Hear em' or see em' first?

[tides56]

In your hunting experience do you usually see the deer you have killed or hear it first? Just curious because for me I have mostly heard them first. 

[Encore 280]

My hearing is really bad so I usually see 'em first.

[clindsayrun]

Depends... Sitting in a stand, heard them first. Hiking around up in the mountains, seen them first.

[Russ McDonald]

heard them first

[scottfrick]

I think its pretty much 50/50 for me. The deer i hunt are mostly black tails and you never know what to expect a buck to do. Theres been times i've been out tromping thru the brush trying to be quite but you know how that is  I'd stop not see anything and then i'll start glassing and what do you know!!! Theres a deer standing looking right at me!!! When other times i've been out tromping around and all of a sudden it sounds like a heard of elk around me.

[RB]

I think its pretty much 50/50 for me. The deer i hunt are mostly black tails and you never know what to expect a buck to do. Theres been times i've been out tromping thru the brush trying to be quite but you know how that is  I'd stop not see anything and then i'll start glassing and what do you know!!! Theres a deer standing looking right at me!!! When other times i've been out tromping around and all of a sudden it sounds like a heard of elk around me.

Had a Sitka Blacktail standstill until I was about 50 feet from him than bolt over the edge so yeah saw him then heard him. I was watching up the hill through the timber about 70-80 yards he was off to the left of me bedded on the edge of a bench. Never got a shot off 

[bwhntr350]

 While all I pretty much hunt, for deer, is Blacktails, it is a mixed bag. Usually, the ones that I get I hear first. Always just one little "pop" of a twig that just sort of sounds out of place. The ones that I see before I hear them run off are usually already looking at me. At that point, I hear them loud and clear as they disappear into the brush

 Years ago on a brusy timbered hillside in the Pysht, I was hunting on a clear but very windy day. It was the last day of late buck. I rounded a small finger ridge and 25 yards away, bedded in the ferns, was a hog of a buck. He was bedded looking exactly the opposite direction of me.

 I, in an instant, started raising my rifle to easily dispose of this giant. By the time I got my gun up 1/2 of the way, he started to turn his head. About the time that I realized that he was even turning his head, he shot out of his bed and gone His head was never turned even 45 degrees towards me.

 At that point, my gun was just getting to my face. I had no chance and this entire episode could not have lasted for more than 1 second, it seems. Just like that, vanished.

 I try to hunt slow enough to hear deer. I know for a fact that my best odds are to do just that. Unfortunately, bedded deer do not snap twigs. I think about that bruiser every day and it has been 20 years since that guy used his sixth sense on me.

[lokidog]

Hard to hear them over my truck engine and Rush Limbaugh on the radio........       

Stand hunting, I usually hear them first, stalking it is about 50/50, though as mentioned, the ones I see have usually spotted me already.

[3nails]

 At first I was going to say see them. I then went to look at mounts/antlers to recall and to my surprise I've heard more than I've seen first!

[boneaddict]

50/50

[Sportfury]

I would say that the majority of the blacktails and muleys that I have killed have been seen first. Most of the deer that I have heard (usaully blacktails) had already seen or smelled me and are making a bold exit. My son and I still hunted up on a blackie this year and when we stopped it jumped at 20 feet. We heard it and got to see it as it exited stage right.

[Fish4Fun]

When we used to Blacktail hunt, generally you would hear them. Now that we are hunting open country Mule deer it is a complete spotting game every year now.

[shoot-em-dead]

pretty much the same as everyone else, mules I see em, whitetails are 50-50 and the blacktails 50-50

[JackOfAllTrades]

50% Hear'm, 35% See'm, 15% Smell'm.   
That is all time. As I was a Blacktail hunter for more years than a Whitetail or Muley tag holder. I hear Whitey's more because they are noisy but not as noisy as a Mule deer. But I probably see Mule's more mostly because of the vegitation and/or terrain. I don't see Blacktail until we're pretty damn close, mostly because of the vegitation/environment that I've hunted.  I've smelled more than one critter pre-rut over the years.
 
-Steve

[steeleywhopper]

I have to say that I have heard most of my blacktails before I see them. Heard one coming tonight, but it would not come out of the alders into into my shooting lane . Hunt slow and then go slower for blacktails.