Mature buck core area indicators

[mheichelbech]

assuming a block of woods, 40 acres or so, if you can't find a bucks bed, what other sign would you need to see to feel confident a buck or bucks were using it as a core area or what lack of sign would make you pass on spending much time in an area?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[whitetailassasin]

If there isn't any buck beds I honestly don't believe it could be a mature bucks core area, or even a bucks. Sometimes lack of sign...rubs, scrapes...can be void and there still be bedding. I've seen this happen in cattail marshes, flooded areas with dry spots.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Milk Weed Seed]

Big tracks but that would most likely mean that a mature buck is passing thru (probably after dark), if there isn't any bedding. On the other hand 40 acres is small IMO. However, bedding could be just off it.

[hunter10]

I hunt smaller parcels such as the size you stated and although i havent quite figured out the buck bedding in relation to specific properties i know the bucks travel from small chunks of timber to the next especially during the rut. Ive had friends with cam pictures had their buck killed a mile or so away. im interested to see what information shows up on this thread

[JoeRE]

I want to see big tracks of varying ages on trails leading to central bedding locations - maybe points, island of cover, that sort of thing. The biggest things would be if the bedding is in a good spot, meaning not likely to be disturbed, and tracks. I have come across a few small hoofed big bucks but most lay down big tracks. Ideally, I then park a trail camera on a trail a safe distance from the bedding - NOT at a stand location - and find out what the buck looks like.

If there are rubs and scrapes that's great but if there are not that doesn't mean much...most really old bucks don't tear up the woods like 2, 3, even some 4 year olds do. If the woods are torn up most of the time its a younger deer bedding there - say a 3 year old - and not an old buck, but I will probably still investigate.

Height of a rub is a very good indicator of how old (big bodied) a buck is. Bucks make rubs at all points of their nightly travels though so you have to figure out if those rubs mean much hunting wise.

I will say if the 40 acre piece you are talking about is the core area of a big buck then that means he thought it was the safest place to be for a long ways around. Most of the time that is not the case, there are a lot of 40 acre parcels in his home range that a buck uses more occasionally. I have hunted a number of small parcels in the past like that and can't remember that I ever was lucky enough to have the core area of a big buck right on one - sometimes the core area was just off it though.

[mheichelbech]

A couple points about the 40 acres...

1) I'm guessing this is about the average area that a hunter could get to know really well in a given season.
2) In agricultural areas, at least around here, this is about the average size or smaller of any block of woods. There are bigger ones but no agriculture within a close distance. At least any property I can hunt!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

A couple points about the 40 acres...

1) I'm guessing this is about the average area that a hunter could get to know really well in a given season.
2) In agricultural areas, at least around here, this is about the average size or smaller of any block of woods. There are bigger ones but no agriculture within a close distance. At least any property I can hunt!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I personally would not be looking for the "average" size block of timber. I would be looking for the smaller areas that people ignore, or the odd shaped ones that people miss a portion of.

If bucks are bedding in the area your looking at, there will be tracks. But, tracks could be made at night. When I look at a block of timber I ask "why" would a buck bed here... And "where" would he bed... If its a square flat woods with all the timber being of the same age and similar. I would expect bucks to be on the down wind side of the woods near the field edge.

[Uncle Lou]

John Ozoga (spelling) a longtime deer researcher from Michigan's Cusino area in the U P just wrote something that caught my attention. He wrote a long piece in the December WoodsNWater, where he contributes regularly, he said September and early October rubs indicate a mature deer.

I hear guys talking about seeing rubs that time of year, but I rarely do. Makes sense now. I don't get onto 4.5 year old bucks and some of them do.

[PK_]

Lots of tracks, rubs and scat.

I run into bedding areas that don't have specific defined beds. But there are tracks, scat, rubs and all the makings of a bedding area. Also, sometimes you simply miss the bed. If a bed hasn't been used recently it can be very hard to see. I spring scouted a bed this year that was worn to the dirt and full of hair. I checked it again this fall after hunting it and if I didn't already know where it was you would never see it even if you were looking right at it, it was almost indistinguishable.

[checkerfred]

A couple points about the 40 acres...

1) I'm guessing this is about the average area that a hunter could get to know really well in a given season.
2) In agricultural areas, at least around here, this is about the average size or smaller of any block of woods. There are bigger ones but no agriculture within a close distance. At least any property I can hunt!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I personally would not be looking for the "average" size block of timber. I would be looking for the smaller areas that people ignore, or the odd shaped ones that people miss a portion of.

If bucks are bedding in the area your looking at, there will be tracks. But, tracks could be made at night. When I look at a block of timber I ask "why" would a buck bed here... And "where" would he bed... If its a square flat woods with all the timber being of the same age and similar. I would expect bucks to be on the down wind side of the woods near the field edge.

What do you look for in hill country when there's tons of points everywhere? I'm running into that now with the public land I hunt. I can look at a topo and there's hundreds of points...they're everywhere. Do you generally start with the steepest, thickest points? Points that would give multiple wind options? Points with near adjacent points that are easy to switch to?

[Mibowhunter91]

^ interested in this as well

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dirt nap giver]

A couple points about the 40 acres...

1) I'm guessing this is about the average area that a hunter could get to know really well in a given season.
2) In agricultural areas, at least around here, this is about the average size or smaller of any block of woods. There are bigger ones but no agriculture within a close distance. At least any property I can hunt!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I personally would not be looking for the "average" size block of timber. I would be looking for the smaller areas that people ignore, or the odd shaped ones that people miss a portion of.

If bucks are bedding in the area your looking at, there will be tracks. But, tracks could be made at night. When I look at a block of timber I ask "why" would a buck bed here... And "where" would he bed... If its a square flat woods with all the timber being of the same age and similar. I would expect bucks to be on the down wind side of the woods near the field edge.

What do you look for in hill country when there's tons of points everywhere? I'm running into that now with the public land I hunt. I can look at a topo and there's hundreds of points...they're everywhere. Do you generally start with the steepest, thickest points? Points that would give multiple wind options? Points with near adjacent points that are easy to switch to?

Are you looking at all the points or the Leeward side of the hill?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[whitetailassasin]

A couple points about the 40 acres...

1) I'm guessing this is about the average area that a hunter could get to know really well in a given season.
2) In agricultural areas, at least around here, this is about the average size or smaller of any block of woods. There are bigger ones but no agriculture within a close distance. At least any property I can hunt!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I personally would not be looking for the "average" size block of timber. I would be looking for the smaller areas that people ignore, or the odd shaped ones that people miss a portion of.

If bucks are bedding in the area your looking at, there will be tracks. But, tracks could be made at night. When I look at a block of timber I ask "why" would a buck bed here... And "where" would he bed... If its a square flat woods with all the timber being of the same age and similar. I would expect bucks to be on the down wind side of the woods near the field edge.

What do you look for in hill country when there's tons of points everywhere? I'm running into that now with the public land I hunt. I can look at a topo and there's hundreds of points...they're everywhere. Do you generally start with the steepest, thickest points? Points that would give multiple wind options? Points with near adjacent points that are easy to switch to?

Are you looking at all the points or the Leeward side of the hill?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Great point

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Wlog]

Lots of tracks, rubs and scat.

I run into bedding areas that don't have specific defined beds. But there are tracks, scat, rubs and all the makings of a bedding area. Also, sometimes you simply miss the bed. If a bed hasn't been used recently it can be very hard to see. I spring scouted a bed this year that was worn to the dirt and full of hair. I checked it again this fall after hunting it and if I didn't already know where it was you would never see it even if you were looking right at it, it was almost indistinguishable.

Very true. One particular bedding area I scouted back in March was loaded with big buck sign but I had trouble finding the exact bed. I hunted it the first week of season and the buck never showed. I adjusted where I was set up in November when I went back to hunt it a second time...nothing. The November hunt was a morning hunt, so when he didn't show I got down around ten o'clock and went right in to scout the bedding area. Again, tons of sign in the bedding area only this time I found the exact bed because the sign was much fresher. I actually jumped a buck out of the area. I now know the exact tree I need to be in next time I hunt there.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Redman232]

assuming a block of woods, 40 acres or so, if you can't find a bucks bed, what other sign would you need to see to feel confident a buck or bucks were using it as a core area or what lack of sign would make you pass on spending much time in an area?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

The core areas I have found are pretty obvious, if you've got a large mammal spending the majority of his time in an area that small, there should be sign. With small broken up wood lots like you described my experience tells me ( I hunt the same habitat) core areas are centered around the thickest habitat around or a spot with a dynamite visual advantage, making an approach nearly impossible. 40 acres would be a good sized wood lot around me, but 40 acres of big mature trees that you can see 200 yards thru obviously isn't a good as something thicker. Ex/ Behind my house there is 30 acres of well maintained sugar maples, with only a half dozen red oaks scattered throughout. Almost no understory and no downed tree tops. If you hunted the woods before the rut, you wouldn't think there were any deer in the area. However, there are 3 small creeks and two fence rows that converge on one side of the wood lot, all with thick vegetation. The bigger deer really stick to those locations year round, they never have to step into the open during day light and they have everything they need. If you looked at an aerial you would assume the wood lot is the core area of the property, but it is not, in fact it's nearly worthless for deer hunting. If you walk any of the lines of cover that extend from woodlot, it's dynamite hunting and it's very clear that at least one mature buck uses the property as a core area every year. If I can't physically find big buck sign, or don't have a couple of sightings I'm not going to waste my time. But I always keep an eye out for doe bedding as well, can't ever have too many rut spots.