The ways of older bucks

[Four Seasons]

I have had this happen a few times over the years. This buck is leaving a sanctuary bedding area and crossing a field and road to go up a big hill to get to a wood lot of acorns and a small corn and alfalfa field. He does all this and still gets back to his bed well before daylight. Pretty sure this is the same buck but hard to be 100% on it. Pretty cool animals. 

[suburbanfarmer]

They dont get big cause they are dumb. Very smart critters for sure

[Shoots100]

Two years ago like clockwork right before shooting light I watched a big buck make his way back to his anti hunter sanctuary across the road before dark with my thermal spotter.

You could tell by his movements he was a mature buck on a mission.

We set up a camera and got a couple of pics of the bruiser, but no one harvested him and he dropped off the radar after a week.

I named him the vampire buck.

SJC

 

[Gobbler Chaser]

The only 2 things that breaks the routine of smart never seen big bucks is the rut and the first few days of rifle season. For me it has always been the last week of southern zone bow season when the rut really peaks and then opening day rifle when the orange army takes to the woods stirring up big bucks and making them move. 

[First-light]

Nephew shot a nice 10 pt late morning opening day. This was after we gutted two other nice bucks and a Doe in the same area. Here they come chasing a Doe. Small buck then the 10 pt he shoots it dead waits a minute and out comes a giant and stands over the dead buck. He just watched for a minute and then it took off in the direction of the Doe. All it takes is one hot Doe to get them to lose their minds....lol

[Gobbler Chaser]

1 hour ago, First-light said:

Nephew shot a nice 10 pt late morning opening day. This was after we gutted two other nice bucks and a Doe in the same area. Here they come chasing a Doe. Small buck then the 10 pt he shoots it dead waits a minute and out comes a giant and stands over the dead buck. He just watched for a minute and then it took off in the direction of the Doe. All it takes is one hot Doe to get them to lose their minds....lol

Like they say, does are the best bait

[landtracdeerhunter]

Every mature buck patterns differently, or so it seems.

[Doc]

They really don't have to be all that old to figure out their survival mode. Have you ever noticed how all the deer seem to vanish into thin air after the first few hours of gun season opener? They find out that panicky running through the woods is not a real good idea. They also figure out where the orange army does not go.

Yes they occasionally make mistakes, but not all that often. I had a nice buck that used the old "lay still" method of evasion. It was in a thicket that is in front of my house. I was going down our long driveway to get the mail and I took my gun along. His mistake was not realizing that the new snow of the season silhouetted him very nicely. I'll bet he spent may days watching us drive back and forth on the driveway and even walk up and down the driveway a bunch of times. It would have worked again except for that snow. It was a short drag to the driveway where I loaded him up for butchering. But the point is that they do seem to have some version of reasoning.

[Steve D]

In these parts for the most part they go nocturnal around the first part of Oct. Bucks and Does. You might catch them out during the day once in awhile but for the most part all movement is at dusk or after dark.