Where are all the big bucks?

[blackops]

A question many of us could ask over and over. Some have a general idea, but nothing is ever certain. Whenever June/July come I get “buck fever.” It seems to drive me farther off the roads every year to understand what areas the big boys like to bed. Then again, you also have to account for the really intelligent deer that move at night. Maybe you get a glimpse in that 30 minute window at dusk and dawn, but that’s about it.

I recently took a fishing trip and (as always) drove back roads in the mountains looking for deer. There is snow this time of year still, so the deer are down lower in the flats. The lower flats have brush about 2-4 feet high. The slopes do not change major elevation, but like most there are holes that deer can bed in and not be seen. Just like any flat though, there isn’t as much cover as up in the mountains at 9000ft. There are reasonably sized hills adjacent to these flats with tree cover, but the elevation change isn’t more than 500ft I would say. These hills do have some steep inclines.

Here is the thing. I saw 45 doe and 3 spikes. Not one single buck. Sometimes I just don’t get it. Are they at the slightly higher elevation in the trees on some saddle with heavy cover? Are they in the lower flats in a hole that can’t be seen from a road? The thing that is most interesting to me is, the bucks know EXACTLY where these spots are that we can not find them. I’m still trying to understand the type of areas they live most of their lives in. Of course you can say far away from a road deep in a canyon, but there is just more to it than that. Like faces of a mountain that don’t receive a lot of sunlight, but water and feed are near. I don’t know, I probably over think the hole thing.

Anyways, just wondering what everyone’s opinions are about big bucks travel and habits. I’m talking about mule deer and black tail also. Not whitetails. Nothing against whitetails at all, they just have certain patterns that mule and black tail don’t.

 

[Art Eatman]

Generalizing, since there's no such thing as "always" with mulies: Big bucks tend to bed down below the crest of a ridge or the slope below a meadow. They'll generally be on the downwind side. Below a ridge, they'll be near a saddle.

The apparent deal is that they can see and hear anything moving up from below, and smell or hear anything upwind from the hidey-hole. When spooked, they'll move through a saddle, since the cover is thicker there.

If spooked and forced to escape downwind, it won't be long before they circle back to work upwind. They trust their noses more than their eyes and ears when evading.

Two guys working along crosswind along a ridge can be productive. One guy on the downwind edge is the beater. The other, working more in the center, is more likely to get a shot as Bambi bails out and heads upwind.

 

[blackops]

Thanks Art. You help make more sense of the whole concept.

 

[desidog]

Where are you, generally? and Do mule deer shed at around the same time as whitetails? and grow back?

My totally uninformed impression is that they start their antler growth earlier; but that might be more of a location thing than a generalization.

Around here in New England the bucks all look like does still...does with cauliflower ears on closer inspection....wait, nope. those aren't does at all.

 

[Art Eatman]

Desert mulies down here in SW Texas are still in velvet around Labor Day. The main rut can be lengthy, running on into late January. I saw two nice racks up near Alpine on April 15th, some years back.

OTOH, I shot a whitetail doe one time on my place outside of Austin, a few days before Christmas. Oops! It was a buck which had already shed his antlers!

"There ain't no always."