What do old,old bucks do?

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Stanley
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What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Stanley » Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:23 pm

If they aren't doing much breeding or any. Do they simply lay around all day and just eat at night? We do know there are very few of the old old bucks. Maybe there are fewer than we think and they just don't exist? thoughts?


You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Swampthing
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Swampthing » Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:50 pm

Boy, I've spent many hours thinking about this. Every year I think I might stumble across a corpse of an old buck. Or jump some old buck. I just don't know. Mabey like you said there just not as many as we think. We have all had encounters with big bucks, sometimes we're even lucky enough to watch them grow a few years. And just when were thinking, next year he,ll be a giant. He falls of the face of the earth. No sightings, trail cam pics, no photos of your neighbors holding his big rack. What or where they go baffles me.

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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby str8shooter » Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:47 pm

I don't know what they do, but some definitely don't move much in daylight. I've never laid eyes on this guy except for after dark with the spotlight. I believe that he was 9 1/2 this past season.

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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Hunter74 » Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:18 pm

I believe there are as many as we think...maybe more... But they become ghost...and just like ghost it is easier to believe they don't exist than to believe they are there and something we can't explain or prove or hunt

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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby GRFox » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:43 pm

One question pertaining to this topiic I have been meang to ask for a long time. Maybe Dan has some insight being that he has speent the most time closest to bedded bucks than anyone.....

An older buck is typically bedded before daylight and doesn't leave his bed until the last dew minutes or hour before dark. Does this mean the deer stays bedded all day long. Does he just get up to stretch andd lay back down? Or does he get up a few times during the day to feed around his bed? I was always under the impression a deer can't go more than 6 hours a without feeding if he does get up to feed how far from his bed does he go?

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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby whitetail007 » Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:57 pm

the new property i just got permission to hunt has an old buck that i have seen many times during daylight. this guy is old, ive never seen a deer with sway back so bad in all my life and his color is much darker than most. i dont know if that this property is differant being that its close to alot of human activity or the lack of hunting pressure but i seen him standing right out in the open many times. i know he has 2 beds, one is in a small patch of cattails and the other is in a small CRP strip. during the rut i watched him stand in the middle of a field watching another buck and doe as the other buck ran off smaller deer when they got to close. he didnt seem to want any part of breeding that doe. he just stood back and watched the action then turned around and went back into the patch of cattails. i dont know maybe he had a doe in there but he didnt seem overly excited like all the other bucks around the hot doe.
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Southern Man » Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:53 am

BAck in the mid 90's I seen an old buck that ran the farm I hunted. I used to see him regularly for maybe a year and a half. He would come out of the woods, feed, and move off down toward the bottom and never have anything to do with the other deer around the area, not that I ever seen. He bedded different, fed away from them, and I never even seen him look at another deer. He walked and looked like an old bull. I assumed he was old and just not interested anymore. I never could get on him to kill him, but found him dead one February. I couldn't find anywhere he'd been shot but the varmits had started eatin on him. I gave his horns to a guy that I worked with to make knife handles.

I've often wondered if they just get so reclusive they just stay to themselves completely.
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby jlh42581 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:12 am

Think of it like we as humans

12->25 - Cant get enough of the sniffin
25->35 - If it happens it happens, not gonna get too wound up about it
35->45 - I was attracted to you at 25?
45->Death - Wheres the food, Im tired
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Schultzy » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:47 am

I believe there's more around then we think. Their just that good. Lots of these old bucks I believe die of old age.
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Autumn Ninja » Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:14 am

Ive often wondered how many old bucks get killed that are written off as good young bucks...I know it happens here. On the land I hunt...4, 5, 6 years of age are when the bucks max out on antler size. Beyond 6, with the poor habitat and low deer density...lack of quality, easily accessible nutrition and testosterone start to play havoc and the bucks go down hill fast.

When I seen this buck roll in, I thought..thats I nice 2 year old, maybe a 3 year old. After looking at his teeth, he was in fact a very nice 2 year old.

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When I seen this buck roll in, I thought...Wow, nice buck....4 or 5 year old for sure. After further inspection..(best guess) was at least 4 year old, maybe 5.

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Then this buck came in...first glance...2 year old for sure. Nope he was by far the oldest buck killed that year...huge feet, heavy scaring around the face and legs, teeth worn flat with the gum...1/3 of his teeth missing...at least 7+...I wouldnt be surprised if he was 9 or 10.

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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby magicman54494 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:53 am

jlh42581 wrote:Think of it like we as humans

45->Death - Wheres the food, Im tired


:shock:
Speak for yourself. :twisted: If you were close enough I'd hit you with my cane. :lol:
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Zap » Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:54 am

jlh42581 wrote:Think of it like we as humans

12->25 - Cant get enough of the sniffin
25->35 - If it happens it happens, not gonna get too wound up about it
35->45 - I was attracted to you at 25?
45->Death - Wheres the food, Im tired


:?

:lol:
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:03 am

The buck on the left is an old old buck (8.5). He was arrowed by a friend of mine in late October in the evening. He acted no different than any other buck. The buck on the right is a 5.5 year old buck also arrowed by a friend in late October in the morning. These bucks were living in the river bottoms. So what would cause the older buck to get killed very easily that year, after avoiding hunters for all those years? The notion that they don't move around didn't hold true on that buck at that time.


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You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby Schultzy » Tue Feb 21, 2012 7:44 am

Stanley wrote:The buck on the left is an old old buck (8.5). He was arrowed by a friend of mine in late October in the evening. He acted no different than any other buck. The buck on the right is a 5.5 year old buck also arrowed by a friend in late October in the morning. These bucks were living in the river bottoms. So what would cause the older buck to get killed very easily that year, after avoiding hunters for all those years? The notion that they don't move around didn't hold true on that buck at that time.


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Something definitely to wonder about Stan. The last 2 years I've hunted 5.5 year old bucks. In 2010 I saw the 5.5 I was hunting 4 times. In 2011 I saw the 5.5 I was hunting 4 times. Prior to 2010 (24 years of hunting) to the best of my knowledge never have I saw a buck any older then 4.5 years old. That's a crazy stat when you think about It.
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Re: What do old,old bucks do?

Unread postby HuntMeister » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:00 am

Stanley wrote:The buck on the left is an old old buck (8.5). He was arrowed by a friend of mine in late October in the evening. He acted no different than any other buck. The buck on the right is a 5.5 year old buck also arrowed by a friend in late October in the morning. These bucks were living in the river bottoms. So what would cause the older buck to get killed very easily that year, after avoiding hunters for all those years? The notion that they don't move around didn't hold true on that buck at that time.


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Stanley, is it possible that something in his environment changed that caused a change in his routine?


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