Where did that big whitetail go?

[renello]

https://www.qdma.com/7-ways-relocate-missing-bucks/

Getting pictures of mature bucks is difficult. Not only are they a small fraction of the deer herd but they are very wary of disturbances in their home ranges and will usually change up their routine and location based on factors like food sources, other deer, humans and predators. Keeping a camera over the same spot like a mineral site should give you decent coverage of deer in the area over time but you might be missing a few animals. I have seen certain deer, often mature bucks that avoid mineral locations and feeding areas. Often you will have a stand in these locations and you visit these areas to place bait and check cards. Before you start typing a rebuttal talking about the big buck you got in your favorite stand that you have a thousand pictures of, be clear that I am talking about a certain percentage of bucks. Each buck is different. That is very important to internalize. I spend a lot time trying to figure out the personality of each buck I pattern based on limited information not the least of which is trail camera photo's. I still look for tracks, rubs, scrapes and trails. When I think I may be missing something in an area I put extra camera's out and if you only have a few camera's, try rotating around a bit. Scrapes are great place to place camera's in October. Also, well used trails are great at surprising that wary old buck. I captured pictures some years back of an 8 point buck Deb named TT. Nice tall young 8 point with distinctive wavy brow tines probably 7" long. These pictures were in late August and early September then nothing. Next year I got pictures of TT again. He grew 50" in one year. Same wavy long brow tines but now 8" long with stickers all over and huge drop tine plus he was a mainframe 10 now pushing 170+. The most genetically superior buck I have ever seen to date. These pictures were over the course of a week the last week of August. Never seen him again. I was so paranoid about slobs finding out about that I deleted all electronic pictures and went to wall mart and got prints only. As this was about 5 years ago now I suppose I can share this story now. I never did hear anything about this buck and you can bet I did my best due diligence in trying to figure this guy out but he was one deer that spent a little time on my property and then went off to who knows where. Odd that I only got pictures during a narrow time frame at only one location two years in a row. It is these behaviors that keep me on toes. I did figure out that there are some bucks that will travel a long ways from summer haunts to breeding areas. Home ranges shift for some bucks and some stay in their home range all the time. I have gotten pictures of bucks 5-6 miles apart and on a few occasions this occurred the same day!

If your looking for ideas on scouting your property or trail camera use I am just a PM away. I will answer.

 

[3855WIN]

This gal had a collar and was part of a predator depredation study being conducted on the NWR that surrounds us. We called the researchers, as this was the first time we’d seen her and had no trail pics of her. She was 8 miles from capture site and they ask that we kill her if we got another chance. She was making them drive about 20 miles to get around where they could get a reading in her.

 

[3855WIN]

This guy also had a collar. They did a home range study on the bucks they collared. He would show up in summer when crops were in the fields beside us. He would disappear about three weeks into archery season when acorns started falling in the NWR. He was on his way downhill in this pic. To say he haunted our dreams is an understatement. Always hoped he drift back in during the rut, but it didn’t happen.
He’s another that was captured about 8 miles away. Ag crops make some of these deer have a summer and winter range.