Mature deer behavior?

[BSK]

Would you mind elaborating on this a little, please? Were the next beds 100 feet away, 100 yards away, etc? I assume the bucks had general bedding areas but the specific location varied within their "sanctuary"?

No "bedding areas" at all. Deer bedded wherever they happened to be at the time, and they would bed a dozen or more times per 24-hour cycle. We saw no indication of "bedding areas." Whatever patch of cover existed in the area was utilized, and often deer just bedded in open hardwoods. We saw no indication deer we using any one area for bedding. They had a "circuit" they moved through on a daily basis, and the circuit slowly moved day by day through their seasonal home range, taking about two weeks to work from one end of their range to the other. In essence, their daily range was a small subset of their seasonal range, and that daily range slowly moved from one end of their seasonal range to the other, taking about two weeks to cover the full distance. Then they would start back. A great deal of overlap existed in the daily ranges from one day to the next, perhaps 85%. That is why hunters/trail-cameras will catch an individual deer in the same food plot for 2-4 days in row, and then not again for a couple of weeks, only to have the pattern repeat itself. Deer spent more time feeding in whatever the best habitat was within their daily range, then shifted to the next favorable piece of habitat as their daily range moved beyond the first patch. We tracked does without fawns, does with fawns, young bucks, and old bucks. They all showed the same pattern. And by the way, this was on the Cumberland Plateau. Although the area's habitat had been managed to produce lots of patches of cover. Perhaps this is why deer did not display "bedding area" behavior. If bedding cover had been far more limited, behavior might have been different. But again, often deer just plopped down in the open hardwoods, even if thick cover was close by.

 

[BSK]

I have been listening to the Deer University pod cast. Their findings with radio collared deer, genetics testing, and general studies have put a lot of "old wise tales" to rest. I recommend giving them a listen.

Until the advent of all this recent modern technology: trail-cameras, cell trail-cameras, GPS-collars, etc. we hunters had to take 20-30 seconds of personal observation of a given animal and then try to extrapolate all of their daily movements from those little snipets of information. This can lead to some serious errors in interpretation. We, as humans, tend to project human thoughts and influences onto an animal that does not have our reasoning power. In fact, it is highly likely that deer cannot "reason" at all. They simply react to input moment by moment and are incapable of "thinking through" a solution to a problem. They simply instinctively react to a situation, and if that works (they're still alive), they will react the same way each time they are presented with the same stimulus. But that does indicate - and a fully believe - they have long memories. They do not forget dangerous encounters and alter their behavior to avoid the same encounter.

I literally cannot count the number of ideas hunters (and even biologists) held sacrosanct until modern research techniques proved those idea wrong.

 

[Ski]

It's a very different kind of a challenge to hunt a specific buck.

Yes it certainly is. It's the most rewarding and also the most frustrating deer hunting you can do.

I'm not sure if it's this way for everybody but I had to basically throw all of my deer hunting knowledge out the window. It simply didn't apply to 5yr+ bucks. Common knowledge is to hunt trails, food sources, pinch points, somewhere they'll get funneled down. Great ideas for deer hunting. Horrible for old bucks. I've almost never seen an old buck on a visible trail other than crossing it. I've rarely seen one in an open or busy feeding area in daylight. They don't seem to get funneled or pinched anywhere because they'll traverse insanely rough terrain to avoid trails, even if it means jumping fences or high stepping over logs & heavy woods debris. Even the rut doesn't help because if he ruts at all he's not looking for girls. They go to him. Everything I've always learned about "deer" behavior turned upside down when I began singling out one specific 5yr+ buck and hunting only him.

 

[Ski]

No "bedding areas" at all. Deer bedded wherever they happened to be at the time, and they would bed a dozen or more times per 24-hour cycle. We saw no indication of "bedding areas." Whatever patch of cover existed in the area was utilized, and often deer just bedded in open hardwoods. We saw no indication deer we using any one area for bedding. They had a "circuit" they moved through on a daily basis, and the circuit slowly moved day by day through their seasonal home range, taking about two weeks to work from one end of their range to the other.

That's exactly what I've personally observed with most deer, bucks or does. Does work as a group most of the season while bucks are individual. If you were to be hunting a certain buck it didn't matter what the weather or moon was doing. What mattered was being where he was going to be on the day he was going to be there. Otherwise hunting a spot for him is a waste of time no matter how awesome the conditions are, because he's nowhere near.

However, something I'm unaware of with the GPS studies is if they've studied senior adult bucks. The way a 5 or 6 or older buck behaves is way out of the scope of what's "normal" for all other deer. And there just aren't a whole bunch of them. Are you aware of any that were collared & studied? That would be incredibly interesting to see.

 

[BSK]

However, something I'm unaware of with the GPS studies is if they've studied senior adult bucks. The way a 5 or 6 or older buck behaves is way out of the scope of what's "normal" for all other deer. And there just aren't a whole bunch of them. Are you aware of any that were collared & studied? That would be incredibly interesting to see.

The one study I can remember (because it stands out) mirrors some of the things that TheLBLman has mentioned, that very mature bucks often have very small ranges. Much less than middle-aged bucks. And they display very strong fidelity to that range (they rarely leave it).

 

[Ski]

The one study I can remember (because it stands out) mirrors some of the things that TheLBLman has mentioned, that very mature bucks often have very small ranges. Much less than middle-aged bucks. And they display very strong fidelity to that range (they rarely leave it).

That would be one of the outliers I'd expect. It would also explain why folks speak of bumping an old buck out of his bed then waiting for him to return. I've not personally experienced that, only heard of it. When I bump a buck he's gone. Perhaps I just bump them harder lol?

Another thought I had about that is something I've seen with satellite bucks and with hunting same spot year after year. If a big old buck is killed, another buck often takes his place pretty immediately. And I've been in stand and watched an old buck leave and within minutes another not necessarily lesser buck come in to his spot sniffing around as if he's ninja spying or staking out the other buck. I've wondered if that is what folks are seeing but thinking it's the same buck coming back.

 

[TheLBLman]

. . . . . often deer just plopped down in the open hardwoods, even if thick cover was close by.

And this can include fully mature bucks!

I think they will plop down whenever & wherever they feel "safe" for the moment.

In many times past, there were more deer hunters, and more open hardwoods, with those more deer hunters really stirring up the deer in the hardwoods. At the same time, these hunters were NOT "hunting" in places where they couldn't "see" far, nor places difficult to get in or thru (such as a cut-over grown into weeds & littered with treetops.

This contributed to the belief deer didn't bed in open hardwoods, and would seek thick "security" cover. What they're really seeking most is a "safe" place to rest a while, and often that is not in open hardwoods (at least during daylight).

In many cases, deer have felt most vulnerable in open hardwoods (and fields). But when undisturbed by humans, they will in fact often bed in open hardwoods, and to the surprise of many, right out in an open field!

I am often finding deer bedding in the middle of large open fields at night, only leaving when dawn approaches. This is one reason hunting fields in the mornings can be counter-productive, as there is a tendency to "flush" out the bedded deer (not just the feeding deer), and then those deer don't return until late afternoon or after dark, only to spend their night in the fields.

 

[tree_ghost]

I have seen them do everything you could imagine…IMO there are many different variables that come into play when a mature buck is spooked. Each animal is different, and because of that each interaction with them will result in a unique reaction, given the personality of that particular animal and the environment he is in…the closest thing I've found to "fact" when dealing with them is that if he ever smells you your job just got exponentially more difficult….
I pulled a bump and dump on a 150" 10point on public a couple years ago. I would have killed him too but when he came in on me the next morning he came in on my weak side while saddle hunting. I noticed the buck at about 30 yards out coming through some extremely dense on the brush as he moved inside of 20 yards he lowered his head to eat Some of the acorns that were falling on the ground. In one fell swoop I spun to my left and came to full draw but as I rotated my feet I slipped off of the edge of my platform and scared the crap out of that deer and myself lol! I was never able to locate that buck again, but it just goes to show what one Deer did in a 24 hour period with two different interactions

 

[Ski]

I have seen them do everything you could imagine…IMO there are many different variables that come into play when a mature buck is spooked. Each animal is different, and because of that each interaction with them will result in a unique reaction, given the personality of that particular animal and the environment he is in…the closest thing I've found to "fact" when dealing with them is that if he ever smells you your job just got exponentially more difficult….
I pulled a bump and dump on a 150" 10point on public a couple years ago. I would have killed him too but when he came in on me the next morning he came in on my weak side while saddle hunting. I noticed the buck at about 30 yards out coming through some extremely dense on the brush as he moved inside of 20 yards he lowered his head to eat Some of the acorns that were falling on the ground. In one fell swoop I spun to my left and came to full draw but as I rotated my feet I slipped off of the edge of my platform and scared the crap out of that deer and myself lol! I was never able to locate that buck again, but it just goes to show what one Deer did in a 24 hour period with two different interactions

I think there's a difference in how bucks get spooked. If you bump one as you're moving through the woods then you're as much threat as say a coyote on the prowl. He can move off and with a little time be safe to come back in because the danger will have passed. However, he's not going to establish a core area & bed next to a coyote den. That would be stupidly suicidal and defies every fiber of his nature. It's also what I imagine he feels like when he comes upon a permanent tree stand or blind that gets hunted often, or even encounters a hunter in the same spot consecutively in a short span of time. He reacts same way he would to a den of coyotes. He leaves for good because as a prey animal it's unsafe for him to rest in proximity to where a predator lives. I think it's really as simple as prey doing its best to limit exposure to predators.

 

[TheLBLman]

For whatever reasons, "bumping" deer under the cover of total darkness, simply doesn't seem to "spook" so much as exact same even during daylight. For this reason, I prefer to be on stand "ready" BEFORE the crack of dawn, and stay on stand in the evenings until it is truly "dark" not just the end of shooting time.

 

[deerhunter10]

Not mature bucks, but the last 4 or5 years I've had multiple deer bed within 50 yards of my while hunting. What was crazy to me is some bedded for only a couple minutes while some were there for a couple hours or more. What also fascinated me was how a deer could pick up other deer coming in way before I could hear or see them. Also have witnessed does put there head down and lay absolutely still til when a young buck would pass by during the rut. I went many years without seeing just a few deer bed to probably 20ish in the last 4 or 5 years.