Ever watched a buck on your game camera go from spring nubs, to a full velvet rack in summer, to polished bone in fall, to…NOWHERE!
Disappearing into thin air is a buck magic trick that few hunters find amusing. While those expensive GPS collars can’t predict where our bucks are going, they can at least tell us where they’ve been.
Buck 12783 is our latest buck to pull this disappearing act.
Our master of illusion is at least 2.5 years old. For his first trick, he balances his home range on the slope of a very steep ridge. Yup, it looks like he lived at an angle half of October.
His home range was only about a ¼-mile across. Not much of a pattern but good luck finding me! Cardio anyone?
But let’s say you did find him on your game cameras. Check out what happens in late October.
That’s right, in about 12 hours he travels 3-4 miles as the crow flies to establish a new home range for the rut! He never returns to his slanted homestead the rest of the hunting season. See for yourself!
As Alfred Lord Tennyson says, “’tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Don’t ask me why deer do this. Maybe to drive hunters mad. But he’s not the only one we’ve seen with a bachelor pad. Perhaps it’s just youthful exuberance!
-Duane Diefenbach
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