I’ve hunted several different states and I have to say these AL deer are the wildest, most easily spooked deer I’ve ever seen. One little noise, anything to alert them and it’s over, they are gone and back in the thick stuff. Why is this? I wonder if it’s the years & years of dog hunting deer here in North AL? Not blaming dog hunters because I enjoy a good dog drive myself, it’s just a theory? What do y’all think? Robinhedd

Long season, the doe death rape that goes on

Do the trail cameras themselves spook em? (the one's that don't have to checked like cell cameras)

They can.

Long season, the doe death rape that goes on , trail
Cameras and the over abundance of coyotes

I've seen it both ways, and I'm not convinced that human presence is always the culprit. Obviously it can be, but I hunted swamp land in Lowndes County, with 20 other hunters and more coyotes than I ever seen anywhere. Those deer would stand 30 yards away and watch you climb a tree. We used to joke about how Mello they were, and even wondered if they was grazing on someone's local pot stash.
Then I've hunted another place with only two or three hunters, and often nobody on the property for weeks at a time, no cameras, no atvs and still the deer would act completely paranoid. If you even seen one, in the daylight, buck or doe, they was on ultra high alert and spooked at any movement or noise.
Thats totally opposite behavior, from deer herds that are less than 50 miles apart, but two examples that I've seen personally.

They did this a couple of times and then finally took off. The only thing I could ever figure was that they smelled something that made them jump but they didn't know where it was coming from so they were just running until they finally decided on a way to go. It was a crazy thing to watch.

Makes you wonder what thought process causes them to leave the safety of a lush green ditch and hurl themselves in front of a 60 ton log truck.

Long gun season. Dog hunting.

Most states have seasons that are over 80% archery only and no dog hunting at all.
Alabama has a season that allows firearms to be used 80% of the season and still allows dog hunting.

It ain’t hard to figure out.

Makes you wonder what thought process causes them to leave the safety of a lush green ditch and hurl themselves in front of a 60 ton log truck.

I’ve hunted several different states and I have to say these AL deer are the wildest, most easily spooked deer I’ve ever seen. One little noise, anything to alert them and it’s over, they are gone and back in the thick stuff. Why is this? I wonder if it’s the years & years of dog hunting deer here in North AL? Not blaming dog hunters because I enjoy a good dog drive myself, it’s just a theory? What do y’all think? Robinhedd

You've seen variations of this answer in the first page. I've not read all replies. Basically when you factor in prep for season, trail cams, people with atv's riding right through all but the thickest woods, not JUST on roads, stocking feeders, etc, our deer have close human contact from September thru mid Feb. That's almost half the year. Deer are highly adaptable to conditions and surroundings. They know where they're safe and not.

There is a college over in Rome GA called Berry College. It's campus is the largest contiguous land mass campus in the U.S. at 27,000ac. It also borders a Wildlife Management area. Their season is as long as ours running from Sept 8-Jan13. On Berry's campus, deer roam freely and bed down on the lawns of the campus buildings. Student's walk among them, and they simply keep their distance, which is basically just our of arm's reach. They, at least on the campus don't fear humans, while just a short distance away, they are hunted. I've seen neighborhoods overrun with deer eating shrubs, and bedding in yards in various suburbs here and there. They just know. It's why they are so easily restocked and thrive in so many places where once hunted out. They are masters at just keeping out of our way when they have to, but doing so while living in such close proximity to us.

The deer in the rural areas that only know being totally wild, and only know man as another predator learn to live accordingly.

Human Presence has nothing to do with it. They will get accustomed to people. Like farmers and loggers, etc. Pay them no attention and rarely do anything but just get alert when they smell a human.

What they don't get use to?

Being shot at.

If you deer are skiddish someone is shooting at them. Based on the current free-for-all system good luck trying to curtail anything related to that.

I'm not too sure about this. I use to hunt on 40 acres belonging to my friend. Less than a mile away people would sometimes target shoot. I'd get all wound up about that when they started because after all, didn't they know I was deer hunting? One afternoon I was sitting on a power line cut watching 4 does on the next property 500 yds away when the shooting started. They never even looked up or took notice in any way, continued browsing for another 20 minutes, and didn't leave until finally a helicopter flew almost directly overhead. Even then they didn't run in terror, they just eased off into the woods.

Later that same year, which I think was the first year I hunted, my son and I were crammed into a one man shooting house one afternoon. A spike and a buttonhead walked out of some short pines into a little small green field. We both thought the buttonhead was a doe and he shot him at about 80 yds. He spined him so he just fell right there. The spike never even raised his head at the shot, kept browsing, and about 5 minutes later finally walked over to see why his buddy was lying on the ground, sniffed around and kept on browsing. Not 15 minutes later 3 does appeared from a bend in the road about 150 yds away, walked down the road and entered the green field. They alerted on the down deer right away but didn't run or do anything besides look at him until I put a hole through one.

they werent being shot at being shot at and hearing gunshots is 2 different things and they sound completely different hearing the bullet clap over your head before you hear the muzzle blast is a life changing event hearing someone shoot at a gun range 500 yards away is nothing the deer know I used to get agravated hunting our little 600 acres because a neighbor used to shoot like he was reinacting the Iraq war but the deer just went about their business