As happens almost every year, I watch bucks all fall that just have a clock in their head and disappear within a day or two of rifle season beginning. Every distant shot makes me wonder if someone shot “my deer”.

Thought this was a pretty cool article and wanted to share it.

https://www.deerassociation.com/the-mysterious-adventure-of-an-exceptional-buck/

Worth the read, but the cliff notes version is they had a GPS tracker on a buck that moved 186 miles in a very short period of time.

Interesting read, Thanks.

Interesting information.

Some travel a long ways some do not, I guess like people. We have deer every year that seem to appear from nowhere and then disapear just as quickly and vice versa. We had a buck on camera a few years ago that my dad ended up shooting, we had him on camera from age 2-6 and I think we really only got pictures of him at 1 of our feeders.

Well according to our lease manager they stay confined to your specific hunting area...

Those hunting the high fence places, have now got that warm fuzzy feeling after reading this!

Years ago we had a really big deer hunting n our lease n Webb co. One of the guys shot and missed. The next week someone took a pic of him with a camera on another ranch. He was about 24 miles by the crow flies. Some stay around some travel.

We had a similar deal with a deer reacting to a shot. Had a big 10 on camera we had been watching for a few years, he injured himself and basically lived under our protein/corn feeder for 6 months, survived made a come back. Opening weekend the last year we saw him I shot his running buddy a big mature 7 pt standing right next to him. We never saw that deer again.

I remember being told a poaching story once that a guy was accused because he shot a very unique deer and claimed to have done so a long distance from where a person had been “watching it for years”. Not sure what ever happened and remember my GW friend who told me about the, then, ongoing case.

Not sure what ever happened (that was 10-15 years ago, not long after game cameras became more common) but this would been a great article for the defense to use.

Several years ago a very large buck was killed about 20 miles from my place. I had seen one similar a week prior but figured it couldn’t be the same buck. Turns out, maybe it could’ve been.

Glad y’all enjoyed the article. I found it pretty fascinating.

Would you like to elaborate Gary?
“Your lease manager”

Would you like to elaborate Gary?
“Your lease manager”

Probably do the same amount of traveling, just going no where though.

Maybe, bucks travel distances are determined by the number of does or lack of.

I believe this too

It’s my understand that bucks stick around close when the momma doe either dies or is harvested. However if the doe lives, she will kick the buck out of the herd so to speak. The buck then will traveling until he finds a new place to dwell. This can be from a mile to 20plus miles. Many of our hunters are watching the same young bucks year after year growing up because the mamma doe is probable gone.

We've had a buck on cameras 5 miles apart in the same season in open country.

Now everyone thinks that every buck will move 186 miles..... that was one rare move. How many never ever left the same property they bedded on?

Neighbor had an ear tag in one of his bucks, it was killed a mile from his fence.

Exactly!

I agree with gringocazador, some deer just move more than others. This is an extreme outlier, it also depends on the area. Most bucks won’t have a range of more than ten miles in my eyes. Maybe that number should be higher but I know nothing compared to many of y’all and many others.

I used to think the same thing until opening weekend this year. Normally, I would have taken Friday off and been at deer camp by mid morning. This year, however, I got hung up at work and didn’t leave for the lease until late afternoon. Leaving the Dallas area around 2:30 pm the Friday before opening weekend you would have thought it was rush hour. I’ve never seen so much traffic in small towns that normally would have empty highways.

It dawned on me that no wonder deer disappear opening weekend. They just went from 11 months of little traffic in the woods to everyone and their mother out there at the same time. No wonder they hunker down and go nocturnal? I just never realized before how many people are in the woods opening weekend because never saw the traffic headed out there up until now.