When a dominate buck is taken from his territioy, as in the trails he patroles how long does it take for the next in line buck take to move in to the area

If there are does abound, not long at all.

Where there are does, there WILL be bucks.

Striper a dominant buck does have a home turf when the rut is not on, but once the rut starts all the bucks are on the move, all bets are off, they are just like teenage boys with a group of willing young ladies, the biggest baddest one is going to dominate the mating. A dominant buck will comingle with inferior bucks until the rut nears, then he runs them out of his area, but once he smells a doe in heat it does not matter if it is his home turf or not, he is on the way and as long as another dominant buck doesn't get there before him he will be the winner. Bucks do have a pecking order and I would say that if the dominant buck is taken from his home turf the next in line would become the dominant buck.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

Before his body is cold <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

TAZ....Very well said, I couldn't agree more.

There is always some young pup waiting to woo the ladies if the old guy falls!!! I would say deer are alot like turkeys if you shot the old gobbler it is best to be there the next day because all those nice gobblers that he was keeping quiet are going to town with his ladies. The does will also go in search of thier man, you know them women, they want you to think they can do without men but take us away and the story changes.

Yeah the guys nailed it previously. I believe due to the competition and rut that areas have several dominant bucks in them at all times.

But my hunting buddies and I have started noticing that areas that always produce big bucks, seem to have a large number of big (dominant bucks) in the area, as well as the little guys. On the opposite end, areas that seem to have the smaller dominant bucks if you will, never produce that same trophy buck. It would seem logical that if a realitive big buck wasn't getting the action in his area that he would roam to the neighbour land of pint sized, this doesn't seem to be the case. They seem to want or maybe better suited need to compete for there part.

One theory we have toyed with is the nature to compete for reproduction & dominance. The other thought is all their offspring have the genes of a trophy and simply just stay and battle it out.

Are we crazy up here or do any of you see this as well? Any thoughts on why this maybe the case? We have thought of doe ratios, but to be honest they seem to be the same almost evrywhere where we hunt.