Sight, Scent, Sound, "Camouflage"

If a hunter is attempting to avoid the detection of deer while archery hunting, he must pay particular attention to sight, scent and sound. Deer hunting matches the hunter's stealth against the deer's alertness. You must check these three items for any flaws in your hunting game plan, before you start your trek into the woods.

The whitetail deer, along with many other big game animals are extremely alert in order to try and stay alive by evasive action, but its wariness does stop at some point. A deer can't, of course, raise its tail and run eternally. Instead, a deer will evaluate the situation and make the decision of whether to expend the energy to get the heck out of here or wait it out. When confronted with various events in their own environment they may decide to stick around, and be more alert until their curiosity is satisfied about anything strange that may have occurred in their immediate area. By this I mean, they may have thought they saw you, but aren't quite sure, that is if you have good camouflage clothing on and your surroundings are similar.

A deer's eye sight is believed by scientist to be able to see only in black and white, while the elk is believed to see some amount of color. I truly believe the hunter should try to blend in with the woodland terrain by donning background-colored clothing and being as inconspicuous as possible. There are many different types and styles of hunting camo. Some of these are; Trebark, Mossy Oak, RealTree and one of my favorites is Sticks-N-Limbs. Covering your face with some kind of camo is also very important. Except in snowy conditions, an archery hunter wearing or using any white material negates his camouflage because deer will quickly notice white objects. Regardless of color perception by a deer or other big game animal, it is movement that will evoke their final response.

I believe most big game animals or maybe even all big game animals are geniuses at interpreting scent. It's simple; they smell you and they are gone! An archery hunter may fool a deer's eyes, but it's much harder to remain undetected by the deer's sensitive nostrils. By trying to mask your scent with fox, skunk or sex scents, this may be the only defense you have unless you are able to stay down wind from your deer or other animal. During the rut, however, the archer might opt to go with a deer's general alertness and aggressively entice the bucks with pheromone-based sex lures. Hunting in tree stands several feet above the ground can keep his scent pool dispersed in air currents above the level of the deer. Throughout my almost fifty years of hunting, this has been the best defense toward sight and scent.

Deer constantly know the difference between natural woodland sounds and those they think represent danger. The metallic bump or the closing of a vehicle door and the squeaking tree stand can all foil the archery hunt. But, by keeping your archery equipment maintained and in good working order, you may be able to keep all these sounds from happening.

KEEP YOUR SENSES!