Why Does it Seem That Nocturnal Deer are Getting Smarter?

Gadsden Flag,

I always laugh at the tree-huggers who spout-off that ambush hunting is unfair to the deer and that hunting is only fair if we stalk up to deer at close range.

I tell those tree-huggers about real-world deer:
— They see in the dark almost as well as we see on a cloudy day.
— They have an enormous field of view.
— Their hearing is at least 10 times more sensitive than ours.
— Their sense of smell is at least 1,000 times more sensitive than ours.
— They are ALWAYS on high alert.
— They are frequently in herds with MULTIPLE deer on high alert.

That last point is particularly troublesome for a hunter. On rare occasions a hunter may be able to beat all of those attributes in a single deer. Beating all of those attributes on multiple deer in a herd? Nope, at least one of them is likely to “bust” you long before you stalk up close to them.

The end result: even a skilled hunter will rarely succeed in stalking up close to a deer.

As you stated Gadsden Flag, the practical path to success is to identify a good hunting property, find a good spot on that property, and then just sit in that spot as still as possible for several hours–especially in conjunction with sunrise and/or sunset. Sooner or later, a deer will come by.