And so did this guy
They both have the same curl on the tip of their main beam on the right.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how they develop next fall.
Glad this guy made it through the season
- Thread starter lol
- Start date
And so did this guy
They both have the same curl on the tip of their main beam on the right.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how they develop next fall.
Outdoor Enthusiast
Well-Known Member
Yep. Those are good looking young bucks.
Those are prime examples of bucks that I like to see survive to maturity. That's two potential trophies to hunt next season.
Very nice survivors.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
They should grow quite a bit by next year!
Nice to see these bucks along with planted food sources remaining into January.
They should put some decent weight on too. Good luck on the next season.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Nice looking bucks! Fun to try and follow bucks year to year. I really enjoy running cameras this time of year.
It's encouraging to see which bucks made it and to see when the majority have shed, giving us the green light to start shed hunting!
It's encouraging to see which bucks made it and to see when the majority have shed, giving us the green light to start shed hunting!
BSK
Well-Known Member
Tough for me to know "who survived the season" on place because so many of the bucks we have to hunt in November are just rut-season range-shifters. They show up in late October, stick around for the rut, and then vanish as soon as the local rut is over (usually late November or early December). For all I know, the got killed "somewhere else" after leaving my place post-rut. I won't know if any of these rut range-shifters survived until they show up next year in late October.
But we do have some bucks stick around until the end of the season. I know I have 4 or 5 good 3 1/2s that were still being photographed regularly in early January.
But we do have some bucks stick around until the end of the season. I know I have 4 or 5 good 3 1/2s that were still being photographed regularly in early January.
This is the same for my place. We had one good deer on camera starting late October that stuck around and was shot by my daughter opening day. Within a week we had another large buck show up and she got him the next weekend. We never got another shooter on camera the remainder of the season. That being said, we saw several other young prospects hunting that never were captured on cameras. So they are there, we just might not see them.
It's a pretty even mix on my place. Only a few bucks show up only for rut, and only a few bucks are what I'd consider residents who can be found on property any time of year. All others come & go for reasons apparent and reasons not. They just come & go. But it's not often I see a buck during rut that wasn't also seen sometime during the previous winter, summer, & fall leading up to rut. I suspect that number would be even fewer if I could identify them without antlers. After shedding there's a few months where I cannot identify them, and then it's a puzzle getting concrete identification when they grow their new racks. A lot of times I don't know that I had previously seen a buck until well after the fact.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Each year, as I'm running my season-long photo census, I track each individual buck's dates of being photographed, and his duration of stay on the property. I display this in a PowerPoint graph, where each buck is a horizontal line along a timeline. The lowest line on the graph is the first buck I pick up (by date). The line just above is the 2nd buck I pick up, and this process proceeds sequentially upwards on the graph, with the highest line being the last buck I pick up for the year (August to end of December census season). The line starts on the date the buck is first photograph and ends the last day he was photographed. Some lines will run off the right side of the graph (beyond Dec 31) because I'm still photographing that buck in January.
What is interesting when comparing these graphs over the years is that there are clear "groupings" of when bucks first show up on camera. In fact, over the years I realized I have three groups of buck appearance dates. The first are summer residents I pick up as soon as I put the cameras out at the end of July or early August. The second group starts showing up right at antler velvet shedding time. I call these bucks "fall season range-shifters." They appear just as summer bachelor groups break up with each buck heading back to his fall range. The last group starts showing up mid to late October, and they generally only stick around until late November or early December. I call these "rut-season range-shifters." The funny thing is, I was discussing these seasonal groupings of bucks long before GPS-collar studies proved this is exactly how buck seasonal ranges work. Some bucks have very similar summer and fall ranges. Some bucks have fall ranges that are completely different than their summer range. Some bucks have a unique short-lived range just for the rut.
Although the below graph is somewhat "stylized" for clarity, the data does come from real-world censuses on my place. I have noted the three different types of buck appearances and durations of stay (and the bucks in the graph are only older bucks [2 1/2+], yearlings vastly confuse the situation with their dispersal patterns):
What is interesting when comparing these graphs over the years is that there are clear "groupings" of when bucks first show up on camera. In fact, over the years I realized I have three groups of buck appearance dates. The first are summer residents I pick up as soon as I put the cameras out at the end of July or early August. The second group starts showing up right at antler velvet shedding time. I call these bucks "fall season range-shifters." They appear just as summer bachelor groups break up with each buck heading back to his fall range. The last group starts showing up mid to late October, and they generally only stick around until late November or early December. I call these "rut-season range-shifters." The funny thing is, I was discussing these seasonal groupings of bucks long before GPS-collar studies proved this is exactly how buck seasonal ranges work. Some bucks have very similar summer and fall ranges. Some bucks have fall ranges that are completely different than their summer range. Some bucks have a unique short-lived range just for the rut.
Although the below graph is somewhat "stylized" for clarity, the data does come from real-world censuses on my place. I have noted the three different types of buck appearances and durations of stay (and the bucks in the graph are only older bucks [2 1/2+], yearlings vastly confuse the situation with their dispersal patterns):
