if the buck is the dominant buck in the area (not neccessarily the biggest) then yes, another buck will generally take over. I have had two such experiences. I was hunting a huge buck that i was getting tons of trail cam pics of.....but i saw him once in two years of hunting, which puzzled me because from the literally hundreds of pics i knew the buck lived on my farm. there was another buck that i saw all over the farm, morning evening, early season and late, he was always there. even though he was at least a 5 year old buck i kept passing him up because he was a 140 class buck and the one i wanted was in the 180's, and in indiana you only get 1 buck tag.....i finally saw the bigger deer during the rut following a doe, only to be chased off by the smaller dominant buck. this taught me that dominance is about attitude, not antler size. i shot the dominant buck that fall. wouldnt you know it, the following year the bigger deer showed up everywhere! he became the dominant buck. I was able to kill him from the same tree i shot the smaller buck from the year before. i had a similar experience the next year on the same farm. so yes, i think bucks have a hierarchy, and the most dominant buck will control an area; if he is taken out of the picture, then the next buck in line will step up.
That's exactly my point, they don't know. What I was pointing out was how the initial thread's question was worded. He asked "If you kill a big buck, will another take over his area?" Well the answer is yes in my opinion but by asking it that way, people might second guess themselves and start thinking another big buck wouldn't take it over since YOU killed it. I pointed out that if he were to have asked it like this, "If a big buck dies of natural causes, will another big buck take over his area?" Well then everyone will say yes 100% of the time. I was just pointing out that that answer is yes either way you ask it but the way he asked it might lead to some saying the answer is no.
