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Lets talk mature buck home range?

themedic

themedic

Junior Member
755
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OHIO
I'm trying to find a buck that I know exist but have not seen for two years. I know his range is at least 1.8 square miles. I have him on trail camera in 3 different areas.

Straight line he has been seen as far as 2.5 miles apart (straight line).

What is the largest area you have personally followed a buck?
 
Gordo said:
Ive never had properties close enough to find out, except for two props that are less then a mile away but separated by a river
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How big of river? do they cross it?

Does your gut tell you they dont but actually do???? This is how I feel about highways...but this deer is crossing multiple lanes
 
themedic said:
I'm trying to find a buck that I know exist but have not seen for two years. I know his range is at least 1.8 square miles. I have him on trail camera in 3 different areas.

Straight line he has been seen as far as 2.5 miles apart (straight line).

What is the largest area you have personally followed a buck?
Click to expand...

Personally.. Tank is a traveler. The furthest apart I have ever seen him is 2.4 miles straight line from A to B. But I know he goes further. But at any given week he can be anywhere in that line or surrounding areas. The tall 10 however is pretty condensed. He spends most of his time inside a mile.
 
Ive walked up and down it lookin for crossings and have never found one. Its prob about 45 feet wide, and would have to b a swim.

I honestly think they just dont cross it. This was the first year of intensely runnin cams on properties that close, and i gotta say i was expecting the barrier not to matter and that i would see the same deer occasionally on both. Not the case.

And now that i think about it, its prob only a half mile, maybe closer.

From the highest point of one of the props, i can see the other.
 
Gordo said:
Ive never had properties close enough to find out, except for two props that are less then a mile away but separated by a river
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Same here. All my spots are spread out. Trying to gain access to some new spots for this fall to spread my wings.

It's interesting though to read about & try to think about when it comes to the bucks I've gotten on camera.
 
Gordo, if I can find the picture, I'll show you a stud buck that swam the Ohio from Blennerhassett Island to 618 down along the river in Belpre. It tried to jump a brick and wrought iron fence after the swim and got snagged. It was a good 150" deer. I also know of a buck that was shot along the river and attempted to swim to Musthapha Island while gut shot. Deer are excellent swimmers. I doubt they do it unless they have to, but a 45' swim across a river won't completely deter them if they want to be on the other side.

As for me, when I was doing a ton of summer road scouting a few years ago and saw a buck in velvet in the summer, then during the rut in November that was 5 miles from A to B. The holler he was running allowed him to access a huge area while searching for does and food. In all likelihood, his home range could have been several square miles.

On the flip side of the coin is Captain Jack. I honestly believe his home range is contained in 300 acres. My general opinion is most mature bucks stay within a square mile or two with a few times of the year being the exception. And like most experts say, I agree that home range shrinks over time.
 
Jesse said:
My general opinion is most mature bucks stay within a square mile or two
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2 sq. mile is a big ass area. Over 1200 acres as a perfect square and if you stretch that out, as in long and thin.....it cab be a tremendous distance. Every year my mind is blown away by the distance these deer will travel.
 
On my in-laws property the mature bucks travel a good 1/2 mile to mile on a regular basis coming out of a riverbottom, across a few fields and into one of their patches of woods and you can watch them do this in the evenings during the summer.
 
I've seen them move over ten miles before. I think most bucks keep there home range within three to five miles though..
 
JD Boyd said:
I've seen them move over ten miles before. I think most bucks keep there home range within three to five miles though..
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How true JD. Ron and I have a friend who had a nice 160ish buck on cam the fall before last that was killed later that year about 5-6 miles away. IMO, some bucks are homebodies with smaller ranges and others are just rogue travelers that stretch their ranges a lot more. They all have different personalities I think, kinda like how some are heavy breeders and others put survival higher on their list of priorities. The majority prolly fit in between the two extremes though,IMO.

I imagine that hunting pressure, breeding competition,food abundance and personalities all play a major factor in a bucks range.
 
Jesse said:
Gordo, if I can find the picture, I'll show you a stud buck that swam the Ohio from Blennerhassett Island to 618 down along the river in Belpre. It tried to jump a brick and wrought iron fence after the swim and got snagged. It was a good 150" deer. I also know of a buck that was shot along the river and attempted to swim to Musthapha Island while gut shot. Deer are excellent swimmers. I doubt they do it unless they have to, but a 45' swim across a river won't completely deter them if they want to be on the other side.
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I hear that.

I still cant believe i didnt get one pic of the same deer with the cameras being that close.
 
I should of added this though if you locate a big buck now your in his home range now and I doubt he'll move over a half mile. Now is the time to kill one...
 
I know my buck from 2011 traveled almost 1 1/2 miles from where I shot him to where he was found. Of course it was during the rut so he would travel a long ways but thinking about the land he crossed I can see deer traveling that far easily and often.
 
JD Boyd said:
I should of added this though if you locate a big buck now your in his home range now and I doubt he'll move over a half mile. Now is the time to kill one...
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Im not sure what it is about the deer around my house..... But I have a decent buck that is shuffling all over....he is gonig to my place, then to my buddies place and moving all around...Prob around a mile....And he doesnt need to be moving all that distance....He has all kinds of food and what not....I dont know what his deal is..
 
I pretty much have experienced the same as a lot of you. I believe that most mature bucks home range is a half mile to one square mile. They pretty much feed, browse, cruise bedding areas in that area in the pre-rut phase. Once most of the does in that area are bred, or another mature buck has taken dominance over all others. Then, they will search else where for more does, thus expanding their range. Where ever their manhood will take them! So to speak. As for crossing rivers? Absolutely no problem for deer. As Jesse said, they are excellent swimmers and will cross a river without hesitation. I have witnessed it numerous times. Especially during the RUT!
 
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