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Knowing Your Deer

Spurhunter

Spurhunter

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The other thread got me thinking about guys getting pics of certain bucks year after year, learning all about them, naming them, etc. I have a 416 acre lease in TN. It has everything a buck could want, especially thick, thick cover. There is very minimal hunting pressure and human intrusion. We rarely have bucks hang around longer than a couple weeks. Very rarely. A buck will show up on camera, get me excited, and disappear never to be seen again. Many times a mature buck will only get caught on camera once and he's gone forever. I've always found it interesting that other folks have bucks hang around for years. Maybe the deer on my lease are traveling deer, or maybe it's a difference in farm land vs. timber land. 🤷‍♂️
 
I've been pretty lucky over the years and seen repeat deer and know which ones they are from year to year. I've also seen the same deer show up around Nov for a short time and return the next year at the same time.

Have also seen deer move in for a week or two and then never be seen again.

One thing I've never done though is name them. Must be a manbun Creedmore thing :p
 
My lease is exactly the same. The bucks show up for a few weeks and are gone the rest of the year. I've never found a shed or even jumped a buck other than those few weeks.
 
Spurhunter said:
Not true. Naming deer is as gay as saying hitlist or hitlister and almost as gay as shooting a .270. 🤷‍♂️
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"I have been watching my number one hitlist buck Javier. He came out of the rut funnel into my kill plot where I made a clean harvest. Deer cast showed good movement so I decided to go."

Did I do that right? I'm not used to these new wordings 😅
 
Human intrusion. Deer dont know the difference between hunting, joy riding, hiking, shed hunting. I see it alot with people who live in town and that lease becomes their or their families outside enjoyment property. Thats great, but mature deer feel it. We dont even ride side by sides on our property unless its outside deer season and 100 percent essential. No traditional cams- just cell cams so indont have to pull cards, or wifi cams that i can download pics from the road. Also dont shoot does till season is ending and i know people arent hunting tracts around me. I dont want to push a 4.5 yr old buck to his death, but killinb a few does for the freezer
 
rem270 said:
"I have been watching my number one hitlist buck Javier. He came out of the rut funnel into my kill plot where I made a clean harvest. Deer cast showed good movement so I decided to go."

Did I do that right? I'm not used to these new wordings 😅
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You are YouTube ready, my friend! Disclaimer: That is an assumption. I do NOT watch any deer hunting on YouTube. I just can't take the dumbassery.
 
Could it be the individual deer's behavior???

What I mean by that is about 1/3 of bucks are homebodies and have a very tight core area. 1/3 are just crazy roamers and have a core area of 20 square miles. And about 1/3 are somewhere in between....

Is it possible your members are killing the homebodies when they are 2.5, so you don't get to follow those bucks as they age?

The roamers just randomly showing up for a day or two are the bucks that live elsewhere, you don't photograph or observe, so no way to follow those from year to year.
 
megalomaniac said:
Is it possible your members are killing the homebodies when they are 2.5, so you don't get to follow those bucks as they age?
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We do accidentally kill the occasional 2.5 year old, but it's rare. The place is thick and you don't have a lot of time to study a buck. From the time you see him until he's gone you have a small amount of time to determine if he's a shooter. However, we don't take many bucks. There are only 3 guys that hunt much at all, and this year 2 of us spent most of our time hunting other places.
 
Spurhunter said:
We do accidentally kill the occasional 2.5 year old, but it's rare. The place is thick and you don't have a lot of time to study a buck. From the time you see him until he's gone you have a small amount of time to determine if he's a shooter. However, we don't take many bucks. There are only 3 guys that hunt much at all, and this year 2 of us spent most of our time hunting other places.
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How many doe are you taking each year?
 
megalomaniac said:
Could it be the individual deer's behavior???

What I mean by that is about 1/3 of bucks are homebodies and have a very tight core area. 1/3 are just crazy roamers and have a core area of 20 square miles. And about 1/3 are somewhere in between....

Is it possible your members are killing the homebodies when they are 2.5, so you don't get to follow those bucks as they age?

The roamers just randomly showing up for a day or two are the bucks that live elsewhere, you don't photograph or observe, so no way to follow those from year to year.
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Great point. Killing a borderline roamer is much less detrimental than killing a borderline homebody. My son killed this 4.5 yr old that was a homebody that was always around since he was 2.5. No doubt he would get him and that was fine. He was 19" wide but added very little the last 2 yrs. But he passed two better bucks that were 4.5 after that because he understood the value and reward of those bucks next season. It all starts with trigger restraint and adhering to the old principle- "when in doubt…..dont"
 

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They just simply move a lot, at least I know they do in the mountains. You can have a zero pressure property but they still might move miles away around here. Hogs may move in, bears get outta hand, food runs out, etc. The farm land situations in middle and west tn are a different animal.
 

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