The myth that hunting on a LF 10 acres is "really hunting", but hunting on a HF 1,500 brushy & rough acres "ain't real hunting".

Theres a lot of that myth around here, along with the associated butt-hurt when someone who hunts extremely small acreages & takes way more deer than that acreage will raise, looks up & sees their neighbors HF them out.

I knew I was missing something

That's no myth. Pressure mature bucks heavily during the season and they WILL go nocturnal.

Interesting to see what some think are myths, and also interesting to re-visit some actual proven myths.

I had the good fortune to have a guy named Ernie Davis hunt mule deer out here with us a couple of times. For those in which that name does not ring a bell, Ernie is one of (along with Horace Gore) the TP&W biologists who wrote the book on TX deer management. He even helped Horace coin the term "the golden triangle" in South Texas. As you can imagine, Ernie had piles of journals on deer movement, patterns, etc in every conceivable weather/moon pattern.

He did determine that whitetail bucks will move miles to another "home range" during the rut. It is nature's way of spreading genetics. This may be one reason that some of the bucks you see during October are hard to find during Nov-Dec. Also, bigger mature bucks become very much nocturnal, with the exception of a very small window during the peak of the rut. One of the most enlightening things I learned from him was that big, mature whitetail bucks will only breed 4-5 does per year. they may spend several days with each doe "tending" them, until they actually cycle. This could take a week before he goes and finds another one.

All of these, of course, are in wild conditions, no small high fenced acreages.

Fousman, do you actually believe a deer will lay up non-stop for 8-12 hours without having to get up and pee, poop, or eat. Not biologically possible. Will they change their habits? Absolutely. So when you only start getting pictures of your bucks at the feeders at night then find the bedding areas and set up on trails going in and out.

No, by that he means limited travel, they will get up move beds, eats poop etc but may not move 100 yards.

Yep, I spotted a bedded buck about 9:30 one morning on my way back to the truck. I could see his antlers, nose and occasionally ears, but nothing else. I sat there with my rifle across a big rock until 3:00 when he finally stood up, shook, turned around and moved a couple of feet back into the shade and laid back down. That's when I realized how young he was and that I had just spent 5 or 6 hours staring at a 3 year old buck. But it was very informative.

They migrate every winter in the UP of Michigan. Leave Lake Superior side and head south the the lake Michigan to shelter in the cedars and escape the extreme cold and wind. Also, to find food that isn't under 15 feet of snow. Only about 150 miles, not sure if that is considered their home territory.

Lots of WT migrate just not in majority of Texas. Migrations are products of winter weather.

Texas pretty much stick to home area by majority.

We had a buck with a really weird rack one year that we saw all the time. Coming back from town one time we saw that buck cross the road right in front of us. I set my odometer to zero and it read 6 miles (straight line, no turns in the road) when we got home. It was during the rut, but that's the furthest I've personally seen one "migrate".

Different areas will see different travel distances.

The area that I hunt, some of the deer are very nomadic. It is not unusual for us to have the same deer on camera 3-5 miles apart, sometimes within the same day. Some have been seen even farther. This isn't one or two, it is many deer and over the course of many years. Of course, we have some deer that never seem to leave an area and we will see them in the same general area 4 years in a row.

The panhandle was the same way.

East Texas and the cross timbers region, we didn't see it as much but also didn't have the acreage that we have in West Texas and the panhandle.

Only placed I've personally experienced over 7-8 miles is northern panhandle but that's not even close to apples to apples with average Texas deer

Personally found that range is more a product of terrain then habitats, if you have a bunch of ag they will travel more around ag etc because core habitat is isolated in patches. Pretty much follows suit from Stx to hill country.

Now, there is always the one off but we can't consider that the norm.

[/quote]Now, there is always the one off but we can't consider that the norm. [/quote]

I agree. IMO They pretty much stay in a relatively small "home range" in my area.

I agree. IMO They pretty much stay in a relatively small "home range" in my area. [/quote]

Yelp, Been some years I wished it was different, that's for sure

Agree wome are homebodies while others roam greater distances. That one lease I mentioned earlier they would leave our place in October and ocassionally very early November and go to a place a mile and half away and hang out in smaller areas there as well. Where they went was along a big creek with big wheat fields. But we had a 100 acre wheat field and property to the north had 2 40 acre fields and one at least 100 acres across the road. Guess it just tasted better over on the big creek.

Bucks that had left our place would come back and move out the next yea. they were replaced some what bu others that roamed onto our place.

Didnt read the entire thread, but I would say " I have to slit the throat to drain him out"

Deer tastes gamey.

If the antlers are ivory colored, instead of dark, it's a young deer.

Larry Weishuhn doesn’t like venison.... Just kidding! I made that up!!!
I have enjoyed this thread greatly.

Double down prot......nah, better not

you almost started a sheet storm

(1)from a yankee friend...thats now a texan.."shooting deer at a feeder is cheating" after i told him no its not and expained if you dont do it..the next person would and you have no deer coming to you"..he hunts at a feeder now
(2) "i wont eat deer,because it taste gamey" and then i proceed to trick that person into eating my secret chile at thanksgiving and Christmas..venison chili..lol

If we would feed double down out west your buck would have scored 264"


Double down is not on the list of NFL banned substances.......yet

Went to a deer seminar last Friday and there was a presentation from a wildlife biologist that was studying deer movement to wheat during the fall & winter. This was in North Central Texas Rolling Plains area. He located an area with a isolated wheat field. They captured and put tracking collars on does and bucks. Several bucks moved as much as 8 miles in the fall to the area with the wheat and then would return to their spring summer home range year after year. He found does would not move as far.

In a different segment on culling, they talked about a study done on fawn buck movement after they leave their mother and found that they establish their new home range long distances, as far as 21 miles, from their mother's home range. The point was your bucks are coming from long distances and that the buck offspring of the cull bucks you are trying to remove will likely never inhabit your ranch after it is a fawn. Of course you could argue you are helping your neighbors by killing that cull buck.

21 mile gauntlet. No wonder low fence deer are skittish.