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Rut range shift has begun

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BSK

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Mar 11, 1999
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Nashville, TN
At least on my property it has. Picked up 10 new bucks in a week's time. And typical of the rut range-shift, it usually starts with a sudden surge of new yearling bucks showing up on cam. 8 of the 10 new bucks I picked up last week were yearlings. Usually, the new big boys start showing up a week or so later.
 
Its happening here to. Here is 5.5 old scrub on my family farm that showed up a couple hours ago.
 

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Started on my places as well, but hasn't hit peak of shift yet. The big shift is usually tied to 150ac of beans/ corn being harvested.

BSK, at your place is the shift tied to removing the crops in the bottom or independent of that?
 
megalomaniac said:
Started on my places as well, but hasn't hit peak of shift yet. The big shift is usually tied to 150ac of beans/ corn being harvested.

BSK, at your place is the shift tied to removing the crops in the bottom or independent of that?
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Very closely tied to crop harvest.

Half the corn has been harvested and they're just starting on the beans.

Big influx of older bucks usually happens between Oct. 20 and 25.
 
BSK said:
Very closely tied to crop harvest.

Half the corn has been harvested and they're just starting on the beans.

Big influx of older bucks usually happens between Oct. 20 and 25.
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i have dried beans waiting to be cut. standing corn on the other side. shocked neither have been cut yet. both will fall in the next few days. that should open the flood gates
 
BSK said:
Very closely tied to crop harvest.

Half the corn has been harvested and they're just starting on the beans.

Big influx of older bucks usually happens between Oct. 20 and 25.
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Deer often bed in standing corn fields, but what about soybeans nearing harvest time?

Regarding the soybeans, do you think the deer leave those beanfield areas more because of the sudden lack of standing soybeans, or the sudden heavy machinery commotion of the harvest?

With both soybeans & corn, immediately after harvest, there should be plenty of soybeans & corn available for deer food, so it's not a loss of food causing these range shifts?
 
TheLBLman said:
Deer often bed in standing corn fields, but what about soybeans nearing harvest time?

Regarding the soybeans, do you think the deer leave those beanfield areas more because of the sudden lack of standing soybeans, or the sudden heavy machinery commotion of the harvest?

With both soybeans & corn, immediately after harvest, there should be plenty of soybeans & corn available for deer food, so it's not a loss of food causing these range shifts?
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I do not know what the exact trigger is. With corn, I suspect it is the loss of cover. I still see deer going down into the bottomlands at night to pick over the corn left on the ground, but these deer are now bedding "in the hills" instead of down in the ag fields themselves. With soybeans, I suspect itis the loss of food. I will get much argument from ag area hunters on this, but it has been my observation that deer do not place soybean beans themselves high on their preference list. In essence, they eat the dead bean pods only when higher-preference foods aren't available.
 
BSK said:
I do not know what the exact trigger is.
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Thinking similar.
My theory is when the combines come in cutting the corn, this major disturbance at least causes the deer to "head for the hills". Once there, they discover the acorns, which they then prefer over corn. But just like us humans, they prefer some diversity in the diets, and will still go back to those corn fields at night for "dessert".

I'm also of the opinion most hunters do not appreciate just how much linear distance deer habitually travel in a day. It's simply common for deer to travel over a linear mile every night from a heavy cover area to more open feeding areas. This travel distance gets expanded during the rut, and seems to be greatly contracted during the spring & summer months.

That said, I observed a bachelor group of bucks last year daily travel over a mile from their daytime to nighttime areas. What was most interesting, is they were using some different areas for nighttime feeding, sometimes traveling over a mile to the east, the next day over a mile to the west, the next day to the south (different fields, different directions).

The distance these deer were weekly using during the summer months was somewhat a revelation to me. Talking weekly maybe walking around on over 2,000 acres. Then in October, they scattered like a covey of quail.
 
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BSK said:
I do not know what the exact trigger is. With corn, I suspect it is the loss of cover. I still see deer going down into the bottomlands at night to pick over the corn left on the ground, but these deer are now bedding "in the hills" instead of down in the ag fields themselves. With soybeans, I suspect itis the loss of food. I will get much argument from ag area hunters on this, but it has been my observation that deer do not place soybean beans themselves high on their preference list. In essence, they eat the dead bean pods only when higher-preference foods aren't available.
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I agree 100% on every point but will add that I often see bean fields become busy again as season progresses. A lot of beans that didn't get picked up in the combine will sprout new bean plants, and it really pulls deer in. I've never seen a "volunteer" bean amount to anything but that doesn't stop the deer from gobbling them up. Doesn't seem to work that way in corn fields. I see volunteer corn plants but deer don't seem to be eating the corn greens like they do bean greens.
 
Ski said:
I agree 100% on every point but will add that I often see bean fields become busy again as season progresses. A lot of beans that didn't get picked up in the combine will sprout new bean plants, and it really pulls deer in. I've never seen a "volunteer" bean amount to anything but that doesn't stop the deer from gobbling them up. Doesn't seem to work that way in corn fields. I see volunteer corn plants but deer don't seem to be eating the corn greens like they do bean greens.
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I've definitely seen cut-over bean fields get hot late in season into winter. At that time, the top-preference acorns are gone.
 
I think the majority of range shifting is due to social pressure, not the food source itself. Summer beans that are 4 feet tall provide quite a bit of social isolation as the deer feed in them. Cut the beans, and all the deer move to the nearest cover and are crammed in together. Most bucks (but especially older bucks) just don't like being crowded in with other deer and move to find less crowded food sources.
 
megalomaniac said:
I think the majority of range shifting is due to social pressure, not the food source itself. Summer beans that are 4 feet tall provide quite a bit of social isolation as the deer feed in them. Cut the beans, and all the deer move to the nearest cover and are crammed in together. Most bucks (but especially older bucks) just don't like being crowded in with other deer and move to find less crowded food sources.
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I'd say that's for sure a factor. Hunting pressure also causes bucks to shift territory. We don't admit or acknowledge it much but can be our own worst enemies. I know for sure I've pushed a little too hard moving in on bucks and they disappeared never to be seen again. Those bucks went somewhere, meaning someone else got a new buck showing up to hunt.
 

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