RUT and a BUCKS WANDERINGS?
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11,809 Posts
I think there are so many factors that come into play in regards to your question.
Farm/country deer , mountain deer, suburban deer. I am sure their habitat and terrain are a factor.
Weather is another one.
Amount of doe in and around the bucks home range along with the maturity of bucks living in a given area are a factor.
Hunting pressure.
All deer have different personalities.
There are just so many factors.
I do have an experience two seasons ago of hunting the same buck for almost three weeks. Saw him chasing a doe at the beginning of the last week of October and saw him off and on up until the last day of the season. This was about 100 acre area that was thick, had a lot of doe in it, and was not getting any pressure. Never could get a shot at him though.
Farm/country deer , mountain deer, suburban deer. I am sure their habitat and terrain are a factor.
Weather is another one.
Amount of doe in and around the bucks home range along with the maturity of bucks living in a given area are a factor.
Hunting pressure.
All deer have different personalities.
There are just so many factors.
I do have an experience two seasons ago of hunting the same buck for almost three weeks. Saw him chasing a doe at the beginning of the last week of October and saw him off and on up until the last day of the season. This was about 100 acre area that was thick, had a lot of doe in it, and was not getting any pressure. Never could get a shot at him though.
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402 Posts
Agree with everyone, EXCEPT for the early and late does that come in. When the (hot doe) pickings are slim and one comes in earlier or later than the bulk of the others, your area could produce the best day you ever had or feel like a complete ghost town.
Also, Google the Penn State deer movement study. Really strong insight into buck movements based on time of year and hunting pressure.
Also, Google the Penn State deer movement study. Really strong insight into buck movements based on time of year and hunting pressure.
The only thing I've seen as any kind of real "rule" is that 1.5 yr olds tend to disperse right before or at the start of the rut. Meaning, they have been living where they were born, but a lot of them just up and wander off at that time of the year and find a new "home".
This seems to mirror what I observe, in that I stop seeing young bucks I saw a lot early on, and other ones start appearing. Sometimes....some don't do this, but it seems like a lot do.
I shot a 5.5 yr old buck a while back, and he lived in one thorn thicket of about 20 acres and was seen constantly all right around that area, because he was essentially unbothered in there. He got kicked around by hunting pressure whenever he left it, and we saw him get run out of thickets by hunters (who often had no idea what they'd just pushed out, lol). I killed him near the tail end of rifle season on a mid-day two-man push my dad and I put on in his bedding area. He had no idea I was there, and he had had about 15 does with him. He never wanted to leave that thicket, and when I shot him, he appeared to me to be looking for a way to circle around my father (doing the push) and get back to where he'd been pushed out of. He was in there through the whole rut....he may have wandered at times, but he was living there from the summer until I killed him in December.
I've killed a few 2.5 yr olds that we never saw once before I killed them.
This seems to mirror what I observe, in that I stop seeing young bucks I saw a lot early on, and other ones start appearing. Sometimes....some don't do this, but it seems like a lot do.
I shot a 5.5 yr old buck a while back, and he lived in one thorn thicket of about 20 acres and was seen constantly all right around that area, because he was essentially unbothered in there. He got kicked around by hunting pressure whenever he left it, and we saw him get run out of thickets by hunters (who often had no idea what they'd just pushed out, lol). I killed him near the tail end of rifle season on a mid-day two-man push my dad and I put on in his bedding area. He had no idea I was there, and he had had about 15 does with him. He never wanted to leave that thicket, and when I shot him, he appeared to me to be looking for a way to circle around my father (doing the push) and get back to where he'd been pushed out of. He was in there through the whole rut....he may have wandered at times, but he was living there from the summer until I killed him in December.
I've killed a few 2.5 yr olds that we never saw once before I killed them.
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848 Posts
The buck I got last year was only on one of our cameras one time. About 3 weeks before I got him on the last day of rifle season. 12 cameras had been up since July 5th non stop and we only have that one picture of him. Got him about 200 yards from that particular camera.
We tend to see a lot of new bucks on the cameras between the end of archery and the beginning of rifle.
We tend to see a lot of new bucks on the cameras between the end of archery and the beginning of rifle.
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6,450 Posts
Bucks travel a lot checking bedding area's for does especially during the late rut. I believe they travel in big loops or circles always returning to the same bedding area or core area. Deer always seem to cross roads, pass through funnels using the same trails when traveling. You can use that to your advantage by sitting on such a spot all day everyday during the rut. Their is no doubt a buck will use that trail sometime during the rut. It's just a matter of him using it during daylight and you being there and alert. Sounds easy enough until you factor in the hundred different things that can go wrong.
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13,796 Posts
I'm a believer that different bucks have different personalities. Some wander for miles, others remain in relativly small areas evem during the rut. But as bone has said, they all use the same funnels when moving around and hunting those funnels is the most predictable place to encounter them. Recognizing those funnels is the key.
I've been hunting the same property for 32 years and still don't know where the bedding areas are. I find beds randomly all over the property and never in the same places. This property is mostly overgrown clear cut and it seems the deer use all of it as both bedding and feeding area. There are no places that are "bedding" areas. During the rut, I just try to cover funnels or areas that doe frequent in the evening and try calling.
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