does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut sign?

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briar
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does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut sign?

Unread postby briar » Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:45 am

We have just a ton of does around here...but just plain not a lot of rubs and scrapes. Does having such an abundace of available females contribute to this ?

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Milk Weed Seed
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby Milk Weed Seed » Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:06 am

It seems plausible to me. Time to kill some smoothies IMO :twisted:
Actually... Could be that the sign is else where though, what size piece of property are you looking at? I've hunted spots where bucks just don't leave much sign. Have you been hunting this land for a long time? Is so, was there a lot of sign the previous years?
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BassBoysLLP
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:00 pm

Sometimes. Sign can be a little deceptive. Density of sign is highly dependent on the personality of the bucks in the area.

However, I do see better rut activity in areas with lower doe densities...I also see more mature buck movement in those same areas.
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby phishy » Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:06 pm

some studies suggest that scrapes are a " buck thing" meaning while communicating to does, the intent is to let other bucks know whose in the area....lots of scrape, lots of bucks...


or maybe a lack of adult bucks (2 yr +) meaning there's a lot of young adult (teenagers) running around :think:
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby christian1 » Sat Nov 15, 2014 3:27 pm

phishy wrote:some studies suggest that scrapes are a " buck thing" meaning while communicating to does, the intent is to let other bucks know whose in the area....lots of scrape, lots of bucks...


or maybe a lack of adult bucks (2 yr +) meaning there's a lot of young adult (teenagers) running around :think:



Very good point
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby JoeRE » Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:32 am

I agree that anywhere I have seen a ton of rubs and scrapes seems to have a bunch of (mostly younger) bucks running around. Sometimes there are good bucks around sometimes not. It is easy to verify with a trail cam.

When rubs and scrapes are more isolated there still may be good bucks around. Most of the time older bucks are solitary critters with less sign around to locate them by. I guess the only correlation I am certain of is lots of sign=lots of 1,2, and 3 year old bucks. I have't noticed a trend correlated to number of does although in theory what you say makes sense.
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby briar » Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:47 am

Thanks a lot for responding fellas. I just never quite understand the area i live now. Driving around and scouting new places every farm looks like the next great thing....but then you scout and hunt and you just never see the sign or presense of larger deer. It seems that even for a novice after years of this u may see something thats said big deer or catch a glimpse at night or at a distance...and it just never happens.

I used to live about 50 miles south and as a kid buck sign was abundant...and that was just fumbling around the woods clueless....just very odd to me unless our % of big ones is just that low??

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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby Worm82 » Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:45 pm

The place I hunt is really thick and hardly ever has much buck sign. I might find 1 scrape a year and only a handful of small rubs but I get pics of some really nice bucks for my area, just can't see them in person. The deer density is low in my area also. 3 miles away on another farm I'd say there is 20 scrapes within a 2 acre area but we haven't seen a buck there over 2.5 years old.

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JoeRE
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby JoeRE » Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:42 am

briar wrote:Thanks a lot for responding fellas. I just never quite understand the area i live now. Driving around and scouting new places every farm looks like the next great thing....but then you scout and hunt and you just never see the sign or presense of larger deer. It seems that even for a novice after years of this u may see something thats said big deer or catch a glimpse at night or at a distance...and it just never happens.

I used to live about 50 miles south and as a kid buck sign was abundant...and that was just fumbling around the woods clueless....just very odd to me unless our % of big ones is just that low??

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If you or anyone else is not seeing any big bucks even during the rut I would say yea there aren't many big ones around. There are enough trail cameras in the woods now a days most big bucks get their picture taken at some point. Do you hear of many big bucks getting taken locally, or does a 140" buck make newspaper headlines all across the county?

That, and you should see big clodhopper tracks while scouting if there are big bucks routinely using an area. Tracks don't lie. Big rubs and scrapes are deceptive, smaller bucks make a lot of rubs and scrapes. I once watched a 110" 8 point 2 year old rub a 6" tree.
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Re: does lack of competition for does lead to lack of rut si

Unread postby briar » Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:25 am

Joere:

What you are saying makes total sense and is completely correct. While im sure bigger bucks exist their % of our deer population is very very small...or at least it seems. With the internet and talking to people all over its hard to understand how different parts of the country can be....when u see people from the midwest killing and seeing big bucks you tend to think you should too...and its not always the case. My one hunting place is 600 acre of bow only. Thats unheard of around here. 6 guys hunt it..some more than others..and all year we had one "shooter" on camera. The one guy sat a lot and claimed to see 22 small different buck...and zero bigguns.

I guess nothing is quite as frustrating as trying to hunt deer that are just so rare in this area. You keep thinking if you just work harder and smarter it will happen but you end up spending years turning over stones and not being any closer to your goal. I guessat some point you just have to accept it and hunt what u have, move, orbe willing to travel

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