bucks leaving under pressure

[hunter_mike]

How far do you think a buck will travel away from where he was living in the summer and fall to avoid hunting pressure?

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[G3s]

How far do you think a buck will travel away from where he was living in the summer and fall to avoid hunting pressure?

[ Post made via Android ]

Unless the pressure is very very heavy and very constant I dont think the deer go far at all. In my opinion deer adapt to pressure and avoid it by changing the times they travel more than the property. I have seen deer lay in some pretty weird places to try to avoid pressure.

[Stanley]

I doubt very far. It is hard to find a safe haven in the Midwest for sure. 200 yards could be the next safe zone.

[wibow]

Probably not too far...night for traveling and daytime hunkered down in beds with great escape options and or super thick areas most folks wont go.

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[dan]

Most of the change you see in home ranges has more to do with seasonal changes than pressure. Sure they change bedding areas cause of pressure, but its not a huge distance.

[Edcyclopedia]

I believe they just turn even more nocturnal and relocate to the nastiest terrain/thickness available.

That's why deer drives are so predictable...
I bet for the lone hunter unknowingly we walk bye 5-times as many deer as we see. (well maybe two times)

[Bowhunting Brian]

I now some guys that drive a certain area of public land during gun and muzzleloader season. they push deer on consecutive days and have shot some nice bucks. the deer must run out during the drive and come back again before sun rise the next day. maybe not all come back, but some deer do.

[hunter_mike]

Thanks for the info

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[Singing Bridge]

Unless the pressure is very very heavy and very constant I dont think the deer go far at all. In my opinion deer adapt to pressure and avoid it by changing the times they travel more than the property. I have seen deer lay in some pretty weird places to try to avoid pressure.

I agree with G3s on this but I think most of the posters here paid little attention to the "very heavy and very constant" part of it. Most of the replies were that the bucks won't move far, probably just over a bit into the next chunk of security cover. But there are places where the hunting pressure is very heavy and constant- I have more hunters in my primary hunting area than I have ever seen before, and it was already really bad. Large swamps and marshes will definitely have bucks relocate under these circumstances, sometimes from as far away as a mile or two... then add in the miles of swamp or marsh... and there was definitley some significant relocation.

I have half a dozen buck bedding areas in one of my swamps that just became active on / around November 22nd. There has been no activity in these areas all season ( I check for tracks, rubs, scrapes etc. by scouting the bedding areas from a distance). In one entire day of recon (22nd) for these bedding areas, covering quite a few square miles of cover, I found brand new buck rubs near all of the bedding areas in this swamp... where before there were none, including big tracks (or any tracks) or scrapes, etc. The Michigan Orange Army invaded on November 15th and these bucks relocated to security areas where they do not encounter human scent or traffic. I am kicking myself for spending most of my time and vacation hunting swamp bedding areas that held little to no buck activity prior to November 22nd (not all of my areas by any means, but you get my drift). These bucks are coming out A LONG WAYS to get to food after dark, the habitat is very poor where they are bedding. Some of the rubs / tracks I found on the 22nd were obviously from mature bucks. I was honestly shocked that every bedding area I checked had fresh rubs- there were none AT ALL until the invasion of the orange army.

The answers to this thread were a little too one sided for me... "they seldom move far." There are no absolutes in deer hunting and I felt compelled to reply.

[dan]

S.B. I find if the pressure is that heavy, bucks do relocate... Permanently. Or they are killed. They cannot survive a hunter per acre. Where I am hunting has lots of pressure too. But not to the point of buck extermination, although its getting close.
Bucks go deep, go to un-harrassed edges or over looked spots, or across the road to less pressured private, or they die...

This year we had the dreaded snow and freeze, while some hunters like snow and walkable ice, to me it means other hunters will follow deer tracks and invade, find, and run off all the secret little bedding areas I know.. Does this mean the bucks relocated 2 miles away? No, not at all, they are still close by, and sign shows they still come thru at night.

After most of my good buck hiding spots got invaded due to snow and ice, and 20+ hunters per sq mile I am not seeing much of anything in the roadside spots, or the remote spots but boot prints... Yesterday we covered a lot of ground, ( we walked 9.4 miles ) and there were tracks showing bucks were around, but certainly not bedded where they usually are. We finally found fresh beds and saw a target buck when we got to the very most remote area of the marsh miles from public access. Did they relocate a great distance? No... But they did move.

Bucks cannot survive to maturity if they do not have a place to get away from pressure, find those spots, and you will find the bucks.

[hunter_mike]

Good stuff, thanks

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[Singing Bridge]

Excellent post, Dan. The bedding areas I mentioned that became active after the gun season opening are very remote.

[Darion]

Wanted to ask, if the deer do relocate say around the start of firearms season how soon would they come back? The public I hunt has ag fields so there is food although it is ag all around on private also. My observation at least from this year has been I was seeing deer until firearms season after that zero, even after having snow on the ground for a week I walked several miles scouting and did not see one track from a deer. In my opinion I would say this is heavily pressured, especially for birds and small game. There are guys everywhere. But one thing is certain I had it all to myself during early archery.

[dan]

In the marshes near my home they start to come back in early spring. Again, more of a seasonal movement than "just" hunting pressure. If its just hunting pressure they really don't seem to ever leave, they just only come into the hunting areas after dark or after the pressure backs off a week or two.

[JoeRE]

Dan had a good answer. They will go however far they need to, to find secure bedding, or they will not survive in high pressure areas.


"What kind of pressure" makes a difference too. Nothing cleans out an area like repeated deer drives on a property all gun season long in farm country.