I was sitting in the tree yesterday and thought; bucks 1.5 yo/2.5yo not to careful, 3.5yo pretty careful, 4.5yo real careful and 5.5yo and up all they think about is being careful.
That sound about right?
That sound about right?
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Smarter as they age
- Thread starter Iglow
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BSK
Well-Known Member
I think there are three primary "grades" of buck wariness/behavior. The first is yearling bucks. Come the rut, they are dumb as bricks, and act like human teenage boys doing anything and everything to get laid. They throw all caution to the wind. The second group is the middle-aged bucks; those 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 years old. They are MUCH more cautious than yearling bucks but can still act stupid during the peak of the rut. Then there are the mature bucks (4 1/2+). They are a completely different animal. Truly wary and even follow different patterns than younger bucks to increase their survival chances. Mature bucks rarely make dumb mistakes, and taking any mature buck that has faced hunting pressure is a real accomplishment.
Absolutely, You wont get many chances at anything over 3.5 at the same stand, or at least not for awhile, going into new area's are always a better chance of seeing deer you might not have seen at a permanent stand site, movement and scent play a larger roll as they get older, they might move 50-100y to avoid known dangers. They adjust quicker than we do so sightings dry up. The rut can throw all that out the window but I suspect the older bucks go nocturnal around the time bow hunters take to the woods, it could also be small game folks at the same time so it can't all be layed on bow hunters.
Winchester
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Agree completely Winchester. I always have to chuckle when I work with a club or landowner who wants to set their buck management goals at 5 1/2+. No problem implementing that and being successful at producing them. But killing them? Good luck with that.
I hate to say it, but I know only a handful of hunters who can regularly kill 5 1/2+ year-old bucks. And I'm not one of those.
It's really dumbfounding how they learn so much so fast. If not for the rut and cameras some would live out their lives past 5 yo without ever being seen by anybody.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Worked with a large club that rarely if ever killed a 5 1/2 year-old buck. But those age bucks were sure dropping like flies due to natural causes. They existed, and in fair number, but hunters rarely killed them.
We started picking up bucks of that age on my property in the early 2000s. We almost always have a couple using the place. But kill them? Very rarely. I think I've killed 4 total in my entire hunting career. The rest of the hunters combined on my place? Zero.
Those are tough critters to kill, and my hat is off to those who do so regularly in a highly hunted environment.
I think they really learn to use and trust their nose, bet their life on it. If you think about it, that nose is the equivalent of humans having xray vision. Imagine if you could see through thickets, standing corn, thick trees and even hills! I mean see right through that stuff. A deer's nose can give him that level of information for over a hundred yards or much further that he can't see or hear. I've thought for a long time that deer hunting is about 80% understanding how air moves. You can not move and you can be silent, that you can directly control but you are at the mercy of the wind, all you can do then is make the best available choice and hope it's right at the right time. Plus imo, you can use whatever carbon suit/soap/ mechanical ozone doodad but if a deer is able to smell you, he will smell you and there is nothing you can buy to offset that, so plan for it.
BSK
Well-Known Member
If a deer is downwind of you, I don't care what scent-reducing product you use, the deer is going to smell you. Now how they react to that is a different story, depending on many things, most notably hunting pressure.
