No bucks?

After having the same problems a few seasons in a row now, I thought I’d try and figure the problem out…Every year, starting around mid-May, almost all of the deer in the area vanish except for a few does and their fawns obviously. The puzzling part is with the plots, water, and everything I have available, bucks do not stay around here in the summer, but magically appear at the end of august/early september. For instance this year I have a few 1 1/2 year old bucks hanging around, but no mature deer. But come late summer, the big boys are everywhere. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I could do to fix this? We have about an acre of corn, a half acre of clover, and 3/4 acre of soybeans in our plots, and lucky buck mineral (which they LOVE)…and abundant water from springs around the area…any help?

Thanks guys!

What are you competing with? What do the neighbors have to offer that you don’t? Those are the first questions that come to mind for me.

The only thing next to me is 120 acres of prime habitat that no one can hunt…but the only crop fields/food are my plots and farm fields surrounding the property, which I can hunt and hang cameras on…the total area is about 400 acres…and not one nice buck until August.

Interesting. Just thinking out loud here. Seems odd they would live in the “prime” area all summer unless it would offer them food, water and safety. And then why August vs. a bit later in the fall when the foliage/browse would become less desirable to the deer in the “prime” area.

I’ll be interested to see what others have for thoughts on this subject.

If you have enough area to improve and secure the bedding areas on the property that’s where I would start. It took me many years and a good scolding to realize that Human Intrusion (ME) was the biggest problem in not holding my mature animals year round. we tend to pull out of our hunting areas late summer and then the bucks start to filter back into the “now non pressured areas” on our property. (This is just my opinion)

The thing is the 120 acres is loaded, and I mean absolutely loaded with deer in the fall…but all the areas around this are DEAD zones right now except the couple of does and one small buck. But come august and especially september its like someone opened the gates at the zoo and we’ll get 15-20 different bucks on camera….its odd. If there were mature bucks living in the area, they would have to dodge 10 trail cams around these plots. Pressure is not the issue when checking cameras…check them every 2 to 3 weeks, spraying down before I check them and I walk to each camera all at once in the middle of the day…

I would love to improve the bedding areas on the land I can hunt, but most of it is crop land (not mine personally… ) The only place i could do anything is an old pasture (where the plots are planted) with a few smaller trees-mostly just waist high grass…is there any type of annual grass/grass that I could try to plant to hold deer there?

See by me i have all the bucks in the summer and they all move off in aug. There are bucks that travel 3 miles to summer by us didn’t know way either. Nothing outstanding there for them but in one night in a 40 arce field there was 36 bucks( best night in 17 years of watching) in it. It’s nothing to see 9 to 12 bucks come walking out in a row. In Sept. lucky to see one maybe 2 in a night come out.This was like this for years now i didn’t scout as much since my mom sold the farm, but it has change since they put in wind towers in not as good. only thing i can think is we had rolling hills they like the in the summer. I didn’t see alot of does in the summer but a few would move in the sept. I think they just have a place where they go year after year. I wouldn’t worry about if the keep coming back in the fall . Just what happens by me and my 2 cents

At least they are there when it matters ! I have read about planting small circles of pine thickets that become prime bedding in 4-5 years. I would either do that or try to increase your late season food supply in order to keep them there later in the year in hopes that they would settle in and call it home. Good luck

I have seen this in the past also but it has not stayed consistent from a year to year basis. In fact, 4 yrs ago we had 3 bachelor bucks that modeled for us all summer and dissappeared mid october for the entire season. The following summer they were nowhere to be found and we thought they died, etc. Come fall, 2 of the 3 were on camera all season and posed a few near misses. Last year 1 of the 3 bucks was back all by himself most of the summer and never was bachelored up either. Just showed himself alone and the very same lick from 2 yrs previous. It was great to watch him grow and mysterious to hunt him as he flip flopped on us each year.

I think the bachelor groups of bucks roam wherever they want to without territorial pursuit and stick around if they like the current situation versus elsewhere on that given year. In hind sight, I think what happened in the example above was that our farmer skipped a year on his beans and did corn on corn and it screwed up a summer pattern. Just a hypothesis, but things are VERY different for us when their are beans around in the summer months among all other legumes, etc.

In any event, I would guess that their is either a smaller population of deer near you, or there is an excess of summer food to where yours does not stand above and beyond whats natural in the woods or, farmed next door. Neither of which is a problem, as they are coming back to you in the fall and would be getting great food options if they are not destroying your own plots.