A comprehensive analysis of the problem of deuteron smearing corrections is given. Some problems of the usual approach (the conventional approach) are discussed. It is shown that the formalism adopted by this approach leads to (i) the existence of the so-called West ..beta.. correction and (ii) the disagreement of the sum rules with the quark parton model expectations in leptonic scattering. It is also shown that in this formalism the electroproduction expression is not inconsistent. Following West for the identification of the wave function, it is found that the smearing correction sigma/sub s/ of the high-energy (50--370 GeV) pion and nucleon process is non-negligible, and hence, in contradiction with the usual expectations. Another test for this approach is suggested.