• Help Support TNDeer:

Summer Bucks

O

Obsession

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
198
Location
Lebanon, Tn
What percentage of bucks stick around from summer to fall? I always catch bucks on trail camera during summer and never see them again during the fall and winter. I know that they have different ranges at various times of year. Does summer pics help when deer season comes around?
 
the bucks i get on pics in the summer are the bucks somebody else gets to hunt. we have a whole different set of bucks by october.
 
Mine is different from property to property. On one place rarely even have any bucks in the Summer, but if they are there in the Summer they generally stay all year. On another I have alot of bucks during the Summer but generally lose 80% of them before season even comes.
 
I have tons of bucks before they harvest the corn and beans on some of my properties, but they leave almost immediately after the crops are gone. There is simply no cover, food, or timber to hold them. Other properties seem to be a magnet come mid fall to late winter. Different bucks almost daily on trail cams.
 
Before we started really managing the habitat, we used to lose about 50% of our summer bucks come velvet shedding time. Now we only lose about 15%. However, habitat management won't always end the trend of bucks leaving an area. Some of this is just a natural process. Often bucks from a fairly wide area group together into summer bachelor groups, leaving wide areas with few older bucks during the summer months. Now if you're the one lucky enough to own/hunt the property where the bachelor group is living during summer, you get to see lots of bucks. But these bucks will naturally disperse once bachelor groups break up, and no matter what you do to your property, you probably can't stop this dispersal process.
 
I believe most of my bucks dont move a great distance.They just find an area where no one bothers them.
If some do move out you would think that other new ones move in also.
I have 2 farms just a little over 2 miles apart and i dont think i have ever got a pic of the same buck on both farms.
 
Mr.Bro said:
If some do move out you would think that other new ones move in also.
Click to expand...

Sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn't. I've seen properties that see a huge net loss in buck numbers from summer to fall, and then I've seen properties that see a huge net gain in bucks from summer to fall.
 
BowGuy84 said:
I believe my property gains a lot in the fall. This based on camera running and hunting observations.
Click to expand...

I see a huge net gain. Of the bucks that use my property during hunting season, only 1/3 were summer residents. 1/3 show up just after antler velvet shedding (break-up of summer bachelor groups), and the other 1/3 show up only around the rut.

However, those are just the averages. What never ceases to amaze me is how variable these numbers can be from year to year. Some years I see very few new bucks showing up either after antler velvet shedding or around the rut.
 
The places we hunt are not managed. Yet we still see such variation from season to season in bucks showing up.
I read somewhere once where a radio collared study was done and bucks movement were plotted during a full year. It was not uncommon to see a mature buck travel up to EIGHT miles during the rut. Even though he may stay within a core area most of the year of only a half mile.

Armed with that information, it has caused me to adjust my hunting practice away from targeting a specific buck after the first week or two of bow season. And instead, spending the majority of my prime scouting time locating travel areas and "corridors" that ANY deer will need to "pinch" through when the rut (and traveling) begin.

I also spend more time concentrating on areas of white or red oaks. Then, after the season begins and I learn which oaks are falling and deer are eating, I know where to concentrate my hunting times for the does. Which is exactly where my bucks will be come the rut.
 
Oh yeah, I should add that this type of hunting/scouting style has proven very productive. But there have been VERY few times that I have seen the buck I kill until the day I kill it. Usually the first encounter with a mature buck is the only time I will see it so I better make it count. (no pressure)
Talk about an adrenaline rush. You know that chances are you will never see this deer again, you have usually about TEN seconds to draw, judge distance, aim and shoot. (you better have the distance figured first) And most of the time you have to figure a way to stop the buck because these rutting bucks never seem to stop. Every step they take away from your 25 yard pin seems to tighten your throat up even more.

WHAT A RUSH!!!
 
Also I might add that I try to make the areas that I hunt "target rich" (an odd choice of words but you get my point). I may see mature bucks in that area before I hunt it, but rarely THE buck I kill. Most often, if any info is gleaned about "my" buck, someone else has seen it not too far away, if anything.
 
BSK said:
BowGuy84 said:
I believe my property gains a lot in the fall. This based on camera running and hunting observations.
Click to expand...

I see a huge net gain. Of the bucks that use my property during hunting season, only 1/3 were summer residents. 1/3 show up just after antler velvet shedding (break-up of summer bachelor groups), and the other 1/3 show up only around the rut.

However, those are just the averages. What never ceases to amaze me is how variable these numbers can be from year to year. Some years I see very few new bucks showing up either after antler velvet shedding or around the rut.
Click to expand...

Mine usually come around mid October when the beans are done or corn is out. Earlier in bean years and later in corn years as a general rule.
 
Nothing I can prove...but I think summer buck shifts are dependant on the bucks age structure as well. Or even the amount of bucks on the property prior to shedding velvet.

I think as a buck ages he becomes even more of a core animal. He naturally travels less, and most of that time is nocturnal.

From what I have noticed in glassing and trail cam monitoring over the pass 6 years, if you have a class of 3.5 year olds, they can be on your land all summer, velvet drops and they are gone until late season.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top