Ghost Bucks

Finally had a really nice buck show up on camera two weeks ago but he was only there for one day and he hasn't been back on camera since. What are your thoughts on these bucks that show up for a day or two and then are never seen again? Are these bucks just roaming to see what's out there? Are they looking for the best food/bedding area, see what areas have a lot of does?

My guess is looking for doe. Same thing happens on our place. We actually have currently a 3-1 ratio of bucks to doe. This means they have to go looking quite a way for love. Deer movement has ebbed and flowed according to the heat. Heat shuts 'em down.

I should add, the biggest buck I've ever killed on our place had only been on camera once. I rattled him up on a cool Tuesday morning week after the gun opener. The one pic I got of him was around October first.

Bucks do the same thing on my place. Many times I get one pic or several pics in one night of a buck and never again. Some come back several nights/days. I had a buck show up one night in August at 2 different feeder and ate protein. Then showed up again in late Sept late one afternoon the day before archery season at a spin feeder eating corn. Has not been back since. Many are just roaming and checking out their territory to make scrapes and check rubs to see what is there competition wise.

Seems like pressure or Competition makes them move from what I have seen. I would like to think the better your groceries and habitat that you make for them the better your chances they'll comeback or stay around for awhile. Maybe they are like college kids just roaming around beer joint to beer joint looking for a good time.

Water is the key.

We have food plots, feeders and water. I can understand seeing roaming bucks during the rut but these early season roamers confuse me. Maybe they are just traveling around to see where the highest concentration of does are located so he can come back during the rut.

All bucks roam to a degree we just never saw much of it till everyone started to use trail cams. How far and often they roam varies with each buck and his age.

About this time every year we get pictures of more of our mature deer coming into corn piles with cams on them. They don't come to those sets before this time and they don't come after. They are deer that we have pictures of for a few years running that are regulars on the feeders and then they stop coming, im sure hunting pressure has something to do with it.

Last year we were lucky enough to get one hunting the rut. The others haven't made themselves known this year yet, but hoping the last set of cam pictures will change that!