Should you educate public land yearling bucks

[cameron]

I try not to educate any deer while in the woods. If they don't know I'm there then I'm doing something right so I'm not going to deliberately get their attention and possibly ruin my hunt.

[mauser06]

I agree with the others.


In rifle and flintlock season I used to hunt with a group and we'd do small pushes to each other. Still do from time to time.

Out of the group I am probably easily the most knowledgeable about deer movement and travel and finding THE spot to get em killed. My spots were always good to me. Till someone else sat there. I figured out that's what was going on. They would get busted and next time those deer knew to avoid that spot.


One year in flintlock I made that mistake myself. I already shot a doe that day. Seeing a legal buck in our flintlock season used to be pretty rare. A herd of doe came and stood feet away. I had buddies sitting across the lane that had doe tags. Figured I'd be a team player and send them their way. Right as I did I thought "you dummy! You know better than that!!". Hung my head kinda kicking myself knowing the push was pretty early. Here came a good 7 point. Literally a second or 2 prior and he would surely seen me jumping and waving my arms at the doe. Made one of my better flintlock shots and dropped him. Lol.


You never know what else is lurking. Deer know what another alarmed deer sounds like. Even if it doesn't snort. Feet stomping...running etc. I've read before that they also secrete a scent that other deer can detect for a long while...not sure if it's true or not..

Also, deer know what other forest dwelling critters are saying. I had 2 1.5yo bucks feeding in an orchard early one season. No intentions of shooting them. A fox squirrel busted me and started barking. They immediately raised their heads...tails went up and they turned and quickly flipped and trotted into the thicket. No doubt about it...the squirrel was the cause. They never seen or winded me.


I try to go as low key as possible.

[ThePreBanMan]

One thing I do to educate them, though... any time I see one of those illegal, permanent setups with trimmed lanes 60 yards long on an archery only property, I stink them up real good. I find the trails they are sitting on, and I walk from each trail DIRECTLY to the stand. I touch about every branch, trunk, or leaf I come across. I can educate them on other guys setups without blowing my setups. If it looks like a fairly low impact hunter, I take note of the pressure and quietly move on.

I believe customary protocol is also to drop a deuce under his stand.

[woodswalker]

I don't know why anyone wold want to educate a young deer since I would prefer uneducated older deer, I especially don't want them educated by another hunter on purpose! I would equate that to shooting yourself in the foot, especially if you hunt the same areas year after year.