Buck Movement

A friend of mine had a gas station west of Deep River. One day while pumping gas he saw a bear with a bright colour cross highway 17 heading toward the Ottawa River. He called MNR Pembroke to inquire about the tagged bear. He was directed to MNR in Huntsville. Turns out the collar had a GPS tracker that signaled each day. The biologist sent him the daily rout map for the bear. It was a large male and it had left the Opeongo Lake area, crossed the Park, swam the Ottawa, made it as far as LaVerendrye Park in Quebec. It then turned around and returned to Opeongo .......total time travelled ....10 days! I know I was impressed! LOL.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Hmm this is interesting. I set up camera 1 on September 18th and I got images of the big buck there for a few days. Then, on October 12th, he shows up at camera #2. Then on the 20th, I have an image of him at camera 3. Then yesterday, I got several images of him at midday then in the early evening back at camera 1. The deer chow there has been gone there for a month. Must still be a lingering odour. At any rate, I may have found one of his favourite haunts which is a funnel with a swamp on one side and a rock ridge on the other side. I shot a 6-pointer there last year, maybe I’ll get another there this year.

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I have got that exact same set up on the south end of my place, a high ridge with a swamp below it where the deer funnel through. I pretty well know mature bucks sit on top of that ridge during the day, absolutely no way to easily sneak up there
without getting winded, when they make their way down in the evening they have the advantage of picking up thermal scents if your down there, even on a stand.

During our black bear hunts over the past 8 years in Burks Falls we usually see the same bears, on the trial cams, at different bait sights over 400 acres. We have seen whitetail do the same thing....Not so much for moose. They seem to roam more than bear and deer. Whitetail, to me during the rut, focus on a small area that is holding receptive does and stay in that perimeter

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Originally Posted by huntnmachine

During our black bear hunts over the past 8 years in Burks Falls we usually see the same bears, on the trial cams, at different bait sights over 400 acres. We have seen whitetail do the same thing....Not so much for moose. They seem to roam more than bear and deer. Whitetail, to me during the rut, focus on a small area that is holding receptive does and stay in that perimeter

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Pretty much what I do, hunt over a small food plot which is being frequented by a couple of mature does, hope it gets cold/snow to bring them in and wait the bucks out. Normally the spike horns ,four pointers come under the gun first, to get a big guy its hold onto the last of the rifle or await the December hunt with bow.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Pretty much what I do, hunt over a small food plot which is being frequented by a couple of mature does, hope it gets cold/snow to bring them in and wait the bucks out. Normally the spike horns ,four pointers come under the gun first, to get a big guy its hold onto the last of the rifle or await the December hunt with bow.

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is that when they go in full Rut ? second week of gun ? in 60 and area I mean.

I have bucks showing up over night, around 3am, and this week had 2 fighting in front of cam. I gotta find a pre rut trick to bring them in during the shooting hours.

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Originally Posted by Ata83

is that when they go in full Rut ? second week of gun ? in 60 and area I mean.

I have bucks showing up over night, around 3am, and this week had 2 fighting in front of cam. I gotta find a pre rut trick to bring them in during the shooting hours.

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To be honest the colder later season is what is better up in my part of 60. After the rut is over the big guys I think are more venerable because they need to put some calories back into their system and more likely to be out during the day hours.

I read a US study, where they put radio collars on deer and studied their movements. They concluded the home range for a doe is about 100 acres and 700 acres for a buck. This may not apply to Ontario's northern deer...where they move to deer yards in early winter.

My buck has been travelling back and forth from one camera to the other over the past couple of days. The distance is about a mile each way. Somewhere along the way, he broke a brow tune.

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Originally Posted by hollywood

I read a US study, where they put radio collars on deer and studied their movements. They concluded the home range for a doe is about 100 acres and 700 acres for a buck. This may not apply to Ontario's northern deer...where they move to deer yards in early winter.

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Even during summertime, those numbers are very small. Normally when we speak of "home ranges", this is the deer's summer range. Deer can migrate many miles to deer yards - but this is not their home range. The numbers I've seen are 2-4 square miles (640 acres to the square mile). During the rut bucks run well beyond that. Bucks I see every day leading up to the rut show up once every 3-4 days, but I also see a lot of bucks I've never seen before. The bucks are moving and are frequently in areas they are less familiar with - which is what makes hunting the rut special.

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Originally Posted by werner.reiche

Even during summertime, those numbers are very small. Normally when we speak of "home ranges", this is the deer's summer range. Deer can migrate many miles to deer yards - but this is not their home range. The numbers I've seen are 2-4 square miles (640 acres to the square mile). During the rut bucks run well beyond that. Bucks I see every day leading up to the rut show up once every 3-4 days, but I also see a lot of bucks I've never seen before. The bucks are moving and are frequently in areas they are less familiar with - which is what makes hunting the rut special.

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Interesting observations werner I see bucks showing up around my place at the start of the rut I have never seen before. Mind you right now
with 3 camera's out I do not yet have a single image of a buck this entire year. I may have complicated matters by baiting for bear this season.