to just cut their losses and look for another one. With reds, I've often heard them barking apparently nearby for quite a while, perhaps trying to intimidate you or luring you into wasting more time and energy. But I can't recall ever seeing or shooting a deer that has barked at me. Sika on the other hand quite often run just a short distance, squeal loudly and then let themselves be seen and shot. Reds often move about restlessly for a minute or two before trotting off, so you have a chance of a shot even after they are a little spooked.

You wouldn't expect that deer would change their flight behaviour much after a death experience either. Two deer are standing together and one gets shot dead and its mate runs off. One of them never gets a chance to learn and do it differently in future. But does the surviving deer become accustomed to gunshots and easier to hunt next time. Great scenario !! Goats and pigs are very vocal before they die and warn the rest of the mob something has gone badly wrong but I don't think deer do ? A rifle shot is a bit startling up close but some distance away, certainly not the most alarming thing a deer could hear (eg dogs barking). Most likely there are some instinctively alarming signals that make deer more nervous after repeated encounters and they modify their behaviour to avoid them: stealthy footfalls and twig snapping (so different from the louder noises deer make moving around), human smell, voices, perhaps deer blood ? Would finding a deer carcass make other deer sh*t bscared and vacate the area ?

chur. it was breezy on saturday and i was saving big movments for when the wind blew a bit harder. youre probably right about gunshots as i could hear trucks or fram equipment banging which is a first like a distant gunshot. i didnt want to scent the area out to bad so they hopefully not pushed further away. will find out in the weekend i guess.

Ive shot a deer not 7-800yards from where guy was mowing lawns....carted one out recently and 4 jokers sitting on tail gate having midday beerzies not 100yards from where I had been dressing deer in the bush...it does make you think about backstop if you miss.
listening to heavy machinery working while stalking is hard work....

Out of anywhere I've hunted in NZ the blue mountain fallow seem to be the most on edge, they're out of there quicker than you can blink, it's unreal the pressure that place gets compared to anywhere else in Southland.

The fallow up near wangavegas are very edgey... well the girls are. We wandered up on 3 stags mooching around. We didn't want to shoot them, it was a meat hunt so I was really after women and children. But we didn't want to spook them as they might spook others.

In the end we had no choice as we they were between us and where we wanted to be. So we stood out in the open maybe 100m away and started walking, they just stood there and looked at us until we were maybe 40m away before they decided to head off. Even then they just ran down to the bushline 200-300m away, and started play fighting.