I think with the deer there are a lot of variables... for years, when we had dogs (not "outside" dogs) a 2-1/2-foot-high rabbit fence kept the deer out (actually, it turned out to apparently be the dogs, but we thought it was the fence at the time). Once the last 2 dogs died, the deer moved in almost immediately and we built a not-quite-8-feet-tall fence, which has successfully kept them out; but I have a lot of "structures" in the garden and the garden itself is only about 20 feet wide at the widest, and I think all of that is a bit confusing for them.
