Bucks moving?

[catman529]

with the velvet starting to come off, is anyone seeing bucks leave their property, or seeing any new ones starting to show up?

 

[BSK]

Generally what I see is bucks never being photographed out of velvet--they're just gone sometime around the last days of August or the first days of September--and new bucks never photographed in velvet suddenly showing up at the same time.

 

[TheLBLman]

Generally what I see is bucks never being photographed out of velvet-- they're just gone sometime around the last days of August or the first days of September . . . .

That there has made many a trail cam user SICK & DESPAIRED!
But welcome news to those of us with big doe sinks!

Other than existing within a several-mile radius, summer pics of bucks in velvet usually have little correlation to the locations those same bucks will frequent during October.

 

[catman529]

I'm eager to check my thicket cam one more time before season, but might wait another week or so. When I check it, I will make the final clearing of the entrance trail so I can make a quiet, scent free entrance through the thicket. It will be for a west wind afternoon hunt from the ground with a bow and shots in the 5-10 yard range. If the big boys start showing up I will stay out of there except for the occasional hunt. So I'd like to check my cam when most velvet is shed but also with enough time to let my scent dissipate and deer settle down before season opens. I won't hunt the spot very often due to its central location in prime deer cover.

 

[Hollar Hunter]

I get new bucks every year in sept and oct but my homebody bucks that were around all summer stay around for the most part as well... They may shift their area a little bit but their still around through season... As soon as the velvet comes off the day light pics of them drop dramatically untill mid Oct. The new bucks that show up in Sept. and Oct. all disappear back where they came from around the first couple days of Dec.

 

[Hollar Hunter]

I'm eager to check my thicket cam one more time before season, but might wait another week or so. When I check it, I will make the final clearing of the entrance trail so I can make a quiet, scent free entrance through the thicket. It will be for a west wind afternoon hunt from the ground with a bow and shots in the 5-10 yard range. If the big boys start showing up I will stay out of there except for the occasional hunt. So I'd like to check my cam when most velvet is shed but also with enough time to let my scent dissipate and deer settle down before season opens. I won't hunt the spot very often due to its central location in prime deer cover.

Cat,

I'd say your spot will be on fire mid Oct. through Nov. I'd refrain from hunting there until than if your goal is to kill a mature buck out of there. It's a guarantee you'll have them in there either way do to location but you'll better your odds..

 

[catman529]

I'm eager to check my thicket cam one more time before season, but might wait another week or so. When I check it, I will make the final clearing of the entrance trail so I can make a quiet, scent free entrance through the thicket. It will be for a west wind afternoon hunt from the ground with a bow and shots in the 5-10 yard range. If the big boys start showing up I will stay out of there except for the occasional hunt. So I'd like to check my cam when most velvet is shed but also with enough time to let my scent dissipate and deer settle down before season opens. I won't hunt the spot very often due to its central location in prime deer cover.

Cat,

I'd say your spot will be on fire mid Oct. through Nov. I'd refrain from hunting there until than if your goal is to kill a mature buck out of there. It's a guarantee you'll have them in there either way do to location but you'll better your odds..

I might hunt in there once pre rut to try for a doe from the ground. Most of my hunting there will be in woods bordering the thicket. I plan to stay out of all of the thicket except to track deer and hunt that one salt lick spot. I don't want to bump older deer out of the area.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

This year since the last week of July, we had eight 3 1/2 or older bucks. Though, the last 2 weeks show that 5 of them are gone and 2 new ones showed up. Well, one of them I am not necessarily considering "gone". He's a 6 1/2 and he's just getting more wary of the camera. Usually one pic of him during the summer looking at the camera, then he eludes them until October. I expect to see a few more to show up through mid September. Then more to pop in around the first week of November.

Side note: 2 of my 5 cameras out did not take pics the last week due to a dead battery, and a full memory card. These 2 cameras are typically the ones I see "new" bucks

 

[benellivol]

I, pretty consistently, get the same bucks on camera, they just move to a different part of the property I hunt. The deer I get all summer long in the back half of the property start showing up in the front half and vice versa.

It's a little over 500 acres with a lot of deep hollows and ridges.

One or two bucks leave, but the majority just shift around. I've learned a lot about deer movement thanks to cameras

 

[BSK]

I get new bucks every year in sept and oct but my homebody bucks that were around all summer stay around for the most part as well... They may shift their area a little bit but their still around through season... As soon as the velvet comes off the day light pics of them drop dramatically untill mid Oct. The new bucks that show up in Sept. and Oct. all disappear back where they came from around the first couple days of Dec.

Thanks so much for posting that information Hollar Hunter. As most who have read my posts over the years know, these seasonal shifts in buck range are of great interest to me. I would love to be able to find a means of predicting how the pattern will work on any individual property. However, to date, I have been unsuccessful at deciphering how these patterns work. I've seen so many unique situations that there does not seem to be any patternable rhyme or reason to them. Your situation is another example of this.

 

[BSK]

I, pretty consistently, get the same bucks on camera, they just move to a different part of the property I hunt. The deer I get all summer long in the back half of the property start showing up in the front half and vice versa.

It's a little over 500 acres with a lot of deep hollows and ridges.

One or two bucks leave, but the majority just shift around. I've learned a lot about deer movement thanks to cameras

Again, another unique situation. Thanks for posting the info.

 

[MUP]

My last pull(about 3 weeks ago I think) had several bucks on it, but last week I had only one racked buck on camera for just a weeks time. Might be shuffling around getting ready to disperse. I should know more from my next pull this weekend.

 

[BSK]

My last pull(about 3 weeks ago I think) had several bucks on it, but last week I had only one racked buck on camera for just a weeks time. Might be shuffling around getting ready to disperse. I should know more from my next pull this weekend.

One very interesting thing I've learned from look at the details of GPS-collar studies is that many deer slowly shift across their range, often taking two to three weeks to work from one end to the other. In essence, they have a "mini" daily range that slowly shifts from one end of the seasonal range to the other. What this means to the hunter or trail-camera user is that a particular deer may only come through a given area once every two to three weeks. I definitely see this pattern with some (but not all) bucks. I will only get them on trail-cam at a particular location on a two or three week interval pattern. In essence, I will get a surge of pictures of a buck on a particular camera for a day or two, and then not again for a couple of weeks, only to again get a big surge in pictures of that buck at that camera.

 

[Boll Weevil]

The deer I get all summer long in the back half of the property start showing up in the front half and vice versa.

Same here...and they've started this movement where I hunt. All summer long I've gotten tons of pics of one particular buck, but only on a single camera over on the southern part of the farm. On this last pull he showed up on a camera about 1150 yards away (.65 miles) for the first time. At the same time (actually on the same camera) 3 other bucks I had never seen before on any of the cameras showed up.

I'm going to continue to watch for whether they keep showing up consistently on that cam, or if maybe it's only one of their stops as they move on...and whether they come back.

 

[MUP]

My last pull(about 3 weeks ago I think) had several bucks on it, but last week I had only one racked buck on camera for just a weeks time. Might be shuffling around getting ready to disperse. I should know more from my next pull this weekend.

One very interesting thing I've learned from look at the details of GPS-collar studies is that many deer slowly shift across their range, often taking two to three weeks to work from one end to the other. In essence, they have a "mini" daily range that slowly shifts from one end of the seasonal range to the other. What this means to the hunter or trail-camera user is that a particular deer may only come through a given area once every two to three weeks. I definitely see this pattern with some (but not all) bucks. I will only get them on trail-cam at a particular location on a two or three week interval pattern. In essence, I will get a surge of pictures of a buck on a particular camera for a day or two, and then not again for a couple of weeks, only to again get a big surge in pictures of that buck at that camera.

That's what I think may be going on, b/c I have been checking at 2 week intervals, but the last pull was only a week, and this pull(this weekend) will have only been a week also. If the bucks "re-appear", then they're still on pattern and have not begun to shift, yet anyway.

 

[BSK]

Great observations guys. Keep it up!

 

[Winchester]

I don't see nearly the September shift in bucks here in the smaller properties of east TN. as I have in the past in the larger tracts of Middle tn. I think its due to lack of good habitat to readily move to/from. Many of the places we hunt/monitor may be the only, or atleast the best, habitat available for a considerable distance here, with the areas being much more developed/populated by people.
Some areas I definitely see them come and go, but not on the majority of the properties.

 

[MUP]

I rarely see scrapes before Nov on my property, and rubs start appearing in mid Oct as the norm. I know there are bucks in the area per tcam pics, but sign just doesn't begin to materialize until these times generally. Now I will say that on the rare occasions that I have found rub/scrape sign earlier than this, there was also an encounter with a large buck that season as well.

 

[BSK]

I don't see nearly the September shift in bucks here in the smaller properties of east TN. as I have in the past in the larger tracts of Middle tn. I think its due to lack of good habitat to readily move to/from. Many of the places we hunt/monitor may be the only, or atleast the best, habitat available for a considerable distance here, with the areas being much more developed/populated by people.
Some areas I definitely see them come and go, but not on the majority of the properties.

I theorize managers will see the least seasonal shifting in areas that either 1) the monitored property is easily the best habitat in the area; or 2) all of the habitat in the area is the same, and this is especially the case if all of the habitat in the area is poor.

 

[TheLBLman]

I theorize managers will see the least seasonal shifting in areas that either 1) the monitored property is easily the best habitat in the area . . . . .

Or sometimes the best habitat in the area is a "doe sink" and there are no bucks (other than yearlings and fawns) during the summer, UNTIL the "seasonal" shift (which seems to begin mainly after velvet shedding).

I theorize that velvet antlers must be about as "sensitive" as testicles, and the bucks want no part of an aggressive doe putting the hurt on them. But soon as the velvet is gone, the bucks are no longer intimidated, and start showing up in the summer "doe sinks".