Some of the points go against what I have been told before. These guys actually had GPS collars on older bucks. This is the kind of study and article I have been looking for.
GPS Collar and QDM
GPS Collar and QDM
An interesting article....
- Thread starter travle
- Start date
If you go back through the past threads on Tndeer, you will see all this information and more.
BTW, many hunters I speak with regularly talk about mature bucks and their tendencies and travel patterns. But we would all do well to remember that mature bucks like to be around mature does (who attract and hang around non mature does) at rutty times of the year.
And mature does, like mature bucks, respond very quickly to hunter density, ie-pressure.
Over scouting, over checking, and over hunting, over blood trailing, etc...ANY area with deer, will cause deer to either become nocturnal, or vacate in short time.
This is why it is very good to scout in winter, after deer season and well before the next.
Human scent spooks deer.
And it lingers for a LONG time in certain conditions. Sometimes for weeks.
Deer come through an area after dark maybe, catch a whiff, and make a negative association and vacate that area.
BTW, many hunters I speak with regularly talk about mature bucks and their tendencies and travel patterns. But we would all do well to remember that mature bucks like to be around mature does (who attract and hang around non mature does) at rutty times of the year.
And mature does, like mature bucks, respond very quickly to hunter density, ie-pressure.
Over scouting, over checking, and over hunting, over blood trailing, etc...ANY area with deer, will cause deer to either become nocturnal, or vacate in short time.
This is why it is very good to scout in winter, after deer season and well before the next.
Human scent spooks deer.
And it lingers for a LONG time in certain conditions. Sometimes for weeks.
Deer come through an area after dark maybe, catch a whiff, and make a negative association and vacate that area.
Has anyone studied the effects of deer collars and movement? Do deer change their travel patterns if they are wearing what looks to be an uncomfortable thing around their neck?
I knew that was coming about the collars. I really doubt it affects them. They still have to move, eat, and will still breed. One studied he talked about the deer had the collar on for 3 years. Plenty of time for them to adjust to their collar and go about their normal business. The most interesting thing i found in the article is that there wasn't any correlation between weather i.e., temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and precipitation, on mature buck movement. Also the moon phases don't affect on buck movement. They still remained crepuscular. From the study they believe the change in the length of daylight is what starts up breeding.
DntBrnDPig
Well-Known Member
Great article.
duckriver
Well-Known Member
Good read
swhackmaster
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing. good read
Hunter 257W
Well-Known Member
I've read that article and others before saying that temperature has no effect on deer movement but that one is hard to accept. I need to keep better day to day records to see for myself.
BSK
Well-Known Member
First, I would like to see what the researchers were looking at when it comes to correlating weather and moon conditions to mature buck movement. Were they looking at how often a buck moved, how far, the times, etc. We can't say these influences are not influences until we look at what the researchers were testing.
But I can corroborate one of the things in the article--how fast deer, especially mature bucks, react to hunting pressure. Deer EASILY identify the sudden surge of human scent in the woods that occurs when hunting season (especially gun season) opens. I can see the reaction so dramatically on trail camera within 48 hours that I firmly believe I could peg what day is opening day if all I had to go by was trail-camera pictures. The answer would be 48 hours before every older buck in the area goes nocturnal and stops using open fields. It happens every year and the difference is dramatic where hunting pressure is significant (most areas).
But I can corroborate one of the things in the article--how fast deer, especially mature bucks, react to hunting pressure. Deer EASILY identify the sudden surge of human scent in the woods that occurs when hunting season (especially gun season) opens. I can see the reaction so dramatically on trail camera within 48 hours that I firmly believe I could peg what day is opening day if all I had to go by was trail-camera pictures. The answer would be 48 hours before every older buck in the area goes nocturnal and stops using open fields. It happens every year and the difference is dramatic where hunting pressure is significant (most areas).
BSK
Well-Known Member
Having conducted some GPS collar research myself, the most astounding thing I found was just how little deer have a pattern of movement. In non-agricultural habitat (habitat that is primarily wooded or brushy), no deer we tracked followed any sort of daily pattern. Most rarely bedded in the same place twice over months of time, and few if any did the same thing from one day to the next. In fact, after looking at VERY detailed GPS data, I have to wonder how deer trails ever develop, as rarely did deer walk the same path twice in a significant period of time.
Well I know my new lease I have 2 doe that walk by my stand every morning and evening down the same trail. I can almost say within 30 mins when they will come by. I had 2 doe like that on my old lease. They would enter the field in the evening from the same spot about the same time.
BSK
Well-Known Member
travle said:
And there's the critical point--"the field." Once you start talking about deer near agriculture, pasture, or open fields, everything changes. I've seen GPS data that shows deer are quite patternable as they work around fields and openings. But put them in an area that is almost all woods or brush, and the patterns just vanish. You would swear their movements border on random.
Shed Hunter
Well-Known Member
BSK said:
I wish so much that it didn't work like that too! Big woods hunting-private or public is certainly a challenge
Did your data show a trend in more movement through certain terrain features?
BSK said:
That's what I've known for years Bryan! These mtn deer just meander for the most part, feeding where there's food, and bedding in a safe spot nearby, but hardly ever the same place. As far as trails go, I've got them on my place, but it seems I rarely see a deer actually "on" them, they spread out all over the place it seems, and pick the acorns and other browse. The best I can hope for when setting up my loc ons, is to set up for different wind directions just outside of these feeding areas.
travle said:
I've never hunted a property that had a crop field or food plot on it. :D
BSK
Well-Known Member
MUP said:
I've hunted around food plots, but rarely have I hunted around agriculture (at least since I started hunting TN exclusively).
BSK
Well-Known Member
MUP said:
This meandering is what we observed. The collars we were using were collecting a position every 20 minutes, around the clock, for 4 months before falling off (so we could collect the data). This study was done during the fall hunting months and into early winter.
Although each deer did have a distinct seasonal "home range," we found that each deer did not use all of their home range on a daily basis. Their daily home range was a MUCH smaller subset of their seasonal home range. And from one day to the next, this daily range slowly shifted across the seasonal range, taking about two weeks to shift from one end of the seasonal range to the other. Then the deer would start back again.
As a deer's daily range slowly shifted, the deer would utilize whatever food sources happened to be in that day's range. And they would use that same food source as long as it stayed in their daily range. But once their daily range shifted beyond that food source, they would not use it again until their daily range again incorporated it. I believe that is why we hunters often personally observe, or see on trail-cam, that an individual deer will feed in a given food plot 2-4 days in a row, but then suddenly vanish, only to return again a couple of weeks later. While that food plot is in their daily range, they use it. However, they do not go out of their way to go back to that plot once their travels take them beyond it.
Probably the most eye-opening finding we observed was 1) how often deer bed down during a day (5-10 times for just an hour or two); and 2) that they did not have "bedding areas," even when thick cover was nearby. They did NOT seek out thick cover for bedding in (they bedded wherever they were at the time, even in big open hardwoods), and individual deer did not return to the same bedding spot twice in 4 months.
I also had that single doe bed down 7 steps from my tree on the bow opener this year...all by herself best I could tell, but she was a yearling, mama could have been several yards down the ridge and I couldn't have seen her.
Winchester
Well-Known Member
Good read. This just solidifies my thoughts on mature bucks and the strong opinion Ive had for many years, The only thing REMOTELY predictable about a mature buck is how he will use the Terrain where he lives. Deer are lazy and Mature bucks even more so, they will use terrain features that benefit them to travel any considerable distance. Length of days is also KING in triggering the Rut imo. Nothing really grounbreakingly new in the article but good info for sure.
