Like everyone else, I've spent my life listening to how big bucks are "smart". They only feed at night, aren't out in the open much, etc. Like Cody's "Mythbusters" deer hunt, the more time I spend in field, the less I begin to believe any of this stuff.

This past Wednesday, this big front blew through north Texas. All the rain Tuesday, followed by the chance for freezing stuff was more than I could pass up, so I left the house at 4:45am Wednesday morning for what is normally a short drive out to some family property we have about 50 miles away.

My normal 50-55 minute drive became an hour and 40 minute drive thanks to the near "white-out" conditions caused by the snow. I typically like being in the stand by 6am, but it was close to 6:30am by the time I got to the gate.

The stand I prefer to hunt is back in the corner of our property on the side of a fairly large hill for the area. The road to that stand is pretty rough and you can't really get back there without a four-wheel drive. Well, the rain from the day before made it like driving through a bowl of soup, so I decided that my late arrival made it necessary to change my plans.

We have a grove of about 80 acres of oak trees on the lower part of our property. They have grown wild for decades and are about as dense of foilage as you'll find. Basically making a giant cross through them are two pipeline right of ways. One is only about 15 yards wide, but the other is probably 50 yards wide.

I choose to put up my pop tent blind at the crossing and see what deer would be playing in the trees. With a forecast of gusty winds, hunting down in a low area seemed like a good plan. Being short on time and having a sore back, I drove my truck over to drop everything off.

It was getting light when I set up the tent and there were many deer out grazing on the food-plot that has been planted up and down the wider of the right-of-ways (though cows had wiped it out this fall). Last weekend, I had an extra couple of bags of corn and had dumped them up and down the lane, creating a line of corn a few hundred yards long.

There was a massive bodied buck out on the corn at 6:40am, but it was snowing too hard and I was rushign too fast to get set up to get a good look at him. I do know he was pretty confident as he never left and didn't seem bothered at all by me or my running truck. The does, however, all scattered.

I drove the truck to where I like to park and then walked back to the tent. The buck was gone, but the does showed back up within just a few minutes of me getting comfortable in the tent. It's a short, 5-7 minute walk.

Over the course of the morning, I saw more deer than I could count, including many young bucks, and one big mature spike. I stayed in the tent until hunger took over. I hadn't really been watching the time. There was a good 2 inches of snow on the ground and I was having one of the better mornings I can recently remember. Around 11am, I decided it was time to eat and walked back to the truck.

I had some stuff to do around the place, so I hopped in a mule and took care of some feeder's, then drove around for a while hoping to see something. Deer were all over and it was a very good time. Of course, I never saw any big bucks.

About 3pm, I decided it was time to get back in the tent. I walked up a small racked 8 point on my way in. He didn't seem to mind me and came back out in the open within about 5 minutes of me concealing myself in the tent.

For the next three hours, much like the morning, deer were all over. It was truly a good time watching them all running around and playing. A young little yearling buck was chasing another little yearling all over while a group of does grazed the corn. A small buck popped out here and there, but nothing that really got the blood flowing.

Around 6pm, I decided it was too dark to hunt. I got out of the tent and walked back to the truck. The does, of course, scattered when I showed myself. I got in my truck and drove back to the right-of-way to pick up all my gear. The does were back, but ran off again.

I got out of the truck, headlights on, stereo on, and everything very dark between all those trees. I started breaking down the tent and something caught my eye. It was a nice, big mature buck. Not something I'd shoot at this point in the season, but a good 5.5 year old 8 point.

He walked out about 30 yards in front of the running truck and began grazing the corn under the light of my headlights. I was a bit shocked to say the least. I decided to play with him a bit. I walked in front of my truck, making shadows around his head. He looked up, then went back to eating.

I coughed, I stomped, I whistled at him. He lifted his head one more time, but was otherwise not too interested in me. I got bored and went back to picking up all my stuff. Folded up the tent, throwing things in the truck, slamming doors, and generally making all kinds of noise. Everytime I looked at the buck, his head was down, eating corn.

I finally had all my stuff together and got in the drivers seat. I stared at the buck who didn't care at all that I was there. I put the truck in drive and creeped forward. He kept eating. I flipped from high-beams to low-beams and back. He kept eating. I pulled up about 10 feet. He looked at me. Then went back to eating.

Bored and knowing my wife would be wanting me home, I turned the truck to head out of the trees. At that point, he did jump and run.... about 10 feet. I turned to start pulling away and got curious again. I put my flashlight out the window and looked behind me. The buck was back on the corn.

This wasn't the first time I've had something like this occur. Like many others I'm sure, I have seen many big bucks on my way into or out of a hunting spot in the dark of night.

I don't really have a point to this story, but if there is one, it's that big bucks get big because of their nature. That's not a newflash to anyone reading this, but something I guess I need to remind myself of from time to time. I'm the type of hunter who will stay in the stand for most hours of the day. I get in at 6am, stay until I'm starving, run into town for a quick bite, then right back in the stand unless I have work to do. That's just when I hunt our family property. When I go down to a buddies ranch he lets me hunt, town is too far away, so I pack a lunch and stay in the stand all day.

I never leave any of these hunts disappointed as my mind seems to be more clear after those hunts than at any other time. All that time to sit, watch nature, relax, and get my thoughts together is truly an important part of my life. I think I'm a better worker, husband, father, friend, and Christian after those hunts. There's no better way to feel closer to God than to spend quality time out with the nature He created.

(I want to apologize for the length of this somewhat pointless rambling post. As I sit here in my office, I keep looking outside wishing I was in the deer stand. If not for a 3:30pm meeting today, in the stand is exactly where I'd be. I used to enjoy writing occasionally and I hope I haven't just bored whoever reads this to tears.)

I've had does watch me climb the ladder and get in my box blinds and really pay no attention to me.

Maybe too many deer are getting dumbed down when no one shots at them.... I bet if you popped a couple of them they would not come around.

I think he answers your question....Yes they really are that smart. He knew you werent going to shoot him and he was hungry so he kept eating. I have driven up to a feeder at night to dump some corn on the ground and come across a big buck in an open field, when he saw my headlights he just walked a few feet out of their beams and laid down in the middle of the field. Once I dumped the corn on the ground and drove off I spotlighted him and sure nuff he was there chowing down on that pile of corn. They are smarter than we give them credit for IMO.

Sounds like you need some help thinning the herd. Let me know if you need assistance.

I believe its all about pressure personally. We mainly shoot does and a couple of spikes. Most of the bucks are pretty loose until the county goes under fire. This is just my opinion though. Now, the does on our place late in the season are smart. During the rut most bucks are pretty stupid though!!

We make deer smarter then they are.

I've seen mature bucks do some pretty smart things in the course of evading hunters. I have also been real close to big deer that were for the most part relaxed and perfectly aware of my presence...at night. Deer feel safer at night, and nothing in their experience tells them that they are wrong. That may have proven them smarter instead of dumber.

Heck yeah deer are smart.... they don't go to work and are out in the woods every day!

I agree but hunting a mature deer that haven't been hunted hard or at all compared to a place that has people in and out of the woods 30-60 days a year is a big differance.

I think a lot of mature deer being smart is because we made them way via pressure

x2

Lots of people make deer out to be smarter than they are because it helps them sell whatever new "must have" gadget,scent, etc. they are pushing. Otherwise you wouldn't need all that crap, right?

Big bucks instinctively know how to avoid hunters especially after being pressured a little. We just like to call them ‘smart’.

On the ranch I hunt, I'd rate mature whitetail bucks as "college-student smart" (at least after they feel a couple weeks of pressure from hunters). On the other hand, your average Axis buck is "The Professor"

I like that

OK here is one for you, I am in Caldwell at a buddies house. He happens to have a pet doe that they raised and just hangs around now and you can feed her cookies every nite. This year we are out in his pasture where she hangs out, when she runs behind us about 20 yards, I look and standing not more than 20 yards on the otherside of us is a 8 point buck. We stand there a moment and he is only concerned on how to get passed us to get to her. Now I would not call that smart. Last nite 2 does are at my feeder and come up to my stand with 20 yards of me to investigate and wonder off, now then a buck walks right by me within 10 yards of my stand heads to the feeder and then looks at me as he has already been there for 2-3 minutes. Goes back to eating and then heads out. Now with that said I think the biger the rack , it puts more knowledge on them. Must for I still haven't busted one of those big boys yet this year lol.

I don't know why he did it, as he certainly didn't know I was there, but I was up in a tree blind in a field overlooking about 400 yards of woods line a year ago and had 1 particular buck playing mind games. The rut was on, and so I was naturally pretty fired up when 4 does broke the woods about 300 yards directly in front of me and headed straight across the field towards me. The does walked so closely beneath me, I could have spit on them. The entire time, I could hear something in the woods, but I never saw anything...

Until the does were back behind me about to enter the woods at the other side of the field. They all started filing into the trees and all of the sudded, I see a really nice, mature buck jump out of the woods, cross the narrow road and re-enter the woods where the does had gone. This fella was following them the entire way, but never showed himself apart from the split second he cross from 1 woods line to another.

I know that's just instinct, but I couldn't believe it. Some of the things they do by nature are just incredibly "smart". They also do some really dumb things too though. I shot like 6 times at a group of deer including a buck I was after once (thought it was a 450-yard shot and it was really like 250 so I was going over them), and the buck just sat there and stared. I literally ran out of ammo and he never left.

How many big ones have you shot compaired to the number of times you have been in the field?

Sounds like a tall tell my brother tells.

I have hunted places where the deer seemed much smarter then others or you can say harder to hunt. One place had a 30acre wheat field. On one end which was close to cover I put a bx tower up. We only shot 1 buck from it the first yr. The next yr before the deer would enter the field they would walk up a tank dam and look at the bx.If they skylighted someone in it forget it they werent in the field til after dark.

I have seen it both ways.... I have been on places where deer wont show themselves if there is any hint you are they and I have also been on places where they dont really care. Its all about the hunting pressure..... IMO

For an update, deer are smart.

I wanted to hunt bad yesterday, but work just couldn't allow it. Obviously deer were on my mind or I wouldn't have written the "novel" that started this thread.

So, I went out this morning. Even though it was 20 degrees when I parked the truck, the fact that the moon was so bright I had no use for a flashlight made me think I was in trouble. I put a buddy in the same spot I hunted Wednesday and then went in sat in my favorite stand.

I saw a buck on a neighbors wheat field and a doe on my way back to the truck after hunting. That was it. My buddy saw no deer (sitting in the same spot that 72 hours prior I saw more than I could count) but did shoot a nice fat sow. We walked up a couple of does and a pretty big buck after we were done.

Checked the game camera at my favorite stand before we came back. Deer pretty much constant all day yesterday. Even my "big boy" I've been chasing all year was there twice yesterday.

Yeah, maybe they are smart. Or maybe it was the lack of clouds last night. Family stuff to do tonight, but I'll be back out tomorrow.

Sure hoping to find a big, dumb deer. Don't even care about shooting, just want to see him.

every time i hear this i laugh....deer don't know what kinda head gear they have on. hell I've known some does that were alot warier than bucks.

It is my profesional opinion that deer are not "smart" . people use this as an excuse for there poor woodsmanship and outdoor skill.

some deer are more wary, I'll give you that, and some deer may be more intellegent than others, just like people, but some of the stories i hear make it sound like the deer have a pow-wow every morning on how there gonna outsmart hunters.

pressure equates into un-natural things happening in a deers natural world, if this happens enough deer kick into survival mode, IE: feeding at night, staying out of clearings, BECAUSE THIS IS WEAR PREDATORS,TWO OR 4 LEGGED WILL HAVE THE BEST CHANCE OF GETTING THEM.

Don't kid yourself into thinking that deer can detect hunting pressure from the normal day to day like dodging coyotes and ducking mountain lions.

i've shot 4 deer in 4 sits from the same stand and the same deer showed up day after day. when you see that alot of what you've been taught goes out the window

I believe it has to do with hunting pressure. They learn like we do. What areas to avoid and which neighborhod is safe.

Shane

Theres somthing else to consider.Theres many factors that make them apear smart. Higher densitys sets up smaller range. They learn there range well and excape corridors. Turkeys apear smart but are one of the dumbest animals.Deer arent stupid.Ive seen mule deer bucks that will bed down alot near the top third of the hill near draws where excape can be several directions. Its not a accident. It seems rather common. It has to be a learned thing from preditor pressure or hunting. Ive also noticed that in setting up to glass large area ,keeping the wind in my face the older deer will be bedded with the wind to there back useing visual to cover any approuch from from there blind scent side.Very successful guides and hunters use these things to there advantage. Key is older mature deer. The ones seldom seen out of rut.