Vanishing bucks.

Okay.... all summer I have been getting bucks on my camera all day and night. It is set up on a good mineral lick and corn feeder. I have seen the deer in thewoods and open fields and had a ton of pics. It became mostly at night and does with fawns showing up during day a couple weeks ago after the bucks being regulars all day 7 days a week. And now the bucks have become MIA at the feeder and salt lick. I’m getting day and night pics of does and fawns. I have noticed acorns on the ground and some ag fields have been cut also so I’m sure thAt has something to do with my MIA bucks but I have to assume they must have been bedding close to have used my area so much all summer? What do you guys think? I’m assuming that the groups are splitting up but I have to think that as much as they used the area one will have to claim it and start rubbing to mark it? What do you guys think happened and from your experience what will happen with the deer activity. I was pumped for bow season and now feel like a deflated ballon.

Very simple explanation... they’re dead.


Just kidding. They obviously have a different fall/winter home range than they do in the summer. Could have moved just a short distance or could be well off your property. I’ve seen their summer/winter home ranges differ by 1.5-2 miles. They could show back up, just that time of year.

Lots of ours go MIA at velvet shedding time

might be meant as a joke but might be a fact . they dint show back up and next year he kills a couple with long hollowed toe nails ,,,,,, they gone !!!!

They will.be back in a week or two. Probably have a new buck or two with them. They will.be much more sporadic from now on to. Idk why just been my experience

they will go where the acorn drop is.

They change seasonal Home ranges. Right now every year until about November we always see a rollover on some bucks. Lose a few, gain a few. Some return, some don’t.

Every year I talk about this, and often I get evidence of where they went (and too often how they met their demise). My parents have a small tract that I hunt, get pics of deer every year, then always sometime during the first couple weeks of bow season my bucks just disappear. I mean like, gone! Often they show up on friends' cameras looooong distances away, or I get a photo of one them dead (killed two roads away), or I see on Facebook where one was ran over (again, two miles away). I have does who never leave, acorns of some kind, a huge cutover for bedding and browse, and row crop fields bordering us, but they still move far away. There has to be some kind of subconscious, photoperiod driven, pull that makes them go like zombies.

The question I always ask is "Why don't I have new bucks show up from other places???" If my bucks go somewhere else, why don't "somewhere else bucks" show up at my place?? Clearly I have everything a deer needs to live and thrive, the does don't leave.

I have pictures of deer on cameras several miles apart.

If someone cut a corn field... if some hunters filled their feeders and you are no longer the only one feeding... if acorns are dropping 1.5 miles away... if someone started their season early.

You can't keep a deer on even 1,000 acres. Doesn't work that way.

Sorry QDMA guys. If it is a good deer you had better just shoot it if you want it. This is why your neighbors trigger habits directly impact your hunting experience more than just a little bit... it can be more than significant.

Home ranges change due to food sources and pressure. It happens everywhere. Some will return during the rut. Keeping a healthy number of does on your property will ensure bucks will come courting.

I have a landowner client in Dallas County. He plants peanuts on some of his fields each year. I will see as many as 50-75 rack bucks in those fields in a single night during the summer. He commercial hunts it during deer season. He laughs at my videos of all the "summer" bucks. He says most will be gone before gun season starts. They simply move to other locations during the fall/winter.

This is exactly what Im talking about IKILLBUX. We have all the food, water, cover and love they need. Why would they leave? It just doesn't make sense. I had a lot of rut sign after the season so I have hopes that one or more will return for some love if nothing else.

I think deer will walk over anything to get to a peanut field (except ALFALFA). It really packs weight on them too.

Man, we got Nighthunter and Mbrock back

I have just concluded it's something we don't understand. You know how a cat has a "homing mechanism"??....ever took a cat down the road and dumped it off, then two days later it's back at your house? I think it's something like that. Just some sort of biological phenomena that has no connection to the things we assume (it's not food, or safety, or sex). Like maybe it's a genetic feature to keep them from inbreeding, the way the Lord created them. When the photoperiod starts changing (or whatever triggers antler hardening, etc) this "pull" starts up within them and they purposefully disperse to go breed elsewhere.

Pretty interesting. Look at the chart on home range.
https://www.qdma.com/the-3-biggest-...medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-09-13

Some studies show average home ranges much larger than that. It depends on terrain and food sources. It’s nothing for a bachelor group of bucks to travel a mile between cover and food right now. They’ll go even farther in the rut.

we have 4,000 acres so its easier to tell how far they are going but deer need food, water and cover. Any change in one of those and they will move. Hopefully they will be back

Nighthunter..Mbrock...and Whild bill👍
All in one thread.

Its very common to see bucks have different home ranges than does too.

The place I had in Jackson county for a few years was a great example. We would have 10-15 mature bucks using around 1100 acres during the spring and summer months. We never really saw much of shift in does. Once shedding took place and crops started getting picked our bucks would start dispersing back to the ridges. We would only keep 3-4 of those mature bucks on the property.

Jackson/Madison county is a great example of deer changing home ranges. Lots and lots of deer shift their spring/summer home ranges from the mountains to the valleys where the crops are being grown. Bad deal for the farmers... Once the crops start getting picked you'll see a change in deer numbers in the valleys because many of them move back to the ridges.

Nighthunter so your saying many move to the Mountains and stay their through the Winter. Which could mean lack of sightings unless your willing to climb or get to the top?

Ah... kinda.

More so saying that in the spring/summer months the populations in the valleys are artificially inflated, especially near heavily farmed agricultural areas. Once these crops are picked and normal dispersion starts taking place in the late summer and early fall, some deer move back into the mountain land surrounding the valleys. Hunters will typically never notice the difference because they aren't monitoring their deer that closely until just before the season. We saw it every year there and I continually see it while working with farmers.

I didn't really mean you had to go to the top to see deer, just that there isn't as many staying in the valleys as you would see during the summer months. They have dispersed to their fall home ranges.

We still killed deer in the bottoms but we just didn't keep that number of deer in the bottoms.

Got you. Thanks for explaining!

I've found the bucks in my area change their patterns shortly after they lose their velvet. Around here that's usually around Oct 7-15. If you're in n ala I would think that would be in sept

There is zero Ag within 5-7 miles of our place. Our deer don’t typically range that far. We have some spots that are always occupied by does and rarely see bucks outside of the rut. The bucks are congregated on the SE side of the property this time of year but will disperse a little over the next 2 months. We routinely watch bucks year after year.

I guess there is a benefit to not having Ag, lol

Too much pressure. I'm guilty as anyone. Cameras, cutting, planting, scouting. Neighbors doing similar. It's all ramping up. The deer know.

First time I walk into my hunting spot will be opening day

That’s the best way to do it Beetle!

Hey man I just know what works for me

I have been getting alot of pictures of several
nice bucks since June. They have all dissaperd
as of 3 weeks ago. Now in the same spots Im getting
a few doe pictures, but no fawns. That really concerns me
out of 5 cameras on a 150 acres I have no fawn pictures.
I dont think pressure has much to do with my deer sightings
On my land,only because I drive my truck to check my cameras,
put out feed ,prune limbs , bushog trails, and so on.
I guess what im saying is on a hunting club you have several different
hunters comeing and going with different vehicles, four wheelers,
and the deer get spooked more. BUT on your on lease, they font get
Spooked because they are used to a hunters routine.

Game cameras are the best thing that ever happened to a deer to help him survive

Best explanation: Deer do deer things.

No doubt, there are a couple that I would have killed but let them walk for the one I had on camera, which I finally saw on my neighbors tailgate

Well after today’s card pull I’m sure that they are eating elsewhere. Even my does have vanished for most part. Eithe someone has something delicious out for them or some acorns have fallen like crazy!