I was just wondering this same thought the other day on my stand. B/C every year I let big 6 pts and small 8 pts walk with the logic that they will be bigger next year and comfortable coming around this area in the winter since Im not shooting at everything that moves. But compairing pics with my cams and deer I see,, I usually never see any of those deer again! I would thinkI would be able to tellthat what bucks are what looking at pics from the following years but I am not seeing anything even close.So I guess I am just letting them grow up for somebody else to shoot 2 or 3 miles away on some other lease.
Wow I am a nice guy!

It wouldn't be as much fun if we knew for sure .

!

In my part of the world, North West Texas that is, here is how it plays out;



Early season, Oct., its hot, the big deer are moving still at night on a feeding cycle. You might see one real early in the morning.

Nov., still hot, most are moving during the night. (Have to add; gun season starts and all the big deer are moving in cover, as well.)

Late Nov. They move during early morning and right before night, as well as all night. Working scraps and starting to touch off the prerut. You will find them in thick cover. Got to work for them.

Dec. Hold up with does. They find a hot doe and keep with her in cover all day and night. Big ones that is. The smaller guys are out looking and getting beat up by the big guys. Have to get in the thick stuff to find them. Small ones are on the move.

Late Dec. and Jan. Lots of movement during the day. Looking for food the whole time, as well as finishing off the rut and working second chance does.

Where did 40 acres come from?

What is D&D Hunting magazine? Where can I get a copy?

How big IS a buck's CORE AREA? Interesting! I've never heard anyone say.

Deer and deer hunting

I think the core area is bigger than most of us think. It's funny every year I see a different big deer in Dec. I always think, I wonder if the deer i have been seeing is over wherehe used to live

The more I hunt these rascals the less I find I know about them. I thought I passed on a LOT of younguns last year.....thinkin I'd see them this year. Didn't happen. I really thought that it would just work out that way.

They are wild creatures. Worthy adversaries. I love 'em!

This year I was involved with a 3 day track of a wounded maturebuck that led us all over his home range.The experience really opened my eyes to the sheer vastness of a mature bucks home range. This bucks path followed a scrape line that stretched probably a full mile from where he was initially shot to where we called the search off, often times actually bleeding into the scrapes as he passed them by. I would honestly say this deers home range was probably in the ball park of 1000+ acres total after this experience.

I think other than passing bucks, the other key ingredient is habitat improvement that can help to reduce the size of a deers home range, and encourage new bucks that have disbursed to take up residence at your place. Honestly, ask yourself why would a 2.5 year old buck choose to take up residence on your patch?

I strongly believe that passing deer alone isn't going to show you drastic changes in age class of your bucks, or ratio of bucks/does unless you have exclusive control of a HUGE patch of 700+ acres.Youalsoneed to improve the habitat so that you can make most effective use of your patch, and keep the ones you pass close to home.You also need towhack the does consistently opening up places for other deer to relocate to your patch. Better than 50% of the deer that in turn relocate to your placeto fill these spots will probably be does but the others will be bucks, and when your attracting bucks that are 2.5 years old or better they aren't going to leave until they are shot, or until the habitat forces them to leave and find refuge/does/food. Withoutall of these combined I don't think most will see any significant change in age structure or buck/doe ratio by passing bucks alone.

With that said, I can say that this year I've finally started to see improvementson my patchin PA and I contribute this directly to the combination of passing a LOT of the little ones, creating sanctuary,tons of new food sources through timber management and plots, and constant thinning of the does to make new spots for deer to relocate into without having to compete for food/refuge.I believe this keeps their home range a bit smaller than average and we whack enough does to make spots for others to relocate here and those that have relocated are sometimes bucks that are now there permanently. Dan and I have passed in the range of 20x 1.5 to 2.5 year old bucks over the last 3 years (some of these multiple times), and killed 3x does for every 1x buck taken. Before this year we have never seen more than one 3.5+ year old buck per season.I'm now seeing almost a 1:1 buck/doe ratio (when you take fawns out of the mix), andbetter than50% of the antlered bucks I'm seeing are 2.5 years old or better. As a matter of fact, this year in 9 days of hunting PA I've seen 9x different bucks in total. 4x were 1.5 year old animals, 2x were 2.5 year old animals, and 3x were 3.5+ years old or better, and these were all seperate animals.

!

Well....for the same reason a 20 yr old would take up residence in a Sorority house?????