Thread: How deer react to gunshots?

Varies quite a bit from what I've seen. In places where they're routinely shot at a shot can send deer running immediately for cover, and I've seen them go several hunderd yards until losing sight of them.
I remember other occasions when I've been watching deer in areas of light hunting pressure and hearing another hunter shooting not very far away, the sound of which was clearly audible to both me and deer. The deer barely stopped feeding after raising their heads for mere seconds. However, when the breeze changed and gave my scent they were gone in a flash.
Unusual things I've seen is being with another hunter who shot at and missed a deer about 100 yds away. The deer bolted but was probably confused about the direction of the shot as it ran towards us.
On another hunt with my son three Fallow stags were trotting towards us. This was during the rut. My son shot one which continued for about 50 yds before going down, dead. The two other stags carried on past, stopped, returned to the downed stag and proceeded to give it a good thrashing with their antlers for two or three minutes before continuing on their way. clearly, escaping the source of the shooting was not their highest priority.
With Sika a few times I've shot an animal, dealt to field butchering, packing it up then starting back to camp to spook another animal barely five minutes away.
Shows me there's no hard rules about deer reaction to shooting and it varies widely.