Folks are going to want to throw out all of these ideas about how bows cause more pressure because you gotta be closer to the deer and this and that but the end result is that bow hunting only properties put a whole lot less pressure on deer than gun hunting which causes the deer to be much more visible in the daylight. Every time I go to one of these bow only properties there’s always deer just standing around everywhere……especially the ones where they have a sizeable chunk of land under bow only.

Well it took till Wednesday to get our weekly thread

You might want to check the calendar homie......

lol. Touche

Bow hunters are generally more scent aware, quiet, and covert than most gun hunters. Also more selective on the shot and the animal. I would think Bow only areas would be less pressured and the deer would be more likely to be unpressured compared to gun hunting clubs.

I believe it’s the shot itself……If we took 100 bow shots and compared them to 100 gun shots……Shot for shot the guns will have way more impact on deer behavior…..Deer only being shot at with bows don’t seem to know their being hunted in the same manner

It’s all about the individual. Bow hunters can place more pressure on a place than gun hunters, and vice versa. Frequency of hunting and what deer are accustomed to has more to do with how it affects deer movement than the weapon.

I've seen evidence that says otherwise....

The problem a lot of folks are going to run into with this idea is that if you’re only hunting small acreages outside of a fence, then you’re most likely still hunting deer that are being exposed to gun hunters…..Properties where the deer are only ever exposed to bow hunting behave differently despite some of these places shooting far more deer than the average hunting club. If they were killing the same number of deer with a gun the woods would be "shot to pieces"

Absolutely no pressure from bow hunters on our place!! We never take the time to go that time of the year.

Think about it this way….in the vast majority of situations the deer never even realize what has happened with a bow shot…..There’s no perception of a negative event that’s occurring that’s driving a behavioral change. Have you ever seen a dog that was gun shy??...Yeah probably so, that's pretty easy to do..... What about one that was scared of a compound bow??

and exactly where and how have you seen this evidence? Was it in the 2-3 hrs that you were on someone else's property, tracking a deer for them, out of the 8,760 total hrs in a year. Yep, a few hours on a property is a real good data subset to formulate a hunting theory on. Matt's 100% correct on this one. We used to have a stand on a property that had so many deer killed out of it that we named it the machine gun nest. Spent brass was so thick under that tripod after 3-4 years that you had to be careful not to roll an ankle. We kept observation data, deer killed by year, by stand location on the entire property and guess what, 10 yrs later, we were still seeing similar numbers of deer and still killing the same number of deer out of that field as we did the first year we got it. I'm not trying to be a smart butt but there's a lot more that goes into "pressure" than just a single gun shot at a particular location on a property, every couple weeks. Access, wind direction, how often the location is being hunted, how often the location is being visited when not hunting (cameras/baiting), are 4 wheelers and SXS being ridden to within a couple hundred yards of the stand, whether you can get in and out without spooking any deer when you are coming and going, it all plays into the pressure equation.

best way to lower pressure gun hunting to have your stands several hundred yards away from the plot to keep scent away from the food source.

Some dogs are noise sensitive and others arent. Just like people, and probably just like deer. I know people that have dogs that flinch at a car door slamming and I know some that wont even look up if you cut loose with an air horn right beside them. Some dogs run hide under a bed if it thunders. My lab whines wanting to go outside to see if any birds are falling out of the sky from that big noise. I've killed deer with a rifle in a big field many many times and everything runs out at the shot, only to return and go sniff the dead deer and go back to feeding within just a minute or two of the initial shot. I've seen times when they dont even leave the field at the shot at all. They spook and take off running for about 10-20 yards and then calm down, stay alert for a few minutes and then go right back to feeding with their dead buddy in sight. There are a lot of sudden loud noises in the woods. Thunderstorms, limbs and dead trees falling, coyotes howling, etc.

^^^^winner winner

I have a 200 yard rifle range and constantly have to wait for deer to walk across it between shot strings. Gunfire means nothing to deer. Yes on a calm late evening food plot they run off. They’ll be back shortly. However, if you then walk down the field, look for a deer, come back with a buddy and a vehicle to load it up, then it may take weeks to return to normal. The shot is not pressure. The human presence and scent left behind is.

“Pressure” only matters if the deer know they’re being shot at…..The deer in Cades Cove don’t care how and when humans come and go.

Tracking deer at night with dogs is the biggest culprit!!

Since we’re on such serious topics what yall think about eating garlicky food the night before a hunt. Can’t be out there smelling Italian