Rutting Bucks and where they bed?

[Stanley]

So if you see a doe in heat she is following the buck in your area? It is very common in any area to see 2 or three mature does together of which none are in heat. Also in most areas 1.5 year old bucks do their share of breeding. Do the does in your area look for these bucks also? I have seen mature bucks chase off a does button buck fawn when she is getting close. I have seen thousands of bucks following/chasing does I can honestly say I have never seen a doe chasing a buck. It also makes me wonder why during the rut the bucks are more visible than any other time of the year? Is this not the case in your area? Interesting subject matter here.

No a doe in heat does not follow the buck, you misinterpreted what I said. Mature does will seek out mature bucks for breeding purposes, especially in the case of a doe coming into heat early or what I believe to be a group of mature does just before the peak of breeding. These are in vast wilderness areas, maybe 8 deer per square mile and very few mature bucks. I belive they do this for effecient breeding purposes, its not one half forcing the other to breed, it's a team effort.

I would think that would be hard to happen as the smaller bucks are going to hone in and chase the doe in heat. All areas have more young bucks than older bucks especially early season. I guess things must be way different in the big woods. Interesting, not arguing, just thinking out loud.

[headgear]

I would think that would be hard to happen as the smaller bucks are going to hone in and chase the doe in heat. All areas have more young bucks than older bucks especially early season. I guess things must be way different in the big woods. Interesting, not arguing, just thinking out loud.

Not if the hunters, wolves, winters got a lot of them. Sometimes there just aren't enough bucks to hound every doe out there. Again I was just pointing out one example of what can and does happen during the rut, never said it was the norm but something I have seen. Remember when it comes to deer you can never speak in absolutes. When our deer population was higher we would see more common rutting activity.

[headgear]

I guess things must be way different in the big woods.

Different might only begin to describe it. Let me put it this way, 15 of us hit the woods with rifles this weekend. 12 of them are about as meat hungry as you can get and would shoot any legal deer they saw, the rest of us pass little ones, no doe tags this year (lotto). Prime time right? Well the meat hunters got 1 little buck and the rest of us passed two little bucks. There are a few big ones around but they know when the time is right, if I want to catch a big one on his feet I have to do it near his bed or in the next 4-6 days before lock down.

[BowtechHunting]

I think that some mature bucks don't even participate in the rut and pretty much stick to their normal survival mode and bed in their normal spots they feel safest.
In cases like this mature does will seek out these bucks and go to them instead of the buck seeking them. Pretty much what Ed said.

I am going back to hunting known buck beds this weekend. This has been much more productive for me this year than rut hunting.

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I couldn't agree more with you. I believe mature bucks that have established a area, the does come looking for them because of their older and dominate genetics. You don't see too many does going out looking for a spike or a basket rack 6.

[Hunter74]

I have been reading about a study of this sorta thing that was done over the last few years here in Wisconsin. Basically according to this study's observation the old mature bucks and the dominant bucks (there is a difference between the two) will almost never seek out a doe. The does will come to the bucks core area when there ready to breed, not necessarily right to the bucks bed but into his core area. I can't say that I have ever witnessed this but I can say that in the areas I hunt you will never see a mature buck chase a doe plenty of 1, 2 and a few 3 1/2 year olds but not the mature bucks. I have witnessed a few times when a doe that's being chased by younger bucks gets near a mature bucks bed n he comes out to check her and in all occasions the doe ran (I'm guessing because she wasn't quite ready) and the buck went right back into his bed.

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[Stanley]

I have been reading about a study of this sorta thing that was done over the last few years here in Wisconsin. Basically according to this study's observation the old mature bucks and the dominant bucks (there is a difference between the two) will almost never seek out a doe. The does will come to the bucks core area when there ready to breed, not necessarily right to the bucks bed but into his core area. I can't say that I have ever witnessed this but I can say that in the areas I hunt you will never see a mature buck chase a doe plenty of 1, 2 and a few 3 1/2 year olds but not the mature bucks. I have witnessed a few times when a doe that's being chased by younger bucks gets near a mature bucks bed n he comes out to check her and in all occasions the doe ran (I'm guessing because she wasn't quite ready) and the buck went right back into his bed.

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I have personally arrowed 3 bucks that were 5.5, 5.5, 6.5 that were chasing does. But the majority of the mature bucks I have killed during the rut were not chasing does. The majority of the bigger bucks that friends and club members have killed were not chasing a doe.

[mcmidc]

I agree in a lot of high pressure areas the does may head to a bucks core area but I think it is terrain dependent. In a lot of big woods areas a buck would never breed if he waited for the does to come to him because there may only be a handful of does in that section. In this case I think the buck has to go to go out and search for the does but he may be doing it under the cover of darkness for the most part.

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[Buckfever]

My experiences mapped out like Stanley's until I switched over to the public and since then they're exactly as Dan describes them. I think it's the adaptation to pressure. I think the public land mature buck is like a different species almost.

The 14th-17th I will see a doe being trailed in the mature bucks core every single year. She'll hold tight to his core. Three years in a row now. We'll see next week if I can make that hunt.

[Czabs]

I have been reading about a study of this sorta thing that was done over the last few years here in Wisconsin. Basically according to this study's observation the old mature bucks and the dominant bucks (there is a difference between the two) will almost never seek out a doe. The does will come to the bucks core area when there ready to breed, not necessarily right to the bucks bed but into his core area. I can't say that I have ever witnessed this but I can say that in the areas I hunt you will never see a mature buck chase a doe plenty of 1, 2 and a few 3 1/2 year olds but not the mature bucks. I have witnessed a few times when a doe that's being chased by younger bucks gets near a mature bucks bed n he comes out to check her and in all occasions the doe ran (I'm guessing because she wasn't quite ready) and the buck went right back into his bed.

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Sounds like an interesesting study. My buddy has a trail camera photo of a BIG OLD MATURE buck chasing a doe at noon. This doe seeking buck thing is quite new to me, I have never heard it before this thread, but what I do know is mature bucks chase does during the rut.

...EDIT: Now that I think about it. Last Sunday night I was hunting and had a nice mature public land buck 45 yards away go the other way through some brush and I couldn't get a shot. Shortly after a solo older doe got up and headed straight towards where the buck went in the thick brush. On the way to the buck she saw something in my tree she didn't like and jumped back and walked away in the other direction. Is this what your guys are talking about when you say does are seeking out older bucks? I thought maybe she just didn't know he was there and happened to go that way, but you never know. Now you got me thinking. HMMMMMM

[dan]

Lets put a new twist on this... On several occassions I have seen does work a scrape outside of a buck bedding area that is obviously the buscks scrape and bed very close to the scrape as if waiting for the buck to return... If those does are not seeking that buck, what are they doing?

[Pullintoobs]

I read some study where they made mock scrapes and set up cameras. They had tons of does visiting the scrapes. Why would these does be visiting the scrapes if not to seek out a buck? As far as I know the females of any species do not just scent mark territory. Of course I could be wrong.

[Stanley]

Lets put a new twist on this... On several occassions I have seen does work a scrape outside of a buck bedding area that is obviously the buscks scrape and bed very close to the scrape as if waiting for the buck to return... If those does are not seeking that buck, what are they doing?

Another twist; I have had many people tell me they urinated in scrapes and bucks and does have visited the scrape afterward. What are these deer doing? I have not done it myself but many reliable sources have said it works. Curiosity?

[Stanley]

I read some study where they made mock scrapes and set up cameras. They had tons of does visiting the scrapes. Why would these does be visiting the scrapes if not to seek out a buck? As far as I know the females of any species do not just scent mark territory. Of course I could be wrong.

I have seen does visit scrapes also.

[Edcyclopedia]

I think the word "chase" is to figurative. Maybe rephrase with "make themselves available" or "frequent a bucks core area"...

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[Hodag Hunter]

Lets put a new twist on this... On several occassions I have seen does work a scrape outside of a buck bedding area that is obviously the buscks scrape and bed very close to the scrape as if waiting for the buck to return... If those does are not seeking that buck, what are they doing?

Another twist; I have had many people tell me they urinated in scrapes and bucks and does have visited the scrape afterward. What are these deer doing? I have not done it myself but many reliable sources have said it works. Curiosity?

Have a lot more doe pictures than buck pictures hitting the scrapes. Cameras are in the backyard and activity just fell off to nothing but fawns and a doe or two.

There is a group of 8-11 mature does that bed in my (neighbors too) backyard. They are gone now. Happens every year. My guess they are looking for bucks. I am sure 8-11 different bucks didn't come in and corral them away.

This a big woods area with just the occainsional big buck passing thru the backyard. There isn't enough bucks here to breed all the does.

By the way its snowing now. Getting ready to switch stands soon.

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