Bachelor herd whitetail

[mishus]

A friend has a Bachelor herd of whitetail, visit his salt and corn randomly.
It started with a few does, now just bucks and the occasional doe. and coyote? (is this a problem)
very nocturnal, 2am ect, very random no pattern.
will this change as we approach the rut, later in the year? any strategies?

thank you

 

[swamp hunter]

YUP , The group will break upas soon as they get a wiff of Doe in Heat.
You either get them as a bunch real early...or not at all..

 

[across the river]

Once the velvet comes off they will break up and move around. I used to hunt SC in August and you would always see groups of bucks hanging out together mid August in velvet. After a couple of weeks the velvet fell off and they split up. Some hung out fairly close to that area even if they didn't hang out with the bucks they were with during the summer. Others would move and you wouldn't see them again until the next year (if they made it), and they would disappear again when the velvet fell off. Had a pretty good one that did that for a few years until a guy killed him in velvet. Not sure where he was going, but you wouldn't see him fromSeptember until the next summer.

 

[old florida gator]

rodger that

 

[Jim Boyd]

YUP , The group will break upas soon as they get a wiff of Doe in Heat.
You either get them as a bunch real early...or not at all..

They break up a LONG time before they determine a doe is in estrus.

Generally, the break up is about the time the velvet comes off.

The duration of time between velvet loss and the primary rut is about 6-7 weeks, I think.

In SC we lose the velvet about 1 Sept and our primary rut is the week before Halloween.

From what I can tell in Illinois, the velvet comes off about the same time and the peak of the rut there is very defined - I would call it 5-15 November, so somewhere around 8 weeks.


Let’s deal in facts.


.

 

[elfiii]

The strategy is either score the first weekend of Archery or find where the does are hanging out and hang out with them and just wait until the rut hits.

 

[swamp hunter]

THIS ...
I hang near the Bedding areas or Travel trails to them all season long.
A bunch of them , got room to roam and never Burn an area out.
2 to 3 days max and it's time to Slip and Cut tracks again

 

[dixiecutter]

The strategy is either score the first weekend of Archery or find where the does are hanging out and hang out with them and just wait until the rut hits.

In a nutshell.

 

[Possum]

I always have some bucks that hang around all summer and disappear during season and then some bucks I don’t see all year except during deer season. Maybe 25% or less will I see in same area year round.
From what I can tell, most bucks prefer to spend their seasons at different parts of their home range.