Pope & Young Whitetail Droppings

[Twenty Up]

That’s no P&Y.... That’s a BOONER set a turds!

[Ognennyy]

Jokes aside I've recently realized just how much more respect I need to give to deer sign when it comes to my hunting strategies, and planning my hunts (go easy, I'm a slow learner). I think these droppings are really the first and only sign of a large buck I have ever found. I want to begin a search of the area for more sign using these droppings as a starting point. I'd really love any and all input from you guys. I could use the help, as I'm still pretty new with hunting.

Here are three pictures of the area where I found the droppings.







You can see evidence of logging. This was the most difficult big woods terrain I've ever been in. All the skidder trails are grown up with head level raspberry, blackberry, and other plants with thorns. Every five feet there are spider webs between those plants with spiders the size of half dollars, and of course you walk into every other one because you're looking for rubs or other sign.

The logging activity here was unlike any I've seen before. Instead of just selectively cutting the trees they were after, they basically clear cut pathways to the trees they wanted. So if you go off the skidder trails the vegetation is ridiculously thick; little 1-3" saplings, spaced only 6-8" apart. Very tough to move through, and I wasn't even trying to be quiet. It's like a damn jungle in there. Probably why big boy makes his home somewhere around there; I'm likely one of the first people to go in there in years. Even in the surrounding area that wasn't logged the witch hobble and other such plants are almost chest level. It's very difficult to see the ground anywhere in there. It reminds me of coastal Oregon, or the rain forest type areas in Washington state.

Where I found the droppings was about 70 yards North of the transition from the logged hardwoods to the evergreens. There is a small stream about 90-120 yards west of where I found the droppings. There are a few spots up North in the marsh near clumps of trees in the scrub brush I had previously identified as potential buck beds I should scout. But they are 600 yards away from the droppings. That large relatively large distance (old bucks have small home ranges right?) combined with how thick the logged area is, I think it more likely that he's bedding somewhere up on the logged hardwood ridge. At least now, while the raspberry plants are tasty and acorns (many mature beech in here) are beginning to ripen and get ready to come down. Also the predominant wind in the area through the summer is West / South-West, so I guess bedding on this ridge makes sense.

But beyond a guess that he's somewhere up on this North-facing ridge, I'm at a bit of a loss for trying to narrow it down based on the topo map. And also, I really expect this to be his bedding area only through October. After that time wind shifts to a more N / NW, acorns dry up, berries and other green food sources go away, rut kicks in, and he's gone. And honestly this area is so thick I don't think I could shoot more than 2-3 yards unless he was walking toward me straight up one of the skidder tracks.

Maybe a better strategy is to just treat that entire logged area as a bedding area, and walk the perimeter looking for exit trails. Not their locations. Then wait until late October when he's starting to lose velvet and do rutty kinda things, and look for fresh sign to determine which of those trails he's using (assuming I find some). Scouting for beds in the summer is hard enough. I don't know how productive going back to Jurassic Park and looking for a buck bed would be. Probably something I should put off for post-season.

I dunno... what do you guys think?

[JoeRE]

Those are either the largest deer turds I’ve ever seen or that’s the smallest GPS I’ve ever seen

What I was thinking too

I'm gonna start cutting open the lower intestines on the bucks I shoot and checking this big pellet theory. I gotta admin, am skeptical that there is a correlation, but have never verified. I do hope there is!

The only deer poop correlation I have noticed is bucks post rut tend to leave cloddy or greasy poop, not pellets. I think it has something to do with their weight loss because most does still leave pellets in the winter. When I see a "deer pie" in the winter months I'm about 90% sure its a buck - but don't know size w/o checking tracks.

[Drenalin]

I've never given much attention to big turds. My 7 year old son is like 50 pounds and his thumper dumpers need a coat hanger to unclog the john some days.

I was thinking about this a few days ago while I was working with my daughter on potty training. If little kids can make such big poop, how can there be a correlation between a deer's size and the size of it's droppings? I'm skeptical that there is, but I still have to admit that I get a little excited to find big turds in the woods. I've also heard that does tend to poop in piles and bucks tend to let it spread out a little more. I have no idea if that's true.

[elk yinzer]

Sure there are no moose around?!

[Ognennyy]

Sure there are no moose around?!

There is a resident moose a couple miles down the road where I usually hunt. I've never seen the moose or any rubs (no idea if it's a male or female), but I find its droppings all the time. I'm not sure if there is a moose up where I took this picture, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's very remote country where not many people go. Those were deer droppings though, not from moose.

Edit: Is there a difference between male and female moose droppings? The moose droppings I find are distinctly football shaped; they don't have that rounder, dished out coffee-bean look to them like deer droppings. And they're usually larger than the ones I took the picture of. But maybe I always find female adult moose droppings, and these ones are a young male's?