How far do bucks travel?

[Steve Bartylla]

Just when you think you have them figured out they, make a fool out of you......

Those may be the truest words ever written here. There are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many variables in these types of activities that it can be extremely humbling. I really don't think we'll ever be able to nail it down tight. Even if one would be able to on a particular property or two, it will likely be different on the third.

You can really see this on the grounds I manage tightly vrs the unmanaged, average hunting pressure grounds I hunt vrs the true war zone pressured grounds I hunt. I get a lot higher % of bucks living year round on the tightly managed and war zone grounds than the more typical hunting grounds.

HOWEVER, even that doesn't always hold true from property to property. a 1500 acre piece I finished off a few years back is a great piece of ground, with about a 60% cover/40% ag split. It had mature oak ridges, nasty thick stuff, a couple large ponds, ridges offering every exposure a deer could want. It is truly a special property, but I couldn't get the bucks to live there year round if my life depended on it.

The surrounding area was a 95% ag/5% overgrown drainages. As soon as the corn in those surrounding fields got knee high, you'd see a mass exodus of bucks from the property (around 10% would stay/90% gone). They'd be gone until the corn got harvested and then the mass migration back would occur. Just that quick, the bucks were no longer comfortable with the limited cover that just the drainages provided. They'd pack back into the like crazy, providing a jaw dropping density of bucks. Then the dominance structure would be reshuffled and you'd see a % get driven off again. I'm confident (based on intel and history) that the majority of the ones to have comparatively brief stays were those that had a strong drive to be dominant, but just couldn't stack up to the top dogs. Every year it was a race to get those "bleh" racked top dogs killed, before they drove off the a % of the best 3.5-4.5s (and the 5.5+ with great head gear, but lacking the bodies/fighting skills/temperament to match). Because the surrounding areas are/were so easy to hunt, those that got driven out didn't return the next year very often.

The reason I keep "qualifying" so many statements I make about buck behavior is that I don't believe that there is 1 or even just 2 right answers. I think the very best we can hope to achieve is to make somewhat educated guesses on what will happen (and be right more often than wrong), based on the habitat (both on the property and the surrounding areas), population dynamics and hunting pressure.

For me, that's what's so fascinating about these types of subjects. They're intricate puzzles and we often don't have all the pieces to fit it together, no matter how hard we try. Frankly, I don't think most even has to know why. IMO, the most important part for those wanting to truly max their opportunities is merely know what they tend to do on that ground. Know that and you can make better decisions/formulate better game plans.

If you're going to have that influx, you may not want to kill that first 2.5 year old you see. At the same time, killing that older, nasty 100" 7 point may be a very high priority. If you don't have the influx, you'll likely eat that tag if you wait for something better to show up. I'm not saying you'll always be right. You're just playing the odds, which is what I do in soooooo much of hunting and management. Consistently play the odds over the long run and you win more than you lose.

 

[Tree Spud]

I think it also depends on the age of the buck. I believe a mature buck, 5 years or older, will have a very limited home range possible as small as 100 acres. They will find that one area that offers food, water, and cover, with little or no intrusions. They have survived this long by not wandering into harms way.

In my experience these mature bucks are the first to seek out does the earliest in the season, while the younger bucks are still trying to fight & claim territory. These mature bucks may not roam as much as the does have not been pushes as hard.

The ones that break their own rules early season provide an opportunity. Then again, once the full rut starts these mature guys could be 3-4 farms away.

 

[j-bird]

I think they will travel as little as possible during most of the year as long as they have what they need -why would they? Once the rut starts to stir I think they travel alot more - I actually count on it. I say that because I have limited cover and I know I do not hold mature deer - I may not hold many deer at all. The nicer bucks we have taken we have never seen before. I don't run trail cams my buddy runs one when he gets the itch. We don't see anything resembling amature buck until the "urge" starts. I simply try to feed the deer and make them feel safe (mostly does) and then when the time is right the boys come looking. If my hunch holds up I think the best scoring deer off of our place was taken in that post rut time frame of early december (deer hasn't been scored yet to confirm).

 

[sandbur]

When the conr is waist high, many of our deer move into the corn and won't be seen until late Oct.

I like GG's post-same thing that I see.

 

[Greta&Gus]

What you have described with the seasonal shifting and camera observations is almost exactly what I see here.

This is actually good to hear, considering your success. The 'shift' is what I count on to get my buck. Last year is the only year I ever shot a buck that we had a pic of in velvet first, otherwise they all come in October or November.

I also believe the removal of corn has a TON to do with deer movement. At the end of October we will probably have the only standing corn for miles.

 

[sandbur]

This is actually good to hear, considering your success. The 'shift' is what I count on to get my buck. Last year is the only year I ever shot a buck that we had a pic of in velvet first, otherwise they all come in October or November.

I also believe the removal of corn has a TON to do with deer movement. At the end of October we will probably have the only standing corn for miles.

That is an ideal situation to have the last corn in the area.

If you don't believe deer move when the corn comes out, ask the guy on the combine. They seem to move to the adjacent cover for a short period and then disperse from there.

 

[BJE80]

I've tried sitting during corn harvest and never had any luck either.

 

[j-bird]

I agree with the corn harvest as well. Corn produces more cover in my area than all the other cover types combined in my area. Bow hunting is very difficult in my area while the corn crop remains in the fields. Once harvest hits full swing it pushes the deer in the true cover areas where at least we have a chance at them. Small pockets of standing corn will draw deer to feed, but if you can find a nice field late in the season you damn near can't chase the deer out of it! My place typically is one of the first planted and first harvested in my general area so that poses an issue as my neighbors don't harvest until much later. That is one of the factors of why I essentially won't start hunting until close to Halloween. Hunting hard in the early season on my place seems to do nothing more than educate the deer -we have started waiting for more things to be in our favor. I used to hunt nearly every day after work in the early season and all day on weekends - thinking the harder I hunt the better the result. I was wrong - plain and simple. I was simply educating deer and frustrating myself. I needed to hunt SMARTER not HARDER.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

I agree with the corn harvest as well. Corn produces more cover in my area than all the other cover types combined in my area. Bow hunting is very difficult in my area while the corn crop remains in the fields. Once harvest hits full swing it pushes the deer in the true cover areas where at least we have a chance at them. Small pockets of standing corn will draw deer to feed, but if you can find a nice field late in the season you damn near can't chase the deer out of it! My place typically is one of the first planted and first harvested in my general area so that poses an issue as my neighbors don't harvest until much later. That is one of the factors of why I essentially won't start hunting until close to Halloween. Hunting hard in the early season on my place seems to do nothing more than educate the deer -we have started waiting for more things to be in our favor. I used to hunt nearly every day after work in the early season and all day on weekends - thinking the harder I hunt the better the result. I was wrong - plain and simple. I was simply educating deer and frustrating myself. I needed to hunt SMARTER not HARDER.

I'm in the same boat in terms of my hunting schedule. I used to hunt damn near every day from opening day (first few days of October) to the last day of archery season (mid november). by the time the bucks were really cruising/chasing hard, I had educated the does using my property, and the rut seemed non existent because the does were avoiding my stands. As i have improved my property, stand sites, and gained a better understanding of deer movements on the surrounding properties i came to realization that my odds at shooting a mature buck are much better if i don't hunt until sometime around October 25th until the end of the season in mid novmeber. Since i adopted that strategy, October 24th, 27th, and November 2nd, 7th, and 9th have been the days that have resulted in mature buck encounters in archery range with no shot opps, sightings just out of range, shot opportunities, harvested buck, and day time trail cam pics at stand sites.

As far as overall buck movements in my main hunting area (where my 10 acres is located), i see 4 distinct "groups" of identifiable bucks throughout the course of a year. with only 10 acres, what I am seeing on camera and while hunting is really just a snapshot of the overall pattern. I am lucky to have shed hunting permission on about 600 acres of adjoining property and property adjacent to the adjoining properties, so i do a lot of scouting while shed hunting....early march is a great time to see the previous fall's buck sign and deer patterns. So i feel like i have a good handle on how they move during the fall in the surrounding area to my 10 acres.

The four distinct "groups" of bucks correspond with different times of the year. Of course there is overlap with some bucks showing up in 4 out of 4 groups, but for the most part each group spends that one time of year utilizing my property....and then I never see them again, or at least not until the next year at that same time.

Group 1. late spring/early summer. basically may and june. there is usually Just enough antler growth to ID some of these bucks in this period, but some of these may end up in the next group and I don't realize it because there just wasn't enough antler growth to get a good ID.

Group 2. Mid to late summer July, August, beginning of September. During this period, the bucks are not usually very regular visitors to my property, because of the doe groups dominating the area with their fawns. I get what seem to be 2 week to monthly intervals of bachelor groups of bucks passing through. I will see some of these bucks come fall/archery season but not all of them.

Group 3. End of September to about the beginning or even middle of November. In the early part of this timeframe the bucks still arent very regular, but as the bachelor groups break up, i get several "new bucks" and this is when I start to get excited for the season. The new "group" of bucks that start showing up are generally the ones that I stand a chance of seeing from the stand. As October moves on the bucks start to show up in my plot and at my scrapes more frequently, as they become more interested in establishing their "territories", advertising their prescense to the ladies, and generally checking out the ladies. In late October/Early Novmeber...some years into mid November. i start to see these bucks while hunting, and on trail cam during daylight hours checking for does, chasing does etc. Group 3, also has a bit of a sub group, which is usually Mid November to the End of November and this is when the complete stranger bucks show up once or twice never to be seen again.

Group 4. Beginning of December to end of March. This is when a whole new group of bucks show up and really focus on my plot trying to replenish from the rigors of the rut. I have one deer that was a 4 yr old 10 pt this last year, that usually doesn't show up until Late December/Beginning of January. He sticks around until right around the beginning of March and then vanishes...and I never find his sheds!

these are just overly generalized patterns that i have noticed in the last 6 yrs or so at my property. there is overlap of individual bucks in each time frame, but not much. and the time frames can shift with weather and hunting pressure in the surrounding area. I also believe that as our gun season opens just after Thanksgiving and runs generally into the second week of December, a number of the bucks that I had been seeing in Group 3 have probably been killed.