phenomenal illustration of buck movement in big woods

[Josh_S]

http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/projects/deer/news/2015/the-life-and-times-of-buck-8917

This study is worth a look if you haven't seen it. Sorry if it has been posted by someone else in the past, but I find this to be fascinating! It really relates to what we talk about daily here on hunting beast. Watch the time lapse videos depicting daily deer movement on a topo map. Notice the time of day, dates, and topographic features. If you slow it down you can see some really neat stuff. Keep in mind this takes place on public land steep rugged hill country in what many of us would consider a "big woods" setting. I looked at an aerial map of this area, and despite getting somewhat close to private farms to the north, this buck did not step foot on farmland one time! From what I could tell, this deer never left the public.

This really hits home with some key concepts we already knew:
- primary bedding on the top 1/3 of a point...this is as clear as day
- secondary bedding (at a lower elevation in this case) only used on certain days...maybe different winds, hunter pressure, monitoring does, change in food source, bumped by an older buck? who knows
- a somewhat predictable pattern of movement to and from bedding
- lack of predictable movement during the rut...your best shot at hunting his bed beast style is early season

[headgear]

We've talked about this vid before but no reason not to bring it up again, great data and it paints a great picture.

[dehart89]

Penn State always has some great studies. Stuff like this is great for guys like me, I get on here about once a week if I'm lucky. Spring and Summer I try and get one a little bit more as I'm gearing up for the season. Sometimes it's hard to look back and sift through the archives.

[ThePreBanMan]

That was really interesting to watch. The buck pretty much did what Dan says they do in hill country...

[johndeere506]

Thanks for posting, I've never seen this link. I'll be sure to watch all the videos when I can. Just finished reading it all. Very interesting.

[ Post made via Android ]

[BigHunt]

Very interesting

[wrusch]

Really cool study.

[kenn1320]

This deer appears to go nowhere, contradicting what we have heard about big woods deer. Were told they are always moving and might be here today and 5 miles away tomorrow. At least with this buck, that doesnt appear to be the case. He doesnt appear to bed in the same place very often, but if your in his core area you are in the game so to speak. Really points out that just anywhere along a ridge isnt necessarily a good spot, you need to locate a bucks core area and even then get lucky to meet up with him. There just doesnt seem to be enough of a pattern to strategically hunt him.