Deer watching me shoot.

[6mm Shoot]

I was shooting my Contender today. After making a shot I see something move beside the berm. It is a small deer. I fiddle around hoping that it would move on. No such luck.

I take a shot on a far left target. The deer puts its head down and starts eating in front of my berm. I get a drink of water and write down what rounds were doing what and what was in them.

Then I look back down range and a larger deer has come up behind the smaller one. I guess it is its mother. She looks up at me and starts watching me. I pick up the rifle aim it at her. She don't move. I thought that me moving around she would run away. I take a shot between the two of them at a old can. I hit it and they look at it but don't run away.

I get up and start yelling and waving my arms. They trot off behind the fifty yard berm, stop and start eating. I go back to shooting and they didn't move. They stood there eating for at least half hour before they moved off into the woods. I shot and recorded 4 five shot groups and they hadn't moved. That was just plain strange. This is the second time deer have interrupted my shooting.

Now the thing that really sucks about this is I wasn't able to fill my deer tag this past year. It seemed that they were hiding out till night.

Any way the shooting went fine. I was trying to find out what was the best load for the Contender with Sierra 65gr bullets and what powder worked best with what load. 24.8 gr of Tac is looking good. 20.8 gr of Reloader # 7 is looking good also. I have some others that I am going to try out tomorrow if it don't rain.

I thought you might get a kick out of my day with the deer.

 

[45calibre]

Maybe they thought youre not a good shot so they felt safe. Lol

 

[TravisJ]

Yea they always hide in deer season, then when I am squirrel or rabbit hunting and shooting and making all kinds of racket they are everywhere. Seen a big bodied 10pt when I was out shooting a couple of weeks ago, and past season I wasted my tag on a button buck I thought was a doe on opening day.

 

[rgrimm01]

Having them watch me does not bother me. I hate it when they mock me and you can hear the distinct sound of laughter...

 

[chuddly]

i was shooting and laying prone and had a deer walk up behind me within 20 feet of me. but unlike your apathetic deer mine ran off when i stood up.

 

[Bradsknives]

 

[Deputy Dawg]

They were probably saying to themselves, that old man cannot the side of the barn, ya, ya, ya, ya,

 

[THard6]

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Yep - they knew it wasn't deer season!

 

[Mark 1911]

Yep - they knew it wasn't deer season!

^^^^^
Yep!! Exactly what I was thinking. How do they do that???

 

[LarryC]

A few years ago when I was burning wood to heat my home, I experienced a similar incident. My son and I drove the truck into a field near the tree line and a large doe was grazing about a 150 yards from us. She looked up at us, then resumed grazing. We watched her for a few minutes, got the chain saws out and cut a couple of trees down. She would look at us occasionally then return to eating. After about a half hour, she just walked off. Zero fear of us. Another familiar sight was a Red tailed hawk. Whenever we started cutting this hawk would land in a tree a few feet away. Guess he was waiting for a mouse or other prey to be scared out of hiding by us. Never saw him catch anything, but he must have, as he returned many times when we started up the saws.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

A few years ago when I was burning wood to heat my home, I experienced a similar incident. My son and I drove the truck into a field near the tree line and a large doe was grazing about a 150 yards from us. She looked up at us, then resumed grazing. We watched her for a few minutes, got the chain saws out and cut a couple of trees down. She would look at us occasionally then return to eating. After about a half hour, she just walked off. Zero fear of us. Another familiar sight was a Red tailed hawk. Whenever we started cutting this hawk would land in a tree a few feet away. Guess he was waiting for a mouse or other prey to be scared out of hiding by us. Never saw him catch anything, but he must have, as he returned many times when we started up the saws.

Are you sure it wasn't a buzzard waiting for a tragic, but yummy accident?

 

[Boomstick]

I have had to stop shooting to let turkeys pass between the berm and my bench before!!!!!
Another time we were shooting the suppressed .22 rifles at steel disks, a fox came out, went all the way up to the disk, checked it out, turned and left. Crazy

 

[Brandon812]

I thought they get scared at the sound if gun shot all this time? Seems strange that they are 'fearless'? What give?

 

[Mark 1911]

I thought they get scared at the sound if gun shot all this time? Seems strange that they are 'fearless'? What give?

I do a lot of hunting at Winamac State Fish and game area. I have spent a lot of time hunting Area 4, the same area that surrounds the firearms ranges. I have observed a lot of deer in that area while the gun range is in use. They do not seem to react to the gunfire at all. They react to the sight of humans, not so much to the sound of gunfire.

 

[phatgemi]

Yea they always hide in deer season, then when I am squirrel or rabbit hunting and shooting and making all kinds of racket they are everywhere. Seen a big bodied 10pt when I was out shooting a couple of weeks ago, and past season I wasted my tag on a button buck I thought was a doe on opening day.

Doesn't a button buck count as antlerless tag wise. Your buck tag was still good.

Second, a few years ago, I was hunting at Cheatham Annex is virginia while in navy. We had to hunt on ground stands and had to stay within a measured circle around the tree. Anyway I had shot a doe and was waiting for staff to come around and get us. A herd of approximately 25-30 deer came walking up thru the woods toward me. I had a cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. A small doe walked to within about 3 feet of me. I stood as still as possible with smoke drifting up from the cigarette. She actually took a step forward, stretched out the neck and touched the back of my hand with her nose. I then dropped the cigarette and coffee and clapped my hands real quick. I thought the whole herd would have a heart attack. Then ran down over the hill and several actually went into a lake and swam across. When they came out the other side, several hunters opened up. I did my part of the drive.
True story.

 

[6mm Shoot]

I was told a long time ago that deer were afraid of loud noises. That is bull. They live in the area and they hear loud noises all the time. Just like us they get use to it.

I was talking with a neighbor about this. He was telling me that he was cutting down some trees and a doe came out of the woods and watched him cut down a tree.

He started on the second tree and before if fell he had to run her off to keep it from hitting her.

He said that she ran about a hundred yards and watched the other one fall then walked off. He was saying he thought she liked the noise but she didn't stick around when he was cutting the fallen trees up.

My thought was may be she didn't like him cutting down part of her home and she didn't know what to do about it other than watch the horror.

 

[XDLover]

The last couple weeks I've seen more deer than I care to count.

 

[tj_v89]

You've gotta love a deers keen sense of timing.

 

[Water63]

The deer in our area are used to us shooting I have had what you just explained happen several times. The same thing with the 4 wheelers you can ride real close to them if you stop by them they will move off but our resident does have walked by the deck while we are out there and ate on the flowers next to the house. Deer seem to be unaffected by the sound of shooting. Once they have seen there is no threat they go on about their normal lives cohabitation with humans. Climb up in a stand and it is a different game then