My Buck Migrated Over 31 Miles ... With Film Footage

This November was very interesting in the woods for me to say the least, and full of firsts.
It started with an evening bow hunt here in Central Illinois bowhunting at the University Of Illinois Robert Allerton Park on a Deer Herd Reduction Hunt, when I had this nice 9 point at around 4 yards from me
[video=youtube_share;eaKg_M2-ERw]http://youtu.be/eaKg_M2-ERw[/video]
A short time after the buck left this nice 4.5 year old doe came in and I killed her.

2 days later I had a buck I call Stalker chasing does around me when this 1.5 year old doe came in, I made sure no shooter buck was behind her and saw only a doe fawn behind her so I killed the doe.

Turns out she had a Fibroma growth on her, I have only ever seen pics of them on the internet. It was my first time seeing a deer with one in person and Hopefully my last.
( The University took the Fibroma for a biopsy )
So come the morning of November 8th I climbed a tree once again only to be greeted by a morning full of coyotes [video=youtube_share;Z6vGnh98p80]http://youtu.be/Z6vGnh98p80[/video]
After not seeing any deer for roughly 4 hours I decided to call it a morning and get dow, I lowered my bow when I could of sworn I heard a buck grunt. So I sat and waited and soon once again I could of sworn I heard a faint buck grunt. Then All heck broke loose in the woods. Here comes from down wind a doe at full run with 7 bucks chasing her. The buck leading the chase was a spike, followed by 2 small bucks then 2 shooter bucks, and then a short time later this buck was trotting along scent trailing the the hot doe.
Deb Nov 8 2013 6th buck V - YouTube
I wanted a buck kill on film but He wouldnt stop ... and a good thing he didnt cause a short while later around 10:00am this happens.
[video=youtube_share;5QX1PF97kyE]http://youtu.be/5QX1PF97kyE[/video]
I had the camera on the trail where I was sure he was gonna go and at the last second he turned and came right next to me, URGHHHHH
Well It turned out I held the pin way to low on a hard, I mean HARD quartering away shot. And after he ran a short distance I could see him just walking away and I could see the arrow still in him in a really bad spot and I was sure I had hit the guts.
A short time later here came another buck on the scent trail of the hot doe, he was a large spike but I forgot to hit the record button.So with my buck walking in a direction straight down wind of me I was afraid he would get my scent and it would push him farther so I took a pic of the last place I saw him go and quickly but quietly climbed down the tree, packed up my climber and exited the area quietly and in the opposite direction that my buck went and I used the topography of the land to hide my exit route so as not to bump him. I knew that I would return in the morning to take up the trail after my buck ( and I bow hunt this roughly 2000 acre park land with 30 other bow hunters ) so I left them all a note asking them all nicely to please avoid the area in hopes they wouldnt bump and push my buck.
So I returned in the morning alone, I returned to the spot where I shot my buck and found no blood so I began to track him by his hoof prints to the last spot I had seen him walking away. I then found one drop of blood followed by roughly 50 yards later I discovered a bed with blood in it and I marked it, I then scanned the horizon and here is the film footage.
[video=youtube_share;oNG-u6FpOgM]http://youtu.be/oNG-u6FpOgM[/video]
I discovered I had hit him worse than I origianlly thought, I hit him roughly 7 inches farther back than I thought I had. On the up side it turned out I didnt gut shoot him, it turns out the arrow hit the artery that runs under the spine at roughly the kidney area and he bleed out with the arrow never making it into the guts, Thank God.
So once we got him out of the woods and took photos with him, I then gutted him and we then weighed him dressed out at 190lbs. We then put him in the polaris so the park biologist could take his biological sample from my buck when he said " Hay whats that in his ear "?
CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST

 

[video=youtube_share;3-78JoYI8EU]http://youtu.be/3-78JoYI8EU[/video]
So yesterday I finally got to speak to Professor Nelson at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and he put me in touch with his graduate student Matt whom was doing the research on my buck.
Turns out my buck was rocket netted and tagged on Army Corp of engineers land at Lake Shelbyville Illinois on February 15th of 2012 when he was still a button buck not quite 1 year old yet. Matt also commented on the fact that my buck was a very small button buck for his age when they tagged him and was very suprised to hear he dressed out at 190lbs as a 2.5 year old buck and the nice size rack he had. He wore a radio collar till October 21 2012 when it came off but was still sporting the eag tag when I killed him.
The radio collar is pretty neat it has a spring mechanisim that they send an email to when they want to trigger it to release the collar from the deer and it fall off within 12 hours of recieving the email.
Matt is also a bow hunter and his reasearch is in studing the migration routes of the dispersing deer they collar and tag.
So my buck traveled from his birth place at Lake Shellbyville when he was a 1.5 year old buck to Robert Allerton Park in Monticello Illinois ( Piatt County ) A migration Distance of just over 31 miles Matt also informed me that they are tracking close to an 80% dispersal rate on 1.5 year old deer. The farthest a buck they have collared has traveled so far is 45 miles So all the button bucks and 1.5yr old bucks were passing in hopes they grow into our future monster bucks, well looks like they are gonna be someone eleses monsters and were gonna be getting their 1.5 yr olds.
I really thought he was bigger and older when I shot him, but it did all happen so fast and I dont regret shooting him one bit now with such a neat story attached to him.

 

Congrats!! Looks like you had a great couple days of hunting!!! I killed a 7 pointer a few years back that had 3 of those growths on his neck they are a little crazy looking! Awesome story thanks for sharing!

 

Congrats on a dandy buck! I never thought a deer would travel more than 5 miles from their birthplace. 30+, that just blows my mind...

 

I know, its amazing that Matt said close to 80% of the deer they collar are dispersing.

 

This is a map of where he was collared and tagged at Lake Shellbyville Illinois to where I killed him at Robert Allerton Park. The yellow line is a 31mile straight path from start to finish.
To Monticello Illinois, Piatt County That Migration distance of over 31 miles is only if he migrated in a straight line, and we know this isnt the path he took so in actuallity he traveled much farther but settled into a new range 31 miles from his birthplace

 

I just read the story....that's great. Gotta take the kids to school then I'll watch the videos when I get back. 31 miles!!! Wow.

 

Very nice! Thanks for adding the vids and details on your hunt! Congratulations!!!

 

I've heard that when momma does kick their button bucks out, they do leave the area. It's natures way of preventing inbreeding.

 

That's really cool! Congrats on a really nice deer and a cool story.

Knockknock: Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange ya glad someone 31 miles away passed that young buck so you could shoot a wall hanger?! How very very thoughtful of them!
LOL.

 

This is really interesting. If someone would have told me deer travel this far without evidence I would have called BS. Thanks for sharing!

 

Very interesting. Great story. Great Buck. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thats very interesting for sure. Great job on your kills, congrats! :D

 

I found the dispersal #'s to be a real eye opener as well I never imagined it to be as high as 80% on public hunting land.

 

What surprises me more then anything is this buck weighed as much as it did at 2 years old. That I find very hard to believe. Interesting info, thanks for sharing!

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We hung him on the scale, I will go out and double check the scales accuracy in a couple of hours.

 

That would be nice to know although I wasn't calling BS on it. Thanks for the follow up LF.

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That's a great story! Thanks for sharing!

 

Great documentary and great hunt, congrats!

 

That blows my mind. Thanks for the story!