PotashRLS Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Anybody ever wonder that? A buddy and I have been reviewing trail camera photos from this past season (and last year too) and are finding some common denominators. I have permission to hunt a 40 acre parcel of theirs further east along a river bottom. His primary hunting spot consists of a couple hundred acres behind their house. They and their extended family have nearly 300 acres (half is open ground) further to the east about a mile+ where I can hunt. Between this property is 240 acres of ground (80 is open and cropped) also with river bottom. We have found that a 3 1/2 year old buck both of us called the "big 8" was actually the same buck and didn't know it. Turns out this buck spends all the off season and antler development behind my buddy's house in their sanctuary and then puts on the miles during hard antler. Keep in mind that this is some pretty prime ground that with all neighbors includes 2 square miles of prime deer habitat. It is filthy with antlerless deer too. It is nothing to see 100 deer in the field behind the neighbors farm during the summer months. My buddy just got a picture of the "big 8" on 12/10 in the evening and I got one of him on 12/11, 1 1/2 miles away. To me that seemed odd considering we now have 6" of snow on the ground and my buddy has all the food plots by him. I suspect too many antlerless deer and the 2nd rut have something to do with this buck being on his feet. What is your experience with traveling deer you can verify with your trail cameras? How far are they traveling and do they return to their small core areas or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Really think it depends on terrain, cover, food, and come rut time on just how many does are around. Think around here where there is an abundance of all the above but does that bucks probably have a core area of a sq mile or so. About the furthest apart I have had cameras on our property is probably 1/2 mile and have had several bucks that passed those cameras and sometimes within the same night if I remember right. We thought we had a buck last year that we got about 40 pics of that was making his away across the highway to a property about 2.5-3 miles away as a crow flies. The man that killed that deer had gotten a ton of pics of him and it looked to be the same deer, he even looked at my trail cam pics and thought it was his deer but could not believe the deer could have traveled that far. We have since heard some other unconfirmed stories of a buck that sounds identical that was killed on a property neighboring ours, dunno though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Had a nice wide 8pt summer here..got shot 2 miles to the S.W. studies have been done with radio collard deer..bucks will range between 3 to 6 miles what I have read core area can be as little as 20 acres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 i depends on where the deer is and the deer itself. around here buck to doe ratios are waayyyyy out of wack. i've had trail cam picks of a buck staying within an area 2/3 of a square mile. a lot of deer here seem to be between 1 and 2 square miles. up north, the Benoit brothers have gone on record saying they've tracked mature bucks for just over 15 miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 Deer and Deer Hunting did a cool show on collared deer in one of their shows a couple years ago. They had like 9 or 10 does collared, 1 doe survived 12 years I think it was. As I recall, the does had a closer home range of a few hundred acres while the bucks roamed a little more. I think the oldest collared buck was only 3 or 4 when it got shot. Essentially, the deer had a definite core area that they rarely wandered from. I want to say it was like 300 or 400 acres. Not nearly as much as what a lot of hunters believe. I think a lot has to do with terrain and food too. In my area, there's never a shortage of food. Every year, the deer in my area disappear from late December through about April or May. I see a ton of deer in June and July, and lately, they all but disappear during the hunting season as the crops come out. I see signs of them around like tracks and evidence of eating, but I don't see them in the day much. I looked around for the Deer and Deer hunting show, but couldn't find it. This article was pretty cool though. Understanding Why Deer Move Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethan Givan Posted December 14, 2012 Report Share Posted December 14, 2012 I got pics of that droptine buck I was after this year in three different places, and two of the spots were a mile apart. This was before the rut really kicked in too. Id say roughly a 1 sq mile most of the year and then probably double that during the rut, depending on your deer density. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smha6784 Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 How far do deer travel? I asked this same question to a guide who is also a biologist an has been studying whitetails for some time now and his answer to me was " a deer's home territory is in general 640 acres (roughly 1 sq mile). And a buck during rut if ratios are close to being proportionate can travel well in access of that and sometimes not make it back to home territory. Of course if ratios are skewed and does are plentiful then bucks don't need to travel" when I asked him what the ideal ratio is he said 1 to 1 ...... Ha that'll be the day huh ??? Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 i depends on where the deer is and the deer itself. I'll 2nd that! Been running trail cams for 5 or 6 years now. Some bucks have stayed within a 1/2 mile area while others roam around much larger areas. Caught some on trial cams as far as 4 miles between cams. On average in MS trail cams show it's about 1.5 miles. Can't really say for does. No way to ID individual does from one another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbiethekid Posted December 17, 2012 Report Share Posted December 17, 2012 How far do deer travel? According to biologists a deers natural travel zone and living area is usually 1 sq. mile. During a rut, drought, or poor food source it will be a much greater distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbeck Posted December 17, 2012 Report Share Posted December 17, 2012 I had one travel 1760 miles, yep I shot him in Montana and he's hanging in my gun room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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