WHERE BUCKS GO DURING THE RUT
The Lie About Does
 Editor’s
Note: Hunters always have believed that they can find
the most and the biggest bucks during the rut. However,
can they locate rutting bucks easily? Where's the most-likely
place to discover bucks during the rut? We've talked
with some of the nation's most well-known deer hunters
who hunt as many if not more days during deer season
in several states than any other hunters I know. They
particularly enjoy hunting during the rut. The information
gathered from each of these master deer hunters will
help you better determine where to pinpoint bucks during
the rut on the lands you hunt this season.
Dr. Grant Wood of Reeds Spring, Missouri, a well-known
wildlife biologist and one of the creators of Mossy
Oak's BioLogic, loves to study and hunt deer. Here,
in his own words, Dr. Wood explains where deer go during
the rut. Hunters often have the misconception about
not harvesting does that, 'If my neighbor has a lot
of does on his property, and I keep my number of does
small on the property that I hunt, then when the bucks
go in the rut, they'll all go to his property,'"
Dr. Wood says. "However, the studies done that
have followed bucks wearing GPS collars show the inaccuracy
of this idea of bucks leaving their home ranges with
low doe numbers and moving to another property with
 high
doe numbers. Deer tend not to want to leave their homes
and search for new ones. Deer are very loyal to their
home range. Evidence indicates that once a deer sets
up his home range, he really doesn't know or care what's
outside that home range. The deer's world isn't like
our world. His world consists of his home range, and
then within his home range is his core area -- the place
where he feels very secure and has plenty of food and
water. He interacts socially with other deer in his
expanded home range that's still within his home range.
"For instance to relate this idea to humans, your
core area may be your home and your neighborhood, but
within your home range you'll also have the grocery
store, the doctor, your church, the mall, the pizza
parlor and other places that you often frequent. Deer
and people are different because humans go outside their
home ranges for vacations, to visit relatives who move
out of state, to go to war and for many other reasons.
Deer don't go on vacations, and if they do go to war
with other deer, they do that within their home ranges.
I define the home range of a deer as, 'everywhere a
deer goes within a year's time.' Early studies done
years ago about a deer's home range were only conducted
during a two- or a three-month time frame. That's the
basis for some of the misconceptions of the size of
a deer's home range today. If we define a human's home
range as only the places a human goes during the six
weeks of winter, a human also will have a small home
range.
 "When
you're talking about a deer's home range, I think two
terms have been confused. There's:
* "the core area where a deer beds, feeds and waters
throughout most of the year, except during the rut,
and
* "the home range, which is everywhere a deer goes
throughout the year, including during the rut.
"A buck may move out of his core area during the
rut, but numbers of studies show that rarely will a
buck leave his home range during the rut, even if the
area is clear-cut."
The Bully Cometh:
According to Wood, "A buck may move out of his
home range during the rut if a lot of older-age-class
bucks live on the same range. When an older-age-class
buck consistently clashes with a subordinate buck, the
subordinate buck knows that the only way he'll get to
breed an estrous doe is to leave his home range or leave
that older buck's core area. That's when you may spot
some really-big bucks in sections of land where you've
never seen them before. However, if that buck is outside
his core range, he's there because a bigger buck has
forced him to leave home. Competitions with bigger bucks
are much more of a reason for bucks to leave an area
and move to another one rather than one place having
more does than another."
 Another
Lie About The Rut:
For many years, hunters have believed that bucks mark
their territory using scrapes and rubs. But Wood explains
that, "Scrapes and rubs in deer country are like
public phone booths in that they are the places where
individuals go to communicate. Rubs and scrapes have
nothing to do with a deer's territory. They are just
signposts where different deer leave messages for other
deer. Bucks don't protect their scrapes and rubs or
fight at them unless they find an estrous doe there.
The only territory a buck will defend during the rut
is about 20 yards around an estrous doe. One time I
spent three years videoing wild, free-roaming deer and
never once saw bucks fight around scrapes, unless a
doe that I perceived to be estrous was near that scrape
at the same time both bucks were there. The best place
to find a buck during the rut is where the does are
feeding, because the bucks are going where the does
are."
Dr. Wood Doesn't Hunt The Rut:
Dr. Wood considers the rut the worst time of the year
to bag a big buck. "If someone tells me, 'I'll
give you $1 million if you can take a big buck within
a two-week period of time,' I still won't hunt the rut.
People will harvest big bucks during the rut for only
two reasons: they know where the food source is located
that the bucks are coming to, and/or they're lucky.
During the rut, you can't predict where the buck will
be. When you discover the big buck you want to take,
you need to learn where he lives and go there. That's
why I say that your opportunity to take a big buck is
best during the first three or four days of deer season
before the bucks have moved their core areas and have
encountered so much hunting pressure. During the rut,
you can't even guess where a big buck will be because
that buck does not even know where or when he'll be
there. A big buck that finds a doe in estrus will allow
her to dictate his entire movement pattern."
TOMORROW: APPLES FOR A SECRET RENDEZVOUS
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