Deer Sight and Archery Hunting

Deer Sight (Study) Archery hunting has always been a difficult challenge, especially for the whitetail deer. Have you ever wondered how well deer see? What can they see during the daylight hours and why do they see so well during the night time? There was a study made in the early 1990�s at the University of Georgia by a team of experts (biologist and vision scientists). Understanding their vision can help you as a bowhunter to understand the importance of your camouflage and how to treat your camouflage clothing.The study that was made confirmed five things that may be of interest to you as an archery hunter.

1. The human eye has a filter that protects us from about 99% of the ultraviolet light. This filter helps us focus sharply on objects, but it also keeps out many short wave length colors, especially those wave lengths in the UV spectrum. Deer do not have this UV filter which enables them to see better in the UV spectrum but they cannot see in finer detail. It is thought that deer can see clothing at dusk or dawn as a glow when the clothing has been UV treated. There are products with which to wash your clothing to get rid of the UV treatment. 2. Deer have pupils that open much wider than the human. This allows the deer to gather in more light at dusk or dawn, allowing them to see much greater than we can. 3. The human eye has a lower number of rods (cells that see low light wave lengths) than do deer. But the deer has a lower concentration of cones (cells that see day time color wave lengths). This is why deer cannot see colors as well as humans, but they can see so much better during night time. 4. Deer lack red cones (the cell in the eye sensitive to long color wave lengths) such as orange or red. This could possibly mean deer do not see the colors orange or red as we do. This does not mean deer cannot see hunters orange, it just means they see it differently than the human eye can see it. 5. What causes deer eyes to shine green in your headlights? This is a reflective layer in the back of their eyes known as a �tapetum.� This layer reflects light not absorbed by the receptor cells back across the rods and cones for a second chance.

I hope that this bit of information will help you to better understand the difficulties of hunting the prized whitetail deer. On your next archery hunt, don�t forget to take your kids with you and start them out with a better view of the sport of archery hunting. GOOD LUCK!