My research leads me to believe that the deer whistles don't really work. The air flowing thru the non electronic type whistles is flowing so that the air that exits may be resonating at a freq that the deer may hear(but thats debateable) but the sound is now aimed behind you. The electronic ones such as the Hornet are very low powered(less than 1 watt) and I doubt that the deer would really hear it until you were right on top of them.
Here is a copy from another forum posted by a guy nicknamed (s)troll. Its quite amusing but makes sense to me-lol
OK... here goes, I have hit about 800 deer... I hit on the average about 25 deer every year.
I am a locomotive engineer, that's right I run the train in Montana
The locomotive is equipped with a 165db whistle... we call it a whistle 'cause horn does not begin to describe how loud it is. Get in front close and it will damage your hearing forever in one 8 sec blast.
The locomotive also has a very loud bell AND 4 70V headlamps that put out 300,000 candle power EACH... that's right, 1.2 million candlepower. The heat from these actually hurts as we walk into the front door.
Now, add to all this the 90+db from the engine itself plus the high pitched squeal from the steel wheels on the steel track.
Deer respond in any number of ways.
1. They completely freak and jump 30+ feet, zig, zag... fling themselves into a river etc.
2. They do absoulutly nothing
3. They don't even break stride, just continue slowly step by step into the path of the locomotive which at 60 mph puts out a bow wave that will nearly tear your unbuttoned light jacket off
4. Look up, hesitate, turn, turn again, stop, either step in front of the train enough so just the head gets hit and is thrown 300 feet down the track in front of us. (OK, just one time)
Now the abuse that will get me the boot from Mellow possibly... bear in mind I am trying to save a life here and emphasize how STUIPID it is to rely on deer whistles. Nothing works, Deer have very primitive brains and are even stupider than people who believe in deer whistles.
They do however work against elephants, giraffes, zebras etc. I have never hit one of those.
I have had close calls with Eagles, Hawk, numerous birds.
They do not work against elk, dogs, oppossom, porkupine, black/brown bear, people (standing or sitting), snakes, turtles, owls, ducks, white pelicans, rabbits, but most of all they do not work against cows, sheep and (drum roll).....Deer. I have hit all of those so many time I lost count. Many times multiples at one time.
Get real people, everyone here is smarter than this, just cause we would like 'em to work does not make it so.
