Sliverflicker

Although it may be hard to tell a young Buck from an older Does tracks, I have never seen a bigger than normal track that has a large gap between the ends of the hoofsandthe dew claws strike the ground onsoliddirt at a normal walk that belonged to a doe.
But thats just my observation.

doc098

http://www.yahwehschildren.org/Critters/Images/deer-track.jpg
We use a chart similar to this with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. I would scan the one we use but I dont have work again until Monday. This is just in the ballpark, it's obviously not exact.

drockw

I feel like i kinda agree with that too, not to gang up on you Greg. In early season (sept. oct) does are out with their young feeding and moving constantly and you see them quite often depending on where you are. Bucks on the othere hand seem to be lazy during that part of year. Please shed more light on this if you can. Im sure your experience outweighs mine, im just kinda theorizing.
Derek

SouthDakotaHunter

I would agree with Greg on this one.IMO - from my observations,bucks often have more of a rounded impression than a doe, deeper track andmore space between the splits in the hooves.

early in

The depthof a given track is relative to the pressure/weight being put on the hoof. A heavy doe(they doe exist) can/will leave a deep track with a wide spaceas well as a heavy buck. Probably more so because there are more doe than buck, at least where I hunt.

gri22ly

Read no further, this is the answer. I will add if the track is 3"+ wide and 4"+ long, he is a shooter.

OHbowhntr

+1, that was pretty much what I thought. All except the big belly swinging part and myself analogy.....

GregH

Well, I'm just telling you what I've read and experienced over the years.

Does usually claim the best bedding areas close to food sources in order to rear their fawns. Bucks, on the other hand will venture over closer to a good food source and bed nearby (for them) with their buddies (bachelor groups. After the break up of the bachelor groups, the bucks head back to their core area and wait for the start of the rut. October lull? Anyway, the rut will have bucks on the move from late October until early January. The chance for a hot doe will have them traveling much further than any doe travels. The doe will hardly ever travel out of her home area, whereas bucks will, especially during the rut.

In short, bucks put on way more miles than does.

Unless a doe chips a toe, their hooves are always sharp and pointy. Most all bucks that I or my friends have killed that are 3 1/2 and older have way more rounded toes than does. The older the buck, the more rounded the toes usually are.

Tracks are not all that hard to determine the sex of if the buck is mature. There is quite a size difference between a 4 1/2 year old buck and a 4 1/2 yearold doe. You really notice this when you see one of these bucks on top of one of these does! [:-]

GregH

There you have it! which one do you think might be a buck?

JoeRE

Mature buck tracks are generally blunter and wider than does. They also drag their feet more,toe out, tend to jump over fences rather than under, and when they pee in the snow you can sometimes tell the difference by how 'spattered' the stain is. Obviously this isn't perfect as there are always some outliers but I believe I can tell the difference between 3.5+ year old bucks and everything else over 90% of the time. That being said, you sometimes get deer that make you go huh? The pic is of a 4.5+ deer with 161" of bone on his head. Granted it would spread out a bit with weight on it but we are still talking a track maybe 2" wide. I would have guessed the track was from a doe.