huntinsonovagun wrote:I feel like a lot of the comments are geared more towards annual patterns instead of rut circuits. What I think and am trying to say is that it seems there can be a rut circuit WITHIN a buck’s annual pattern, but they are not one in the same.
For example, a buck may come through October 5th his year and then again next year- I would not call this a rut circuit but an annual pattern. Now a rut circuit would be a trail or loop that a buck repeatedly travels on a semi-regular basis from say late October and at least through November or so. During that time, a buck may travel a little farther annually on say November the 7th but that’s the only time frame you see him in that particular area year to year. I would not call this part of his regular “circuit” because it’s more of a “one and done” type situation whereas a circuit would be visited/traveled fairly regularly. Make sense? I guess the purpose of this thread was to see what sort of nuances and trends have been observed in bucks’ rut travels...
Magic- would you agree or have anything to add?
When you’re referring to “annual” patterns I’m thinking more along the lines of a buck’s shift or seeking out of seasonal food sources and/or bedding. It’s mostly dependent on the consistency of preferred food availability and preferred bedding areas is whether you really see a pattern. To answer yinzer’s question, IMO yes, this behavior is more evident in older age classed bucks but by no means is it an “always” thing for every mature buck, annual or rut. I think younger bucks tend to be roamers until their dominance allows them to successfully hold a core area. Of course there are many other factors to take into consideration but those two main things I think are what fuel the annual circuits.
The rut circuit is a travel route that a buck takes that he feels safe traveling to and from doe bedding areas checking for receptive does. I think in most cases, the rut circuit is more evident than the annual circuit. The timing of a does’ estrous cycle is more consistent than food or bedding. For example, you get years of drought that reduce food and cover abundance and some years that are wet resulting in the opposite. A mature buck may show in one place this year because certain crops or acorns were there at a certain time but the next year those circumstances didn’t line up. A doe or doe groups estrous cycle will happen roughly the same time every year though and mature bucks pick up on that. The size and frequency of the rut circuit varies with certain factors like density and habitat.
There is a certain old buck (8+) that visits a property I hunt with frequency from mid October to roughly mid November. After about the 3rd week of November, he is mostly MIA the rest of the season though I do get pics of random days outside that time frame. There is another property I’m running a cam over a particular horizontal rub again this year to determine if this same rut circuit behavior holds true there. Oddly enough, the only bucks I had on that camera last year using that particular rub were 5+ year old bucks. Hoping I see the same bucks hitting that tree on similar days and for another buck that is a 5 year old to start establishing himself there this year.