Bucks Range

[freedomrules3]

How many miles do you think a bucks range is? we all know during july/august the bucks are fairly patternable. I'm talking about the october lull when you dont see any bucks for a few weeks. once they start splitting up how big of a range do you think they take up? I'm not talking about their range during the rut .. not yet anyway.

[BillCartwright]

I can tell you, speaking only about the areas that I hunt, I have bucks on trail cameras in June on one farm, then capture them on film in Oct and Nov nearly 2 miles away on another farm.

Then the other side of the coin is I've captured bucks on camera in June/July that are killed in November 100 yards from where I got a cam pic in June.

I think a bucks range is mostly affected by pressure, then cover and food. Food being the last because a deer is pretty adaptable to food sources. Without cover, a buck is pretty much dead.

[ARO]

around here most of the deer you see in the summer, are in the same place during hunting season, there patterns just change. i dont believe in the oct lull, i know of plenty of bucks killed during oct, some of them hammers!! you have to play it by ear, so to speak. depending on the weather conditions that year, the food sources, especially (crops & what oak species are dropping that year), along with time of year, will dictate where & when to hunt certain areas.
of course there are more bucks on there feet during the peek mating season, but a hammer buck can be killed any day of the season. you wanna know where all those midday summer time bucks went, put some camera's out, you'll find out. there are right in the same area's, just now they only travel under the cover of darkness, its funny, 95% of buck pix will be at night, even during the rut.
here's my equation for deer huntin,

A = velvet
B = antler
C = deer
D = daytime
E = nightime

A + C = D
B + C = E
B + D = DEAD DEER

[campkingmd]

I agree with BillC, the only 2 parts of the equation would be.
The bucks age and buck to doe ratio.

Aro did you figure that geometry out on your own or did your wife help you.LOL

[ARO]

no, thats basic redneck algebra!!!

[campkingmd]

OH, you learned that from Donaway!!!

[ncboman]

For years around here, we've noticed how the deer change areas according to the crops. They tend to follow soybeans and peanuts.

A few years back I was dog hunting with the crowd and had a nice buck get by me, crossing between me and some houses so I couldn't shoot. I got a good look at him though and was mildly surprized when one afternoon about 2 weeks later he walked under my stand about 3 miles from where I first saw him.

I know for a fact bucks can move their core area 2 or 3 miles from time to time on the flat farmland we have here. I always assumed deer in more rugged terrain wouldn't move that far but observations this past fall in Ohio are causing me to seriously question that.

Fulldraw was suppose to be getting some reports on recent movement studies done on deer typical of the deer we hunt but I haven't heard anything on it yet.

This really is an area I'd like to know more about as nearly all the info on it is mostly speculation regarding heartland deer.

Intuition tells me a mature buck probably knows the lay of the land for several miles in any direction from where you see him at but how often he travels these outlying areas is speculation again.

[txm]

There are several studies going on at this time, in a variety of locations.
A friend of mine is in the third year of a study of radio collared bucks and I will check and see if he is ready to release info yet.
The Improvement of tracking equipment is opening new info all of the time.
The old equipment only worked for six months on average and now we can follow the animals for a few years.
What we know now is young bucks tend to travel further than any other when they leave the doe.
They seem to travel a minimum of one mile, up to five miles.
This is the main reason that the young buck morality is so high.
They are wandering into unknown territory.
Older bucks travel the least .We did have one 7 year old buck go ten miles during the rut and came back to his home range after the rut.
Middle age bucks second to the young ones and will go several miles during the rut.
As N.C. stated food supply and other habitat changes has a big effect on buck movement.
As I am sure that most of you know does live in related family units and live and die in a very small area.
In my management I require that does be killed from across the ranches.
It is the natural thing for hunters to take the does in the easiest locations and in some cases the entire family unit can be killed.
When this happens it can take a year or two for other does to fill this vacuum and if there are no does, few bucks will be seen.
I had one ranch that killed off two units.
One was near the camp and the other near the front gate.
The hunters thought that all of the deer on the ranch had been killed when they returned the next year.
My aerial counts showed a deer per 15 acres over most of the ranch and one deer per 100 acres in the shot out areas.
This balanced out during the third year.
Don’t kill all of your does from the same group.

[freedomrules3]

I'm thinking that bucks travel a little farther than what most people think. even the older ones i have seen in 1 spot and then caught a glimpse of them several miles away. i always kind of thought it may have just been my eyes playing tricks on me . in Ohio i did notice that the travel area seemed to cover a good bit of ground, but it was fairly close to rut when i was there. i know i've seen a few older bucks in snowhill that simple dissapear all of a sudden, i'm thinking now that they have moved temporarily to another spot sometimes miles away. i also think an older buck is somewhat like an old man ie hes gonna do what he want when he wants no matter what the norm is

i'm very interested in what that study your friend is doing comes up with.. let us know.

[Sharpsman]

Way farther...than most think! Once upon a time not too long ago....a buck was tagged near Sumner, Missouri and about 3 days later......the same buck was hit by a vehicle outside Kansas City, Missouri! How far? Over 100 miles! Had a doe get out of my buddies pen in Alabama and two days later....she was seen in a garden eating turnip greens! Had a red collar around the neck and other distinguishing marks so it just happened that my buddy had a friend whose garden the doe was in and the next day they were able to shoot her with a needle-gun and bring her home!! Distance? 42 miles straight line not counting the crooked river bottom she traced getting north!!