PA Hardwoods

Yes Penn State University has done quite a few radio tracking studies for the PA Game Commission in the past years. They even did a hunter study where they had hunters with GPS's and tracked how far Hunters went off into the woods and were able to compare where the hunters were and where the majority of the deer were. Very interesting findings.

Here is a link to some of the research projects done by PSU. http://pacfwru.cas.psu.edu/

Rick James

Jawshooter was involved in some radio collar studies when he was in school for his wildlife management degree. I'll tell you what, the distance they are willing to travel to yard in northern areas during the winter was shocking to me. I'll see if I can get him on this thread to share what he learned but I believe I remember him saying they had some deer travel more than 50 miles to get to specific yarding areas in the Adirondacks.

GMMAT

RJ....

Before implementing my mineral sites.....I read a study of deer travel that showed radio collared deer traveling over 2 miles to go to a natural mineral site, DAILY.

That's why I don't put much stock in seeing EVERY buck I see at my mineral sites, during hunting season.

I was genuinely shocked to know they'd travel that distance to get the minerals they needed.......and it's what made me decide to put them out.

Rob/PA Bowyer

I also understood at Penn State they also allowed people into their penned deer habitat and tracked them via electronics and watched as the mature animals skirted the people whom never saw them. Somehow they were able to watch the electronics on a monitor or something like that. I don't remember where I got the information so it could be total bunk.

buckeye

Man... Has your tone changed over the last couple years

GMMAT

Actually...it hasn't.

If you'll read my previous replies....I also noted the D&DH study that says these mature animals don't travel great distances. You'll also see that I said if you didn't have access to their home ranges/core areas.....you were SOL.

In the case of my hunting area (and moreso the areas I DON'T have access to).....my outlook is consistent. IF they're in the areas I have access to.....I think I'd see them OR get photographic evidence of their existence. I stand by that.

I think it'sa cop out to tell a man there are slammers in his woods (that he hunts).....he just isn't doing the things necessary to see/hunt them. I just think he might not have access to the areas where they are.

Are there slammers in NC? Sure ("slammer" being "relative"). Are they in the woods I hunt?

Good question. But you can't, with a straight face, say that they ARE "there". You just can't.

buckeye

I wasn't saying that... I was more or less poking a little fun at you for all of your claims in the past of knowingYOUR deer andYOUR herd..... Now you admit maybe you don't know it like you used to say.

That's all.

I know my local properties pretty well... But know there are deer in my areas that I have never saw. Shed hunting proves this to me every year. No cam pics and no stand or glassing sightings.... But yet, I find their sheds.
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PA Hardwoods

here is some more info from the PSU Deer research facility website. http://www.das.psu.edu/deer/

GMMAT

For the life of me....I still fail to see the inconsistency you cite. I DO think I know the herd I hunt. If they're not on the properties I hunt....there's no way in hell I could KNOW them. Never claimed to.

I cite the fact that I've NEVER seen a buck in the wild.....(for the sake of this discussion we'll say a "shooter") that I hadn't previously seen on trail cam. Is there one out there?

Anything's possible, I suppose. If that's "inconsistent" with my previous outlook.....then I'll cop to that. Is he FOR SURE out there? No one can say.

LouisianaTomkat

More proof of what I have always believed. Deer/Bucks can, and will, show up when they want to. There does not have to be a rhyme or reason. It is just a fact. Old mossy horns may be 2 miles away the night before you go to your stand. He may just be under your stand by 9:00AM.

LT