Ragingun wrote:NorthwoodsWiscoHnter wrote:Do you think that a mature buck will only use the same bed over and over?
I was waiting for this question.
I also hunt the "bigwoods" on the boarder of northern WI and MI. My observations over the years have coincided with how this thread has progressed. The lack of hunting pressure was mentioned earlier. Same is true in my area. Then the predators were mentioned, this is KEY to how bucks/deer in general move. Wolves in an area can push out or shut down deer movement. In my area wolves will come and go, when they are in the area that year of gun hunting has "sucked". When the wolves are absent those years have been much more productive.
As far as bucks and buck beds. This is related to predator pressure. Bucks still desire to bed in the same manner as everywhere else, i.e. leeward hillsides, points leading into swamps, etc however they have the room to roam and a multitude of options for these areas to bed. I have noticed that although they bed the same, a lot of times they do not "repeat bed" nearly as much. I don't have an answer for this however I believe it's due to the pressure from predators. They simply do not need to tolerate any predator presence with the amount of land they have available to them and the lack of deer/specific buck population.
I took note of a few things I've not paid as much attention too this year. First off is how far a buck will go and the "randomness" of that travel. I followed 3 different mature bucks this year. All of them were daytime travel. They all moved quite a distance, 1 was 3 miles on a steady walk before I stopped following. They are certainly not bothered by the distance they walk. The travel as mentioned was also very random. They may move to a generally desired location but they have nearly unlimited ways to get there. It's not like the swamps in SE WI where I live as the bucks generally use a standardized way of travel but up there they have pot hole swamp one after the other, then thick whips, then more swamps etc. They use it all.
The second thing I noticed was the deer/ bucks are not nearly as concerned about scent as the deer I've hunted in my local area. I hunt a lot of very pressured land. I used to think that deer get used to human smell even from hunters but this year lead me to now believe that particularly the mature deer don't get used to it, they get smart from it. Up there however I've noticed even mature bucks walking right down the same trail that I walked an hour prior rubbing up against trees and leaving scent. This buck simply didn't care and this went on for a half mile. I also had a 2.5 year old bed right below my stand that I hunted in that morning. He didn't care. I'm not sure if they are condition to be on alert for predators such as wolves, bear etc but they sure didn't care about human scent much at all.
I can't draw any absolutes from these observations however I found this very interesting although maybe not specifically helpful lol.