Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: tides56 on November 26, 2012, 07:08:38 PM

Title: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: tides56 on November 26, 2012, 07:08:38 PM: 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. :dunno:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Encore 280 on November 26, 2012, 07:10:54 PM: My hearing is really bad :bash: so I usually see 'em first.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: clindsayrun on November 26, 2012, 07:12:07 PM: Depends... Sitting in a stand, heard them first. Hiking around up in the mountains, seen them first.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Russ McDonald on November 26, 2012, 07:13:00 PM: heard them first
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: scottfrick on November 26, 2012, 07:18:43 PM: 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 :chuckle: 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.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: RB on November 26, 2012, 07:27:39 PM: Quote from: scottfrick on November 26, 2012, 07:18:43 PM
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 :chuckle: 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.
:yeah:

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 :bash:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: bwhntr350 on November 26, 2012, 07:42:46 PM: 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 :bash:

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 :yike: 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.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: lokidog on November 26, 2012, 07:48:57 PM: Hard to hear them over my truck engine and Rush Limbaugh on the radio........ :peep: :chuckle:

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.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: 3nails on November 26, 2012, 07:51:53 PM: 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!
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: boneaddict on November 26, 2012, 07:59:07 PM: 50/50
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Sportfury on November 26, 2012, 07:59:52 PM: 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.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Fish4Fun on November 26, 2012, 08:07:18 PM: 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.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: shoot-em-dead on November 26, 2012, 08:17:02 PM: pretty much the same as everyone else, mules I see em, whitetails are 50-50 and the blacktails 50-50
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: JackOfAllTrades on November 26, 2012, 08:17:03 PM: 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
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: steeleywhopper on November 26, 2012, 08:43:12 PM: 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 :bash:. Hunt slow and then go slower for blacktails.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Kola16 on November 26, 2012, 08:49:02 PM: Whitetails are usually herd tromping off...then I see the big, white, bushy tail, and 200 class rack :chuckle: :bash:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Turner89 on November 26, 2012, 09:11:54 PM: Blacktails.....and I see them. When I hear them they are usually hualing butt.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: elksnout on November 26, 2012, 09:25:16 PM: 2012 blacktail seen 'em first
2010 blacktail heard 'em first
2009 blacktail seen 'em first
2006 blacktail seen 'em first
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: CAMPMEAT on November 26, 2012, 09:29:39 PM: When I could hike, I used to put the Navy Seal sneak on them and kill them with a rock because I could touch them before they could smell me. Hot dang I was stealthy when I was younger...... :chuckle:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: JackOfAllTrades on November 26, 2012, 10:54:21 PM: Quote from: CAMPMEAT on November 26, 2012, 09:29:39 PM
When I could hike, I used to put the Navy Seal sneak on them and kill them with a rock because I could touch them before they could smell me. Hot dang I was stealthy when I was younger...... :chuckle:

Funny... I've watched my buddy Tom touch a Blacktail doe and a Muley doe during rifle season. They did not know he was there in both cases. When touched, they looked, then bolted away!

-Steve
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: csaaphill on November 26, 2012, 10:59:44 PM: seen.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Maverick on November 27, 2012, 05:27:37 PM: thats really a hard one, depends on where i am and if im hunting whitetail or muleys. if its whitetail then 90 percent of the time i hear them first. the buck i got this year was a spot and stalk. as for muleys where i am in the open country 99 percent of the time i see them.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Huntbear on November 27, 2012, 05:31:11 PM: I think just about all my deer, no matter breed, I have seen first.. Rarely have a I heard one first. But I deer hunt so freaking slow, that usually they get nervous and move... that is all I need. :chuckle:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: mwhunter on November 27, 2012, 05:36:08 PM: im new this how do you start a
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Sawbuck on November 27, 2012, 05:41:29 PM: Probably 50/50, heard this years deer first, he was fighting with another one and I could hear the horns crashing, took me a bit to figure out what the noise was.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: Dslayer on November 27, 2012, 06:40:35 PM: Interesting question. Sense them, feel them, smell them. It's kind of weird, but cool. Most of the animals I've killed have been within 100 yards, often much closer regardless of weapon.
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: MuleyJam on November 27, 2012, 07:41:27 PM: See them! And they heard me :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Title: Re: Hear em' or see em' first?
Post by: grundy53 on November 27, 2012, 07:42:50 PM: Quote from: shoot-em-dead on November 26, 2012, 08:17:02 PM
pretty much the same as everyone else, mules I see em, whitetails are 50-50 and the blacktails 50-50

:yeah: