Ok, imagine a buck got clonked on the top of his head in early October and did not wake up until the first does went into estrus. The hit to his head also caused him to forgot where all the doe bedding areas were located. By his very nature, how does this buck go about finding a hot doe or two or three or.....? How does he utilize his eyes, nose, terrain, wind, thermals to find the big prize?
I don't know exactly what you're looking for Brett... and I'll assume we're talking the chasing phase (so to speak). But he's gonna use the nose. He's gonna get downwind of good bedding cover (like within woods) during the day.. and near or in food sources at night. Older deer will utilize the nose as much as possible. He'll let the young fool-hearted bucks run down every doe they see.
I am looking for a lot of things Mike. Like where a buck might bed during the day to visually locate does. When a buck might bed then rise again to begin scent checking. Where a buck might bed in the morning to get the most out of his nose (Is it a different bed than his normal bed?). How a buck might traverse the terrain during the day to get the most out of his scent checking, while at the same time maintaining a high level of personal protection via the wind/thermals/height of terrain.....I am trying to get at the nature of a wily old buck during the rut.
So Josh, he would do a "drive by" at night to get a really good sense of what areas he needs to focus on for hot does? Then he would revisit that/those area(s) during the day, taking the safest path from his bed to that location?
What he said but also throw a few scrapes and rubs in to let the ladies know he is around. Trust me the ladies are looking for bucks when they are coming in since it is a short time frame and they " need " to be bred by instinct. It isn't just the bucks looking for action. Tim
