Do mature bucks come home?

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hunter10
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Do mature bucks come home?

Unread postby hunter10 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:02 am

I have been sitting thinking about a target buck I am pursuing until the end of season but all my thoughts come back to one question. "Will he come back after the rut given he's alive to bed in his core area?" Long story short, in August or early sept I kicked up a very nice buck out of his bed while setting a cam. I am the only one to hunt this small thicket and haven't been back until 2 days ago for a bowhunt producing nothing. I grabbed my camera on way out seeing as the batteries were dead. I pulled the card and had 1 pic of him before batteries died. So, from that I learned that after kicking him up that he returned. In these next couple weeks would it be safe to try again on bed hunting him in the thicket? Is it likely he will come back to his core area? A side note is I saw him dogging a doe in the adjacent field 2 weeks ago at 4pm. Thoughts? Or thoughts on mature buck bedding core areas in general?. I may be mistaking myself calling this bedding thicket his core area since the general area is broken farm land with smaller parcels. I have also thought about trying a bump and dump mainly because I am getting impatient with this deer! He's a beauty

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Last edited by hunter10 on Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.


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cbay
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Re: Do mature bucks come home?

Unread postby cbay » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:13 am

If you had him early season and then seen him a couple weeks ago in an adjacent field chances are he may have not went very far or came back to breed near his pre-rut home range.
Some bucks will move a great distance to breed and may not go back to non rut home ranges until Jan. or all the does have been bred.
Lot of variables, but i've seen bucks return to spring/summer range in Jan and Feb via trail cameras where they were present until Oct when they vanished.
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Rich M
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Re: Do mature bucks come home?

Unread postby Rich M » Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:17 am

So many variables...

Where I hunted this year - tons of buck sign last January - TONS. Beds, areas with 50-60 rubs, etc.

This year - 2 rubs total. Why? They didn't plant the closest 3 or 4 fields. The deer moved to the food.

I'd hunt the spot again - and put it on your radar for future hunts.


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