Where is this? Ass to what to expect, it will vary by plant. Certainly, something like white pine with lots of damage to branches will some day show no sign of ever having had this happen. Ferns will, of course, rebound from their crowns. Rhodies will struggle but I should think slowly rebound. Just depends, as they say.

Especially because rhododendrons are involved I'm wondering if some or all of this is rabbits instead of deer.

Either way it shows how if you are doing much planting where such guests may appear you really need to use effective fencing or screening. Otherwise you are just leaving yourself vulnerable.

I might think rabbit if the damage wasn't 3 Ft up the tree. lucky none of the leaders were damaged but I'm still really mad about it. Just thinking what I would do it if was a very rare or expencive/slow growing conifer..ate all the buds off the mugos as well...noticed that a few mins ago

One winter my next door neighbours had their Scotch pine chewed right back except for what was under the snow, those branches slowly turned skyward, now they are multi trunked trees, deer damage sucks but voles are worse.

I am amazed that they ate ferns!...we live in a wooded area and have occasional deer damage...they go through my backyard so I moved hostas and planted deer resistant plants - lots of ferns...so far so good...worst thing that happens to the ferns are limbs or branches smashing them or my husband accidentally stepping on them...sad to discover that my ferns might be damaged...have u tried boxwood? mine do well...

Well, we still have the extensive Mid Atlantic snow pack from the big blizzard of 2016, though overall, Winter has been relatively mild and real frost only came after Christmas. I have some conifers:

mature Eastern Hemlocks (they are limbed up so no damage gets done and they even seem to ignore them in the rut)

Cephalotaxus (Japanese Plum yew); the deer will munch on the vertical grower and ignore the horizontal one in another part of the year...??, don't know why)

Weeping Atlas Cedar (was hoping this one would be resistant but it's not; the vertical growing variety is beyond their reach so safe).

Mugo and Bosnian pines were eaten to the ground last Winter.

On other evergreens, I have never seen them eat ferns or the clumping bamboos. This year they seem to have eased off on the red-tip Photinia. Rhododendrons, Holly and Camellia are ignored. (Last year, holly were being eaten. In fact, last Winter was SOOOO bad...., I saw them eating YUCCA and Magnolia leaves (that's the equivalent of eating leather for us humans.) They love Aucuba japonica and mine is still recovering from last year's damage. Boxwood is always reliably resistant. Once the snow pack melts some, will be curious to see what they did to newly planted Osmanthus heterophyllus (supposedly resistant). I have given up on a few plants completely..., Euonymous japonica, Hosta. Other plants that are evergreen that they have ignored for me are Christmas Rose, Dusty Millers, Rosemary, Bay Laurel, and Cherry Laurel.

Snow covering the ground brings on the deer destruction as they have little/no access to the ground & will eat anything green above the snow including rhododendrons & mountain laurels (poisonous to many animals). The only recourse is to fence them, pile up brush around them, etc.

Nicholsworth, there was a cinnamon fern "colony" in a wet spot when I was in Virginia. The deer never touched it for years, then one spring decimated the entire colony and continued eating it thru the summer (as it sprouted) to where every fern was killed.

subtropix & beng12 - I feel your pain!! I've had the experience of coming upon a naked & destroyed shrub or plant...so discouraging...I thought ferns were a sure thing...

The problem is that - oddly - deer are subject to starvation during snowy periods, become desperate. An unprotected garden planting is like a rescue mission for them.