Can a deer see me in a tree stand?
If you find a good spot and put up a tree stand, you can hunt there every day and plan on seeing deer. Deer have incredible detection abilities, so sitting still in your stand is preferential to walking around.
They will look up at them. Like pop-up ground blinds, I like to give deer time to get used to a ladder stand before I hunt it. Well-established, easy-to-access areas that get continuous deer traffic all season, like food plot edges and bait sites, are good ladder stand choices.
Often times 20 feet is the benchmark. This will get you up high enough to be out of direct line of sight for any deer in the area and is not so high that a hunter feels uncomfortable climbing to and getting into the stand safely. If you're using a climber, you are limited based on the shape of the tree.
True. Ladder stands are perceived as safer than other types of stands, however, it's critical to your safety that you follow all safety guidelines when using them, including using a full-body safety harness and a rope safety line with prusik knot to stay connected to the tree while climbing up and down the ladder.
ANSWER: Under normal conditions, a deer can smell a human that is not making any attempt to hide its odor at least 1/4 mile away. If the scenting conditions are perfect (humid with a light breeze), it can even be farther. So they are pretty impressive.
Spooked deer will return to their bedding area, but when they return depends on how much the intrusion frightened them. If they can't pinpoint the threat, they'll likely return sooner than if they saw or smelled you. You can evaluate your impact on a deer by studying its body language.
Plan for Comfort
The unpredictable nature of bucks during the rut is why it is crucial to find a spot that you know deer usually travel and sit all day. To sit all day, one must be ready to endure ten or more hours in a ladder stand, tree stand or blind.
Each year, more and more deer hunters are discovering that sometimes the best hunting strategy is to abandon the stand, get on the ground and go after your deer. Walk-and-stalk hunting can put a deer in your rifle sights if you follow the guidelines.
If you're not seeing deer, you might be reaching your treestand too late and leaving too early. Get settled at least a half-hour before you expect deer to move. That means arriving before first light in the morning, and at least an hour before dark in the late afternoon. For evening sits, plan to walk out in darkness.
Any whitetail deer hunter can attest a mature buck seems to have a sixth sense that alerts them to our presence. There seems to be something in addition to the super-hero sense of smell, hearing and eyesight that they already possess.
Can deer see you if you don't move?
This means they don't need to move their eyes at all. With the head stationary, deer can see at a 300 degree angle around. A slight turn of their head can reveal the other 60 degrees.
The lens in a deer's eye also can't adjust to objects at varying distances. These factors give deer less visual clarity than humans have. An object a deer is looking at straight on is equally in focus as something out to the side — so don't assume that because a deer isn't looking directly at you that it can't see you.
