Didn't know that deer were predators until this morning

[oldpink]

Well, this morning was opening day for deer season, and I was in position in the woods well before sunrise.
I sat on a roll of torn out fence for over an hour and a half, and I neither saw nor heard any sign of deer, and it was past time for them to be bedded down for the day.
So I tried to see if I could at least get a shot at a coyote by hitting the button to activate the woodpecker distress call on the remote for my Johnny Stewart electronic predator call.
I let it run for over five minutes, and it definitely caught the attention of two big woodhens (Pileated woodpecker), both of which landed near the call, and they both tried to locate the non-existent chick.
Anyone who knows much about woodhens will tell you that they are one of the wariest birds in the woods, so I was pleased with that.
Anyway, I was enjoying this rare opportunity to look at the two huge woodpeckers, when I suddenly heard a snorting sound behind me.
I turned around and saw a group of six deer ranging from 25 to 50 yards away.
I quickly started looking for antlers in hopes of finding a buck (I didn't kick in the extra dollars for an anterless tag), but found none.
Also, once the deer realized that a human was sitting on that roll of fence, they all sprinted over the hill.
What I found interesting was that all these deer were clearly attracted to the sound of the distress call of a woodpecker.
I'm only joking about them being predators, of course, but it does indicate that maybe predator calls can do more than just bring in coyote and fox.
I'll try my folks' other woods with the predator call tomorrow, and maybe I will see antlers this time.

[only1harry]

That is very interesting.  I would have never thought of deer coming in to investigate those type of calls.  I guess they are just curious, or maybe they just want to run off any predators like fox or bobcat that are in the area.  Mature deer don't have much to worry about, even from Coyotes, so if their hormones are running rampant, they will seek out and chase a Coyote away.

[jonnnyboy]

I agree that deer are curious.  I've known some loggers who mentioned that a lot of times deer will move closer to a man running a chainsaw in the deep woods to just check it out.  Also, farmers say that the best blind sometimes is a non-running tractor just sitting in a field.  As long as they haven't associated something with a hunter, they do not show the same kind of 'flee-ing' impulse that we normally see out of them.  I bet you wish you had a camera when they appeared!  Oh well.

I had my dad with me yesterday and we had a small 6 point buck run across the road just in front of us and across a large clear field.  It was a beautiful sight.

I hope you get your buck.

shoot well
joe

[Atchman2]

I call them ALL THE TIME with my predator calls!  The Fawn in Distress call will work most of the time to bring in both bucks and does.  I've actually had to shoo them away because they were messing up my coyote hunting!