What Deer and Deer Hunters are Thinking

This deer might be thinking, “I don’t remember seeing that ladder stand before!” (Photo courtesy of Steve Sorensen)

Have you ever wondered why you see deer and other wildlife more at some times of the year and less at others? Deer behavior changes through the year, just like yours does. You're less active in the winter, and so are deer. You eat more in the summer, and so do deer.

Since the close of the last deer season, deer hunters have been preparing to focus all the lessons we've learned, all the commitment we can muster, and all the anticipation that has been building, on tagging a deer.

Steve Sorensen's bi-weekly newspaper column, "The Everyday Hunter," appears in the Forest County News Journal (Tionesta, PA), the Corry Journal (Corry, PA), both part of the Sample News Group. Also the Warren Times Observer (Warren, PA), and the Jamestown Post-Journal (Jamestown, NY), both Ogden Newspapers. If you'd like to see "The Everyday Hunter" in your local newspaper, have your editor contact me.

Scroll down to read "What Deer and Deer Hunters are Thinking." (First published on November 2, 2024.)

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To access more of Steve's writing on hunting topics, go to the home page of his blog, Mission: Hunter.

What Deer and Deer Hunters are Thinking  

Steve Sorensen

Humans in our neck of the woods do certain things as we adjust to the passage of the seasons. At this time of year, some people enjoy a pumpkin spice latte; others mock people who do.

Most of what we do is more consequential than that. We reset our clocks to mark the end of Daylight Savings Time. We change to our winter wardrobes, which might be as simple as adding a long-sleeved layer or as budget breaking as buying lots of new garments in the latest styles and colors for Fall. Throughout the year we’re constantly making seasonal adjustments to our lives.

It’s no different for deer. While “Savings Time” and “Standard Time” matter not one bit to deer, they do change their wardrobes simply by growing a new one, without giving a single, intentional thought to sweater weather. To survive, deer do some things without thinking, but they do think about other things.

I won’t debate whether deer think in ways similar to how we think. While they don’t need algebra, we do. (Although some of us think we don’t.) And they don’t discuss philosophy. (We do, often without realizing it.) Neither algebra nor philosophy help deer to avoid dangerous things, including human hunters. And they’re thinking a lot about humans these days.

From those first-of-the-year frigid temperatures until the weather cools in early autumn, deer didn’t need to think much about humans. That’s mainly because winter’s chill and summer’s heat usually make the woods too uncomfortable for people to go there, and deer don’t consider the few people they encounter in deer habitat to be a threat. Most people stick predictably to trails and the few who take off-path adventures are unlikely to bother the same deer twice.

Everything changes after Labor Day. Deer begin taking note of odd things they see or smell, and while not every deer hunter looks or smells odd, people in the deer woods are out of the ordinary and deer are showing their instinctive suspicion. Hunters who scout for deer are showing up where humans haven’t trod for months. Deer become alert to people in ways they didn’t need to be earlier in the year.

Deer are also shifting patterns to take advantage of new food sources. The does are introducing their fawns to nourishment they’re not accustomed to. Fawns are seeking greater independence – a challenge for their mothers while their mothers try to steer them away from danger. 

Deer that have survived for a couple of hunting seasons have a big advantage over younger deer. They know hunters’ patterns in hunting season, and they know where lots of tree stands are.

Before Labor Day when antlers were still covered with the velvet that nourishes these fascinating weapons, we seldom saw bucks on roadway berms. Now, with rising testosterone having hardened their antlers and made them restless and aggressive, it’s common to see them. Last night, two hours after sunset, I saw an eight-point with one side broken. This morning, an hour before sunrise, I saw another eight-point.

Expect to see more bucks whenever a cold front hits because that winter coat they just grew makes movement tolerably comfortable only when the thermometer dips to the low forties or colder. That will be true at all times of the day when bucks are chasing does. On the other hand, a heat wave in November will suppress breeding activity. The flip-flop to warmer temperatures will mean white-tailed deer with romantic intentions will restrict their affections to the cooler cover of darkness.

Almost everyone sees deer and gives them at least a few passing thoughts at this time of year. A deer hunter is different. Deer are his principal passion. Thoughts about deer dominate his mind. What are his passing thoughts? They’re the thoughts that are not about deer.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he were hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines, and won the 2015, 2018, and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.