I know this won't apply to a lot of you, but I'm curious to learn more about bucks and how/if they relocate in northern winter climates as compared to does, fawns, and younger bucks. Where I hunt in Northern zone, NY (Adirondacks), the does, fawns, and smaller bucks will typically relocate to winter "yarding" areas, sometimes in groups as large as 20-50 animals in a very small area. It is common for deer to travel great distances to relocate for the winter, many many miles at times. Dan (Jaws) actually had a couple of does that were in a study he did while in college (wildlife management degree) that would travel over 50 miles in NY to yard in the winter. How many of you have seen these types of patterns? I'm curious to know if older more mature bucks tend to follow the same types of patterns, or if they spend their winters relatively close to their summer/early fall bedding areas. I hear a lot of people talking about shed hunting, and finding buck bedding areas in the winter, and using that info to kill big bucks the next fall, and I'm curious if these are ever in areas where deer typically yard in the winter? Any thoughts or experience on the subject?
I know that some of the biggest bucks I've seen have been mid-late Jan in one of the yarding areas just north of Ely, in Winton. Some deer yard up, others stick it out. I think they most likely learn from their momma.
I watched a spectacle about 5 or 6 years ago in the late winter/early spring while snowmobiling... I was by a farm of yarding deer and it was like a dinner whistle went off, as about 200 (yes, I said 200 deer and in NH!) lined up practically nose to tail and walked right up the side of a mountain to go back to their spring/summer/fall locations. The owner say's it happens every year and of course I didn't have a camera... The region I hunt is about 20 miles north of this farm along the Canadian border. During the hunting season I would watch many antlerless deer migrate south and wouldn't be a bit surprised if many of these deer are the ones I had watched that late winter, trying to get away from the 200" of snow per year??!! So 50 miles doesn't seem far fetched...
I live in country where a whitetail's living area can fluctuate from 1500 ft sea level up to 6,000. We get over 100 inches of snow in the winter at 2800 feet and up. So those kinds of snow levels definately force, whitetails, mule deer, elk and moose in the high country down. When? It all depends on snow depth from what I have seen during my winter shed hunting. At about 2 feet of snow depth the does and fawns definately move to lower ground if they have it available to them. Big bucks hold tight until the snow really pushes them to move. At 3 feet I rarely find any deer tracks in that depth. I have witnessed does and fawns, young bucks yarding up at low elevations. Jan/Feb, but rarely do I see a big mature buck yarded up, as a matter of fact, I dont ever think I have. But there could be because MOST of my big bucks hold tight in their higher elevation living quarters until AFTER they shed their antlers. Our bucks usually shed from Mid DEC to Mid Jan and quite often the snow levels are not deep enough by then to push them down. So later in the winter I start seeing a lot of deer down low yet its hard to tell when the big boys have all shed, not to mention the big boys still stay relatively nocturnal with all the cat hunting and woods pressure out there, even after deer season is over. I can almost always count on seeing a big buck live it out from July to Dec in the same area. January and snow levels (well after my season) is when they get moved. Finally here in the mountains, its easy to have 4 feet of snow on the north side of a mountain and 2 foot on the south side at the same exact elevations so quite often the big bucks Shed early, them snow moves them to the south sides of the mountains. They dont have to move downslope if they want to stick it out in moderate snow levels on the south sides. Feed in the form of browse like red stemmed cenoseous in the winters always present for them to survive on. The older a buck gets here the more he tends to stick it out in his core area year around. Especially the whitetail bucks that live in the 1500 to 3500 feet zones. Our elk herds and mule deer that often live in the high country move and migrate considerably fruther than whitetails.
