• Help Support TNDeer:

Post-season stud

Mega, do you think that buck is only 3 1/2? hard for me to say because we're so far post-rut in my area. Maybe he's mature, but I'm leaning hard towards 3 1/2.
 
BSK said:
Mega, do you think that buck is only 3 1/2? hard for me to say because we're so far post-rut in my area. Maybe he's mature, but I'm leaning hard towards 3 1/2.
Click to expand...
His body is 3.5...

But I suspect he is older. 2 ruts take a LOT out of them. I killed a 5.5yo here in south MS middle of Feb a few years ago that looked like a 2.5yo, 150lbs live wt. Had pics of him back in Nov and he was pushing 190lbs.
 
Andy S. said:
Hopefully he'll survive the next 60 days, some of the hardest on them.
Click to expand...
For sure.
IMO, the 2 days of the year they may be most vulnerable to predation are the 48 hours after their 1st antler falls off. This leaves a little blood smell in the air, and coyotes & dogs downwind may then focus on "dogging" that buck until he goes down, eaten alive.
 
I don't know if it is the bumper acorn crop, or the massive habitat changes we made (including more than doubling our food plot acreage which is getting hit hard but still has good food left), or a fluke, or some combination of the three, but I've seen FAR more post-rut buck activity this year than any year in the past. Usually, once the rut is over, all the older bucks vanish to parts unknown. This year, although the mature bucks vanished right on schedule, many of the 3 1/2 and younger bucks stayed.
 
Definitely a stud there and I'd guess 4.5+. If he has "shown up late", odds are that his home range actually includes your place. They tend to settle back into their home ranges after the rut and especially during the winter. They are there because they are comfortable, fed, have a herd they are comfortable with, and the cover provides them the security they need. Adding the food plots you did this year will be interesting to see if you get summer pics of him. If so, then you are on to something regarding his travel patterns and home range at least. If he shows up more often for you (even if primarily at night) throughout the off season, then the old saying of "if you build it, they will come" still holds true 😜.
 
Very cool looking buck! I suspect he's 4.5+. If you got that video back in oct-nov, I'd definitely say 3.5, but I wouldn't say that this late in the season.

As far as habitat changes correlating with buck appearances in late season, the more habitat changes we do, the more appearances we see. Over late summer last year, we created 11 new acres of food plots and roughly another 30 acres of select cut. We are seeing the same this late season as well. I suspect you'll see more and more of that especially because you'll have good thermal cover once those pine seedlings grow up and the added food plots you have. The trend your seeing is likely to continue.

A lot of our summer resident bucks left in October and came back within the last 3 weeks. Now, most of the folks in our camp say "that sucks" and "hate that they leave". I always look at the positives - in essence, they made it and I have until late October to kill one in the 2022 season ;). I know you don't bow hunt, but there is still satisfaction in seeing a buck survive and show back up that you haven't seen in 3 months. In your opinion, do you think this buck in particular probably was a summer resident and you likely would have gotten pics of him if you still ran salt licks? But now that you don't and just have cameras over food plots, you may have just not picked him up?
 
I had to check some pics from back in September as I thought I had a pic of him. Nope, different buck than the funky one I have a picture of. I have been getting some pretty good bucks on camera at Cathole the last few days.

When things green back up there, it's going to be a jungle after all the logging that was done.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
Very cool looking buck! I suspect he's 4.5+. If you got that video back in oct-nov, I'd definitely say 3.5, but I wouldn't say that this late in the season.

As far as habitat changes correlating with buck appearances in late season, the more habitat changes we do, the more appearances we see. Over late summer last year, we created 11 new acres of food plots and roughly another 30 acres of select cut. We are seeing the same this late season as well. I suspect you'll see more and more of that especially because you'll have good thermal cover once those pine seedlings grow up and the added food plots you have. The trend your seeing is likely to continue.

A lot of our summer resident bucks left in October and came back within the last 3 weeks. Now, most of the folks in our camp say "that sucks" and "hate that they leave". I always look at the positives - in essence, they made it and I have until late October to kill one in the 2022 season ;). I know you don't bow hunt, but there is still satisfaction in seeing a buck survive and show back up that you haven't seen in 3 months. In your opinion, do you think this buck in particular probably was a summer resident and you likely would have gotten pics of him if you still ran salt licks? But now that you don't and just have cameras over food plots, you may have just not picked him up?
Click to expand...
I'm HOPING these changes are permanent and not just the product of a great acorn crop. And I'm hoping it's due to the massive habitat changes. I don't think the changes occurred soon enough last year to alter deer home ranges last summer, but it will be very interesting to see if our summer population changes this year. We had a grand total of 4 bucks using our property last summer (two yearlings, one 2 1/2 and one 3 1/2). I doubt that big buck was a summer resident as he would have eventually walked through a food plot or come to eat some soybeans and I had black-flash video cameras running on all my plots last summer just to see how much use they were getting.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top