We all love our granddaddy’s and they are a wealth of knowledge. However, they are hunters and with hunting comes some long tails. Sure, many are just for fun, such as “The biggest deer they ever saw ran for the hills.” But, some are because they lack the education that we can get nowadays. The internet is full of knowledge, some good and some not so good. But, you have to decide what is good and bad for yourself. However, if you want to learn how to do something, you tend to turn to the internet to study. And, well, hunting is no different. Here are 20 lies your granddaddy told you about deer hunting.

  1. The oldest doe is the largest doe in the herd. This is not true at all. Similar to people, does rise to middle age and become the largest at their peak point. They will then start to deflate a little with age and become frailer and smaller.
  2. Does become sexually mature at a certain age is also false. It really depends on the weight of the doe.
  3. You will know if it is a doe or buck based on a single track. Nope. The only way to know who’s a track that is is to see the animal that made it.
  4. There is way more doe than bucks is also not true. Sure, there is more doe, but the ratio is really small, something like 3 does to 1 buck.
  5. People think that as the deer age and gets bigger their ranges to grow larger. But, the fact is their ranges grow smaller. In fact, a very large buck will have a range of one square mile. As a new yearling or younger buck will have a much larger range.
  6. The size of a tree rub will tell you the size of the buck. False. Little horns can rub a lot to make the rub much larger than you would expect. Don’t be fooled by the rub on the tree, just like prints, you need to see the animal that made it to really know the size of that animal.
  7. The older and wiser bucks were the dad to all of the fawns in the area. False. Until we have a way to test paternity it was believed that deer bred like elk. However, this is not the case. After paternity testing, it was found that at least 25% of the fawns were from younger bucks.
  8. Big Bucks will create more big bucks. False again. The genetic makeup of a fawn comes from both parents. The male is not responsible for the size of the horns on the fawn as it grows. In fact, the female has more of an influence, since, she is the one that raises it and ensures it has good nutrition.
  9. A spike is not always a spike. Yep, we said it, they can grow much larger racks in later years.
  10. Bumped bucks do not leave their home range, unlike what gramps told you. They are very loyal to their home range and often times don’t travel far.
  11. Human urine will not spook deer. Yes, we know, gramps said otherwise, but if you don’t believe us, give it a try!
  12. Coyotes are not responsible for an impact on the deer population. False. Coyotes, in fact, are the cause of 60-65% of fawns death.
  13. During October the deer movements are just as much as any other time. However, they are more alert that there is a hunting presence about the woods and they may move to avoid being seen. This is why hunters need to adapt to the deer’s movement and not be stuck in one “spot”.
  14. Most antler deformities are due to injury. The deer aren’t born that way.
  15. Deer are not colorblind. They just cannot see hues of red and green. But, they see blue better than we do.
  16. Scoring is more important than spread. Remember that, we don’t care what gramps said.
  17. If your cows are feeding this doesn’t mean your deer are as well. Sure, it is an old wise tale that if the cows are feeding so are the deer. Again, not true.
  18. Deer do move during heavy wind. This was an excuse that gramps used to not have to go out in that stuff.
  19. The vast majority of scrapes are done at night. Period.
  20. Mortally wounded deer do not always run towards water or downhill.