Most single-lung hits on deer are fatal, but they can make recovery a challenge.

For all we've learned about whitetails over the past couple decades, there's a heck of a lot we still don't know. After sitting down and thinking about it for a while, I came up with a list of five of the most significant and puzzling unanswered questions in deer hunting.

Some are serious. Some are simply entertaining. But all are thought provoking. The answer to all of these questions is either "maybe," "usually" or "sometimes." In short, these are the murky gray areas we all encounter when bowhunting.

Do Deer Have A Sixth Sense?
I know a couple prominent hunters who, for a while at least, were lining their hunting caps with aluminum foil to prevent brain waves from escaping. It sounds nutty, and it probably is, but I have a story to offer that may cause you to wonder. And I'll bet you can think of some similar stories of your own.

One sunny October day, I got to my stand early and, rather than climb up, I simply leaned against the base of the tree for a nap. A while later, I awoke and found myself staring straight at a doe about 15 yards away. I doubt she had made enough noise to wake me, so that was interesting in itself. But the best part happened a moment later.

The only things that moved on my whole body were my eyelids – I know that. Yet almost immediately after my eyes popped open, the doe whipped her head around, stared straight at me and bolted as if I'd shocked her with a cattle prod. It was as if she had read some change in the natural order of things. It was definitely weird.

OK, my story offers no conclusive evidence that deer can read our intentions from some electromagnetic field we transmit, but I won't say it's impossible. I feel I have experienced a sixth sense at times, so why not deer? Their lives depend on tuning into this phenomenon more than mine. Do deer have a sixth sense? Who knows, but I believe some probably do.

Some deer, such as the doe I mentioned, seem to know when someone is looking at them. It's one reason many experienced hunters never look directly at a deer's head when it's near their stand. Still, I'm not ready to don the foil hat just yet.

What Do Scrapes Really Mean?
Biologists once theorized scrapes served as a place for bucks to meet does. Bucks left their calling cards in the form of urine. An estrus doe stopped by, smelled the urine and, if she liked the condition of the buck that placed it, she urinated also. Then she bedded down nearby to await the buck's return. Ahh, if only it were that easy! Perhaps, in places where you can count the number of deer per square mile on one hand, such a system might be nature's way. But in the places I hunt, bucks totally abandon their scrapes when the rut peaks. And, if this theory is true, why have I never seen a doe actually urinate in a scrape, or even pay them any mind for that matter?

More recently, biologists have adjusted their theory. Now, they think scrapes serve as a rut-priming tool to get the herd on the same page and ready for breeding at the same time. Maybe. But again, that seems a little more organized than what I see in the woods every fall.