What are the odds???

Founder · May 22, 2018

What do you think the odds are for a guy to see a buck on the winter range and then find him in his summer home? I've never done that before. Would be cool and quite the challenge.
I figure this buck here probably traveled 25-70 miles to his winter home. But likely only from 180 degree direction. So it's only 7700 square miles of area that he's likely in. But, he's likely living at a high elevation which puts the area more in the 2200 square miles range.

Brian Latturner
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HogBone · May 22, 2018

Those are some chunky G2's. Tank of a buck.

Hit him with a tranquilizer dart and put a GPS on him. Odds will go way up.

HiMtnHntr · May 22, 2018

Seems like pretty low odds to me, but it'd be a heck of a lot of fun to try.

elks96 · May 24, 2018

I would venture that it is possible. I have been volunteering with a larger study here in Colorado. What I have learned from that study is the deer migrate to and from the Winter ranges in the same paths, same directions, etc. In the study area we have deer migrate into a winter ground from 5 basic directions. Interesting data shows that even though these deer come from as close as 10 miles or as far as 100, they all tend to stay and group together with minimal overlap in the winter grounds. If a person could figure out where the primarily come from for that particular chunk of winter range, the odds could be pretty good.

On the lfip side I have one winter rage buck for the last 3 years I have no idea where e comes from... Kind of like the Rawlins Buck Nicknamed Lazarus... He was so unique everyone was looking for him, but just before the rut as the season got started he showed up in town, stayed in town until spring then disappeared. No one had any video, or photos of him out of town but he was definitely not staying in town at all...

Founder · May 24, 2018

Not sure if you caught my post in the shed forum, but I actually think my wife found his antlers 2 years ago....it was a year old set then. So, I went through all my 2013 and 2014 photos hoping maybe I had a photo or video of the buck from 3 years ago. None. He probably wasn't big enough back then that I would have even put the camera on him, but I tried that angle.

There's just so many square miles where he could be coming from. I can cover a lot of ground scouting in 20-25 days, but it's still just a drop in the bucket when it comes to all the places that buck could be living in the summer. But I'll try hard to find him. It would sure be cool!!!!!

I've never heard anything about that "Lazarus" buck. Sounds very interesting.

Brian Latturner
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nfh · May 24, 2018

I got high odds. Them whiteys don't move very far. maybe a 1/2 mile or so. hehe

TOPGUN · May 24, 2018

>I got high odds. Them whiteys
>don't move very far. maybe
>a 1/2 mile or so.
>hehe

I knew there was a specific reason you liked hunting them over mule deer, LOL!

BrianID · May 24, 2018

I've found muleys on both the summer range and winter range but only in places they don't travel more than a few miles between the summer and winter range.
Trying to find a buck that travels more than 25 miles between summer and winter range would take a lot of effort and luck. Even when I know a big buck lives in a certain area I might not even see him after a several days of hunting.

rocky2track · May 25, 2018

Low... Certainly a lot of fun to think about and ponder. The holes these bucks find to live in and survive usually aren't very big and then the conditions for them to even be out visible during daylight hours is another. Myself, I'm still waiting for the stars to align...lol. This conversation made me think about all the popular winter range bucks in the past that either ended up dead of old age or killed past their prime. Seems those killed past their prime just had to stay out more just because they were gettin' old. Sure is a lot of fun trying to find them though!

SDBugler · May 25, 2018

What do you think the odds are for a guy to see a buck on the winter range and then find him in his summer home?

The odd are pretty high here in South Dakota. Some of our deer (including whitetails) migrate to some degree but most of them (including mule deer) stick to a relatively small home range.