# Anyone explain why deer are not afraid of gun fire??



## groundhunter (Mar 19, 2008)

On 8 different occations on my own and several others I have witnessed on TV I have noticed that a high powered rife going off near the deer, did not bother them in the least. In the same experience I dropped a pair of gloves the the deer were terrified and ran off imediately. Another time I dropped a pair of binoculars and the deer ran off. To give you one example, I had 3 deer come 50 yards within my stand. I fired a .243 at one of them, dropped him in his tracks and the other 2 just stood there with a curious look on there face.

Has this ever happened to you?
Can anyone explain it?


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

The reason the TV deer arent afraid of guns are because their most likely half tame, and get so little hunting pressure that a gun going off isnt a "bad" sound to them.

Think of it this way, a person growing up in a crime ridden inner city, a gun goes off, they probably run/duck for cover. This would be your "average" deer that 99% of us deal with.

Now, a gun goes off in downtown Medina ND, most people would probably say "ohhhh, someones shooting, lets go watch and join in"......that would be the "TV deer".


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## spentwings (Apr 25, 2007)

barebackjack said:


> Now, a gun goes off in downtown Medina ND, most people would probably say "ohhhh, someones shooting, lets go watch and join in"......that would be the "TV deer".


More likely,,,, the Posse Comitatus meeting had just come to order at the fire hall. :sniper:


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## Whelen35 (Mar 9, 2004)

When my son was younger and he was learning to shoot, I would use beets for targets. They make white marks and stuff flys apart its fun and I don't have to pick up when done. I havs a small 100yd range off the deck of my house and shoot there often, and a lot when load developing. But at this time we had a young buck that had learned to come and eat fresh beets when he heard gun shots. A learned behavior. I think deer are use to noises that are familuar to them much like we do. Thus, if deer hear a lot of gun shots or other lound noise, they don't assoiate that noise with danger.


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

Some times deer get confused when there is gun fire and stand there as they don't know where to run. 
Case in point is the dead deer and the others didn't know where the danger was.

 Al


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I agree with learned behavior. Think about this............... deer are supposed to be terrified of human scent ,yet often may feed in someones back yard where human scent is bound to be all over the place. I have always believed that you must trigger at least two of a deers senses to send it into flight. Triggering one sense may put it on alert it but rarely causes flight. If so deer would be running in circles all the time.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

dakotashooter2 said:


> I have always believed that you must trigger at least two of a deers senses to send it into flight. Triggering one sense may put it on alert it but rarely causes flight. If so deer would be running in circles all the time.


Alot of that depends on the deer.

An early season yearling in the suburbs may never "spook" no matter what it sees or hears.

A late season three year old may flee for two miles without stopping at the slightest whiff of human scent, or the slightest of suspicious looking forms in the woods.


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## usafman81 (Sep 7, 2009)

yeah it depends a lot on the deer, how much hunting goes on in the area, etc. I've shot deer before and the others with the one I just killed didn't even move. In fact, I've had them walk right up to the dead one almost like they are wondering why it suddenly went to sleep.

Other times I've had deer turn tail and never return at just the sound of me switching off my safety on my rifle ...

Usually common sounds won't scare a deer -- thus a deer thats heard gunshots a lot but doesn't know the danger (a young deer). I've had a cold while out hunting putting me in a coughing fit and had a couple deer walk right next to me, wondering what made the noise. I've walked up on some younger deer before, scared them into a run and can stop them in their tracks by just whistling. At least long enough for them to turn to see what it was and maybe get a shot off. Deer in the area of ND I live now, cars don't even scare deer but back where I grew up in Michigan, just the sound of a car in the distance gets them all spooked.

The older/wiser the deer gets (mostly bucks) they grow to learn what/where to avoid. I've been hunting almost 20 years (damn that just made me feel old for some reason) and I can't remember ever scaring a trophy buck and seeing it again in the same general area after that.


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## wmmichael20 (Dec 19, 2007)

I think that also around where I'm from here in michigan the deer are used to loud noises due to farming in the area so a rifle shot is nothing more than niose to them no different than a tractor or combine runing and banging and clanging accross a field so it just doesnt bother them and man do the ones in our area love the sound of a running car they all seem to run infront of them annyways as soon as one comes down the road ....well when I drive down the road annyways lol ruend more brakes from nailing them hard when there is deer in the road than I can stand to think about


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