In a high deer-density area like central TX, how many acres would you expect per mature buck, or how many total bucks, even? I have a large number of bucks but I wonder at what point are some mature bucks getting pushed out, simply because there isn't enough acreage?

no exact number, its math based on herd ratios and densities. big difference in 100 deer @1-8 buck to doe and 1-3 buck to doe.

And yes mature deer get pushed around but not far. We had a crappy 8pt that was 5.5, dominate and mean. He was only buck on camera @ that feedstation, day after killing him we had 4 new mature buck utilizing the feeder

Curious about this too. Got a new 75 acre lease this year in Oklahoma with no shooters on it. A small rack 8, but bigger body that seems to be the oldest deer we have based on pictures. Since September we haven't had one shooter on camera, just younger bucks, does, and that 8pt. Unsure if neighbors hunt or all the big ones got shot in recent years, but hopeful a big one comes around soon.

Okla has lower densities and closer ratio’s. Wait until rut. They typically have a more pronounced rut, which means more traveling

Great question. If may be after deer season before I can give it enough thought. I’ll be looking for yalls feedback though.

I think I picked up on some of the reasoning from QuitShootingYoungBucks post, but would someone mind giving me a really brief explanation of doe-to-buck ratios? This is something I've been wondering about. What are the implications of having too many does in relation to the bucks (other than the obvious competition for limited resources)?

Sorry if this hijacks your original post, but it seemed related.

Nah, you're good, come on in!

Maybe a more accurate question for me is 'What is the typical home-range acreage of a mature WT buck in a high deer-density area?'.

My mature bucks don't get pushed out. They do the pushing. Just my observation from watching them watching them daily.

That seems like a real different question than your original. But I guess this was more your intent.
Lots of layers to address and too many for me. I THINK a home range of any buck would mostly depend on food sources, does available, competition from other bucks, and just the whim of each individual deer. Since you are talking mature bucks I would say that there are not going to be many mature ones in the same immediate area without some fighting going on. The less dominant ones can intermingle with the dominant ones cause the dominants aren’t scared when push comes to shove. Two dominant ones wont tolerate each other anywhere around the rut. I saw that first hand twice this weekend.
Bucks want the low hanging fruit so they will spread out their range to find less competition for does.
I couldn’t begin to put a number on the range of a buck in acres. Once again, many layers to unwind on that question.
What is the end game of your question? If the bucks are getting pushed out then what should you do, I assume? If you have “too many” mature bucks then you probably have too many bucks and too many deer. You know you need to thin em out. Obviously if you have a dominant buck with undesirable antlers then he should be the first to go.
Really good food for thought. Thanks for the question, even if I may not of helped.
Too many mature bucks is a great problem to have, no doubt.
Quit shooting young bucks, and start shooting old bucks:)

I agree totally with free range. What he says is exactly right . I will go on to say this if you get a new place and run cameras and your mature bucks are not great horns maybe just 8 pointers are even 7 pointers are 6. You got to get that mature trash out and hopefully some young up and comers are better. If I don’t see a older mature buck then I am willing to take doe. If it’s late in the season and I see an old 8 point I figure I will waste my tag to get him out but only late in the season . During rut all bets are off though I figure a mature buck will travel for many miles looking for what he wants if it’s not on your property at least this is what I have heard. When I hunted close to winters tx we had a lot of doe bedding up on our property close to 20 . They would travel 7 miles through many a wheat field just to get to the one they wanted to eat in . That was what we saw but would return every morning. Go figure!!! Deer are predictable some times.

higher your doe to buck ratio, longer its takes to breed all does, so there is a longer secondary rut for unbred does, which scatters fawn birth dates out, thus compounding it year to year even more.

when there is a tighter ratio, then rut is more pronounced and intense as competition to bred is higher.

I will tell you what I've learned on my ranch. Seems the years I have more than two, they get pushed out. What I see is one mature buck 4.5 yrs and older to every 500 acres. I have also learned that if you take one of those dominant bucks out pretty early in season, there is a good chance that one of the ones that were run off will come back. Just my many years of observation on my ranch.

home and core ranges are a product of age, cover and feed. Older a buck gets smaller his home and core ranges become

Lighter densities tend to travel further in the rut, But Ive seen hill country bucks move 6miles to a wheat field.

They are arent wolves they dont defend a territory. you may have 5 mature bucks with overlapping or same home/core range.

I don’t think there’s two places that are the same anywhere. I’m on a lake that floods so I have black soil that looks like chocolate cake. Everything grows like crazy here. A half mile up the road and its sandy soil. Much less fertile. I can support a lot more animals than other places.

I agree with this and we are starting to do just that this year. We have focused so much on the number of points and not the age we are seeing more and more marginal 8 pts that are 4-5 and not getting any better. Some examples of what needs to go.

I was told the average home range for a buck is about 900 acres (although they may and probably travel much more than this during the Rut)

In terms of number of mature bucks per acres, this is dependent on many factors. Areas with a lot of hunters and small tracts of land, probably not many at all if they are shooting 2.5/3.5 year old bucks. Large tracts of land that manage the herd properly, I am going to guess 1 mature buck per 200-300 acres. ***I did hear a biologist tell a group of MLD participants they wanted 1 buck shot per 170 acres and this was in the Hill Country

The last three years we have seen an average of 11 mature (5.5+) bucks on 2000 acres. Usually 1-2 of these are vacation bucks we have no history with and are in for a day/week and then gone again. Based on that it appears 1 mature buck per 200 acres is about right for our area

and thats what most home range studies show. Core and home are a product of habitat Utilization, and rut distance movement is product of density.

What are you really expecting on 75 acres?

Lots of good info here, although my memory of typical buck's home range is a little less that what ctonsmitty stated. Of course I am trying to remember this info from 40+ years ago when taking my wildlife courses at A&M. A high doe to buck ratio has several implications that have already been stated. First, with a lot of does there will be less buck activity- why run around looking when there will be three or four girls go by at any time. With more does to breed it can wear the bucks down quicker plus lead to a second rut with lots of activity. An active second rut leads to a longer fawning period which is why you can see a first year six point standing next to a nubbin buck. A high doe population can lead to forage problems in the late spring, especially if there is a drought like we had this past spring and summer. As far as bucks, we can have another problem here in east Texas with the AR- mature or trash bucks that we can't take due to antler restrictions. Sometimes MLD isn't the answer- say you have eight members on your lease and the biologist says you can only have six buck tags....what do you do, have a lottery?

Expecting and hoping are different of course I feel like we have a good amount of deer #'s, just not great quality. Only have 2 feeders out there as the land will need some work before a food plot is put in, but that is the plan next year. Was hopeful a 1-2 shooters would be around, but after reading this thread I understand that might not be realistic. Our land is 90% wooded with neighbors having some woods, but mainly fields for cattle, so was hopeful the deer would all congregate at our place.

I was given 1 buck tag per 150 acres this year, via MLD. So that's not far off. But that's any buck, not just a mature deer.



If a biologist gave you 6 buck tags for 8 hunters, it might make you think about the number of hunters you have.

X3

Good info by Russ as usual. He and Bobo both spoke about issues with too many does per buck and how it spreads out the rut. Another negative result of that they probably know but didn’t mention. The spreading out of the fawning gives coyotes the chance to get more of them. They say by the time a fawn is two weeks old he can outrun a coyote. If most fawns drop at about the same time it can be too many for the coyotes to get to before they get bigger. With a spread out rut/fawning they can eat a few then here comes another one.
Good info in this thread. I wish another thread could be started with a little more specific question.