JoeRE

I agree with your train of thought. I hunt broken land, about 60/40 agg/woods split. Lots of draws branching out of larger river systems. A 'core' area might be a 150 yard wide draw....and half a mile long. I sometimes simplify it when talking about it as it is easier that way.

Schultzy

I think there core area/areas can be very small for a mature buck. There's always that small certain area/areas that they seem to call home certain times of the year. However there range will be much larger.

rybohunter

Yea what all you guys said sums it up for me.

In my words:
A bucks living AREA is made up of several cores for different seasons and his roaming pursuits that are filed away that he travels thru less frequently. I feel that each (core) is determined by finding safety and food and a secure path between them. Some places a buck may change cores several times thru out the year, other places he may keep the basic core all year, depending on pressure(feeling safe)& food availability. They can be of any shape and size and are likely to be more irregular as the terrain & properties are broken up smaller.

jmbuckhunter

Right now I do believe the core area is very small. If he has a bean or clover field and some water next to a thick patch of woods, I don't think he goes very far. Unless something pushes him out of there.

When hunting season and the harvest starts it gets much bigger just because he has to stay on the move to adjust to our intrusion.

Thro in the rut and there probably is no core area for a couple of weeks. He chases does anywhere they lead him.

early in

Again, I agree. But I'm still saying his basic "stomping grounds" isn't a really large area either, probablyseveral hundred acres.At least in my region. I'm sure this will vary from one region tothe next.

GregH

Ever blow Mtn. Dew through your nose!!! [:-]

Justin

I believe every buck is different. Some can probably range from several hundred acres and some less than 100 acres. I believe it not only depends on the buck's personality but the conditions at hand. The terrain where he lives, the hunting pressure in the area, available food and bedding areas, etc.

This past fall Jay Gregory killed a monster Iowa buck that he had been hunting for three years I think. Over the course of that time they had several trail camera photos and several sightings of this buck in velvet. Spread over all three of those years on a several hundred acre managed farm he was within 80 acres the entire time, including the day he was shot. Did he range out of that 80 acre parcel at some point? I'm sure he did, but all accounts point to the fact that he lived the majority of his life there.

dukemichaels

So that was his core bedding area then? The entire farm.. maybe his core area..??

And a managed farm doesn't really count.. since the last I checked 99.99% do not hunt managed farms. Although the deer was not proved to be sited else where.. so says the video.

Perhaps you should chime in with more relative material than Gay Jregory's hunt.[8D] I know you love him though.

Justin

What material could be more relative? I'm merely citing one specific example of a deer that was known to have frequented an 80 acre area for at least three years of his adult life. I would call that his "core" area. Granted, he was relatively unpressured and wasn't forced to move around to protect himself but there's a lot of bucks in the same situation that are spotted over several hundred acres on a frequent basis. Most likely attributed to their personality. Given the areas youand I hunt, I don't believe there's a spot that's big enough or safe enough for a buck to call it his core bedding area on a frequent enough basis to hunt him there effectively. Different terrain and a different situation.

Look at a guy like Andrae now. He's killed a TON of huge bucks, all by hunting their core bedding areas. The guy isn't bouncing around over several hundred acres at random, he's locating a buck's core area where the majority of the fresh sign is, hoping to get a sighting of him in the area or jump him from his bed, then he hunts right on top of where they sleep until he kills them. If their core area was spread over several hundred acres he may not have as many big bucks on his wall. Again, just another example of how a mature buck's core area doesn't necessarily HAVE to be several hundred acres. It could very well be a pretty small area where he feels safe.

dukemichaels

But you just answered my Q.

The area was the core bedding area. A difference from a deers core area.

Thats what some of this thread was about my friend.

Yes.. just semantics.. but just enough to seperate a detail that any hunter should understand.

What you are saying is a buck's core bedding area.. I got it. Not a buck's core area. Which is what we all were happily discussing.