In the Northern forest, a typical winter results in only about 10 percent of the habitat being suitable for wintering deer. Even in the Midwestern farm belt, deer have a very high tendency to concentrate around the few prime food sources remaining.
In either case, these can be great locations to setup for late season hunts. Sure, the concentration won’t be in full effect yet, but it often begins in late November and continues to build on through the end of season.
According to scientific research conducted by biologist Helenette Silver, deer drop their metabolic rate by about 50 percent. Furthermore, they decrease their movement by 50 percent or more from early to mid winter. Finally, they shift much of their movements from late night and early mornings to the comparatively warmer afternoon and early evening hours. Like concentrating in winter yarding areas, all of this helps them conserve energy and increase their odds of surviving winter.
The result of this for the hunter is often a very patternable buck. On the surface, the decreased movement might seem to be a disadvantage. However, the increased incentive to focus this limited movement during the warmer afternoon and early evening hours can turn an otherwise predominately nocturnal buck into one that is now more easily hunted.
The pineal gland, spurred by declining photoperiod causes deer to shift their energies from growth to fat production each fall. Building fat supplies is so critical for winter survival that it takes precedence over additional skeletal growth in fawns. Because of this, even the late born fawns have a surprisingly thick layer of fat. General size and weight are far better indicators of the health of a fawn crop than fat supplies.
Although this might surprise you, more than 50 percent of well-fed Midwestern fawns will breed their first fall when they are only 6 months old. Because fawns enter estrus later than healthy, prime-age does, this can make for some very good “second rut” activ-
ity. Conversely, only about 5 percent of fawns living in the heavily wooded Northern forests will breed their first fall.
This is sort of a trick question. In areas with larger chunks of deer habitat, B is the best answer. In these settings, the majority of bucks disperse just before reaching breeding readiness when they are 18 months old. Conversely, in areas with extremely fragmented habitat, particularly where sprawling expanses exist between pockets of cover, many nubbin bucks disperse when mom reaches estrus during their first fall. In both cases, a smaller percentage hangs on until they are 2½ years old.
Although it varies based on habitat type, the buck’s individual traits and possibly even breeding opportunities, 1 to 10 miles is the average distance that these bucks disperse. Also of note, if the parental doe is killed, the odds of the buck remaining on its birth range increases significantly. Because of that, it’s not bad practice for hunters to target does with twin buck fawns.
Although all of the traits listed can and often do play a role in a buck’s dominance, none is more important than the individual buck’s temperament. Some older bucks have little or no interest in fighting. Also, large racks don’t always translate to large, muscular bodies and nasty temperaments.
To this day, the most dominant buck I’ve ever seen was an 8-point that wouldn’t even break 120 inches of antlers. From 3½ years on up until he was killed as a 6½-year-old, he was often seen intimidating and fighting older bucks with way bigger racks into subordinate roles.
For those that control hunting lands, these small racked bruisers should be targeted for removal. Not only do they have inferior antler traits, they tend to bust up the racks of the bucks you really want to kill.
A buck’s high testosterone levels and dominance are the greatest motivators for creating rubs.
Rubs are visual cues to other bucks that server as intimidation tools. Assuming they’re located in a prime location, a surprisingly high number of
rubs are reworked multiple times over a fall. Also of note is that certain trees are rubbed year after year after year, as well as often being inspected by most deer in the area. When positioned in areas that offer good odds of daylight activities, these can be dynamite locations for pre and early post rut stands.
Perhaps no whitetail biologist has done more to unravel the secrets of scent communication amongst whitetails than Dr. Karl Miller. He theorizes that the scent deposited on the licking branch IDs the maker. The pawing of the scrape shows dominance, and the urine most likely indicates dominance. In other words, scrapes are the buck’s equivalent to a billboard dotting the side of the interstate. It is meant to advertise the buck to as many passers-by as practically possible.
Unfortunately, not all scrapes are created equal. A mature buck might make over 200 scrapes during fall. The vast majority are not revisited. Finding the few that are consistently reworked during daylight hours is a huge key to scrape hunting success.
Does stay in a state of estrus for 24 to 36 hours and can repeat every 23 to 30 days until impregnated. It is my very strong belief that relatively few does aren’t successfully impregnated during their first estrus. In all of my years of hunting Northern and Midwestern whitetails, having occurred on heavily hunted grounds, I’ve never once witnessed anything but fawns get bred in December. Also, having spoken to numerous other hunters about this, many have seen late fawn breeding, but few have seen the same with adult does.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t ever happen. I just believe missing does making up a second rut is far more the exception than the rule. It’s my firm belief the fawns are the ones that create those sporadic flurries of “second rut” activity.
— Steve Bartylla is a professional outdoor writer and an accomplished whitetail hunter from Wisconsin.
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