The Pre-Rut/Rubbing Phase and Transition Phase

During September all of the deer are bulking up for the rut and winter; feeding on alfalfa, clover, green forbes, ripening soybeans and corn in some areas, and mast (acorns, beechnuts). You can put out mineral licks and deer attractants in areas where you want deer to come during the hunting season. Early in the month the bucks should be shedding velvet, and creating rubs and scrapes near late summer nighttime food sources. They may be still traveling together, and may begin sparring at this time. Later in the month both the bucks and does may move to fall home ranges.

With their testosterone levels rising the bucks are less tolerant of each other, fighting may begin, and the buck groups break up as the bucks begin to establish breeding ranges. Scout to find out where the deer currently are; watch food sources for feeding deer and sparring bucks to determine what the bucks look like. Continue clearing deer trails, and shooting lanes. Hang portable stands for the archery season and build permanent stands for the gun season.

Age and Antler Size

If you want to see more large racked bucks in your area the first thing you have to do is use a little restraint. You must let the young bucks go so they can grow. I often hear hunters complain that they see nothing but small racked bucks in their area. These hunters often wait patiently through the season for a big racked buck to appear. Then, instead of going home empty handed they end up taking a small racked buck. If this pattern continues year after year those hunters will see nothing but young, small racked bucks, because the young deer never live long enough to grow large racks.

Deer experts used to believe it took 4 years for a whitetail buck to develop a trophy rack. It is now believed that a whitetail doesn’t achieve full body size until it is about 7 years old. Until then much of the food and mineral a buck takes in is used to develop bone and muscle mass. Once the buck is fully mature excess food and mineral can be used to develop antler mass, and many hunters equate antler mass with a high score. A close look at any scoring chart will reveal that it is the number and length of tines that makes up the majority of inches needed for the rack to score high enough to enter the record books. The difference between a massive rack and a thin rack might only add 10 inches, which is 1/14 of a 140 class buck, not enough to really matter.

Milo Hanson’s world record whitetail has several tines with extremely long points and main beams, and with a good spread, but it is not massive. The length of the tines is what made it the new world record. Game officials aged the buck at 4. Obviously it had superior genetics, and it lived until it was 4 years old. It is conceivable that a 3 year old buck could make the archery record book but most trophy bucks are over 4 years of age. In many areas bucks don’t make it past their first year, and the chances of a 2 year old buck making the book are slim. If you want to see more trophy bucks you have to let the 1 to 3 year old bucks go, so they can grow. By letting the young bucks grow, and taking does, you not only keep the herd below carrying capacity, you increase the buck to doe ratio in favor of bucks. Eventually you will have more older-class bucks, which may translate into more trophy deer.

What does “doe management” mean? Among most wildlife professionals, doe management is synonymous with antlerless deer harvest. Antlerless harvest should be one of the most important components of a deer management plan. While most hunters and clubs realize the importance of managing bucks on their property, many fail to realize the importance of managing antlerless deer as well. Many things can be accomplished with an adequate antlerless harvest, all of which ultimately affect the buck population. A balanced sex ratio, shorter and earlier breeding season, increased reproduction and recruitment, and improved herd health are a few of the objectives that can be met with proper antlerless harvest.

Wildlife biologists often encounter concerns about antlerless harvest recommendations when assisting private landowners and hunting clubs with developing deer management plans. Hunters and landowners are often reluctant to harvest does because they are afraid they do not have enough deer. This misconception can often be dissuaded with sound information concerning general deer biology and the affects of antlerless harvest.

One population characteristic that is greatly affected by antlerless harvest is the adult sex ratio. Why is a balanced sex ratio important? If there are a disproportionate number of does in a deer herd, it is reasonable to assume all will not be bred in a timely manner. Many does will not breed and conceive on their first estrous cycle because there are not enough adult bucks in the population. These does may not be bred until their second, third or later estrus. The result is a long protracted breeding season. Also, these does will give birth later in the year than does that conceived during their first estrous cycle. These late summer, early fall born fawns typically encounter vegetation that is generally poorer in quality and quantity as it “hardens off” for winter. This causes most late born fawns to come out of their first winter in poorer condition than early born fawns. In addition, many late born bucks will have poorer antler development as 1 ½; year olds than fawns born earlier in the year. With an extremely unbalanced sex ratio, some does may not breed at all.

Too many does also means the bucks will have to do very little searching for breeding opportunities, reducing a hunter’s chance of seeing a buck. When the number of does greatly exceeds the number of bucks, the bucks do not have to compete for the right to breed. This reduces the number of rubs and scrapes observed during the hunting season. Prolonged breeding seasons wear bucks down more than a shorter, more intense rut. Bucks in this situation enter late winter and early spring in much poorer physical condition. These bucks face a much tougher recovery period in the spring and summer, which can affect antler development and body weights the following year.

A given habitat can only support a certain number of deer in healthy condition. If the number of deer exceeds this level, habitat degradation and poorer herd health result. About one-third of a deer herd should be removed each year to maintain the population at a stable level. If the sex ratio is balanced, doe harvest should make up between 40 and 60 percent of the overall harvest to maintain this healthy balance. After only a few years of aggressive antlerless harvest, doe sightings may decline. Many hunters fear the decreased sightings are a result of drastically reduced deer numbers, when in fact; they have only educated the surviving does with the increased hunting pressure.

Fawn production and recruitment typically increase as a result of doe management. Does usually begin breeding at 1 ½; years of age, and if healthy, will reproduce each year until they die. Fifty does in good condition produce more fawns than 100 unhealthy does. Additionally, fawns produced by healthy does tend to have higher survival rates than fawns born to does in poor condition.

When deciding to harvest does, hunters must be careful to avoid harvesting buck fawns or “button” bucks. This can easily be accomplished with just a little practice at identification. Hunters can learn to tell the difference between adult does and fawns by observing body shape and size. By waiting until several deer are present, a size comparison of the deer can be made. Additionally, adult does typically have longer and larger faces than fawns. The shape of the head on most buck fawns is flatter than a doe’s head and the developing pedicels or “buttons” are often visible upon close observation. Behavioral cues may help distinguish age classes of antlerless deer; fawns are usually more playful than adults and are generally not as cautious. Plus, fawns are often the first deer to arrive at a feeding area.

Managing antlerless deer harvest is just as important as managing buck harvest. As a matter of fact, a good deer management plan will always place equal importance on managing bucks and does. Often, in their attempt to meet harvest goals, hunters may forget that hunting does that have been pressured can be just as difficult as trying to harvest a mature buck. Don’t overlook this opportunity to enjoy a challenging and exciting hunt when trying to improve your deer herd.

Here is what the deer are doing in May. Plus, an overview of the goals of deer management by the states and individuals.

During May buck and doe whitetails may begin to move to their summer home ranges. The does may begin to look for fawning areas. Turkey hunting may still be going on in some areas. While you are scouting and hunting turkeys you can also be deer scouting, figuring out where the deer are at so you can watch them in the fall, when you can determine if there are any big bucks around.

Herd Health and Social Structure

More and more hunters are interested in hunting for trophy animals. But, because game managers are often interested in providing a large, healthy deer herd, not necessarily a balanced herd with trophy animals, these hunters are taking it upon themselves to try to increase their chances of seeing a trophy by practicing some type of deer management (sometimes with the emphasis on growing trophies) and improving the habitat. Hunters who are only interested in helping the animals grow bigger racks by providing food plots, minerals and limiting their hunting to larger racked animals often unwittingly improve the quality of the entire herd. Not only will the bucks use the food and minerals, so will the does and fawns. If the hunter then passes up smaller animals he gives them a chance to mature, develop fully and contribute to the gene pool.

Management Practices

There is no question that deer herds must be managed. Increasing human populations, urban sprawl and changing land practices have led to less available deer habitat, while deer herds have continued to increase, which has led to an overpopulation of deer in many areas. This has compelled wildlife managers to issue abundant doe permits each year in order to keep the deer herds within the carrying capacity of the available habitat.

The deer management practices of many wildlife agencies revolve around the need to balance the deer herds in relation to the habitat while still trying to keep deer populations high enough for hunting, with hunting as the primary method of deer reduction. The current practice of keeping deer populations high enough that they can be hunted, and the past management practice of bucks only hunting, combined with the belief by many hunters that they should only shoot bucks if they want to keep deer numbers high, is one reason why there are too many deer in some areas, particularly does.

It is usually too many does (as in Minnesota and Wisconsin), not too many bucks in a deer herd, that prompts game managers to issue numerous doe permits in the hopes that enough deer will be removed to keep their numbers at acceptable levels. Eventually this becomes a vicious cycle and both the deer and the habitat suffer. The effects of this cycle generally result in low buck:doe ratios and fewer numbers of dominant breeding bucks, which leads to breeding periods that are later and longer than they should be, resulting in poor spring survival rates of fawns.

To add to the problem of too many deer, but not enough bucks, the interest in trophy hunting for white-tailed deer has skyrocketed in the past few years. This interest in high scoring whitetail racks by numerous hunters puts added pressure on the already depleted number of large antlered bucks, and further reduces the number of available older breeding bucks. Fewer numbers of bucks, particularly older dominants, result in fewer contacts between the does and the priming pheromones deposited by bucks at rubs and scrapes. These priming pheromones are thought to cause the does to come into estrus and help synchronize the rut behavior between the does and the bucks. When these pheromones are absent the does may come into estrous from as early as mid-October to as late as January. Studies have shown that whitetail sperm production extends from mid-August through March. Sperm counts increased through October, peaked in November, and dropped almost in half by mid-December. Lower sperm counts in December could result in lower conception rates of the does at that time.

Chronic Wasting Disease

We can no longer talk about deer management without thinking about how Chromic Wasting Disease (CWD) may impact our deer herds and deer hunting. The threat of infectious diseases spreading through deer and elk herds is one reason why some hunters and game managers have been asking for changes in wildlife management policies in some states, or areas of some states, in recent years. While some state game agencies have been managing their deer and elk herds for increased and/or maximum numbers of animals, some hunters and game managers in those states would like to see deer herds managed for more evenly balanced sex ratios, and for herds that are more in line with the carrying capacity of the habitat. The threat of the spread of CWD may now cause game managers in several states to reassess how they manage the deer and elk herds in their areas.

This article contains excerpts from the Deer Manager’s Calendar ($24.95 plus $5.00 S&H), and the Whitetail Addict’s Manual ($19.95 plus $5.00 S&H) by T.R. Michels.

It is June and whitetail bucks and does should be on their summer home ranges, and the does should be fawning this month. It’s time to start working on habitat improvement: fertilizing, mowing, spraying, and clearing trails and paths for the hunting season.

Deer Management: Antler Growth

If you want to see more big-racked bucks in your area the first thing you have to do is use a little restraint. You need to let the young bucks go, so they can grow. I often hear hunters complain that they don’t see anything but small racked bucks in their area. These hunters often wait patiently through the season for a big racked buck to appear. Then, instead of going home empty handed they end up taking a small racked buck. If this pattern continues year after year those hunters will continue to see nothing but young, small-racked bucks, because the young deer never live long enough to grow big racks.

Age and Antler Size

Deer experts used to believe it took 4 ½; years for a whitetail buck to develop a trophy rack. It is now believed that a whitetail doesn’t achieve full body size until it is about 7 ½; years old. Until then much of the food and mineral a buck takes in is used to develop bone and muscle mass. Once the buck is fully mature, excess food and mineral can be used to develop antler mass, and many hunters equate antler mass with a high score.

A close look at any scoring chart will reveal that it is the number and length of tines that makes up the majority of inches needed for the rack to score high enough to enter the record books. The difference between a massive rack and a thin rack might only add 10 inches, which is 1/14 of a 140 class buck, not enough to really matter.

Milo Hanson’s World record whitetail has several tines with extremely long points, and it has long main beams, with a good spread, but it is not massive. The length of the tines is what made it the new World Record whitetail. Game officials aged the buck at 4 ½; years old. Obviously it had superior genetics, and it lived until it was 4 ½; years old. It is conceivable that a 3 ½; year old buck could make the archery record book, but most trophy bucks are over 4 ½; years of age.

In many areas bucks don’t make it past their first year, and the chances of a 2 ½; year old buck making the book are slim. If you want to see more large racked bucks you have to let the 1 ½; to 3 ½; year old bucks go, so they can grow.

By letting the young bucks grow, and taking does, you not only keep the herd below carrying capacity, you increase the buck to doe ratio in favor of bucks. Eventually you will have more older-class bucks, which may translate into more larger racked deer.

That being said, scientific studies have shown that antler point restrictions, whereby hunters judge the approximate age of a buck by the number of points it carries, may actually lead to smaller racked bucks in the future. In other words, antler point restrictions alone, used to increase the size of the racks on the bucks in the herd, may not work.

What the study showed is that hunters may not be able to judge the age of the bucks by the size of its rack, and that some yearling bucks with larger than normal racks for the area may be harvested by hunters (who may believe they are shooting older-class bucks. When high numbers (over 50%) of the large-racked yearling bucks are harvested it leaves only the smaller-racked bucks to survive.

These smaller racked bucks may be genetically programmed to grow small racks, and pass on that trait to their offspring, resulting in the yearling bucks producing smaller than normal racks (for the herd, or as opposed to previously harvested bucks) at 2 or 3 years of age. They may also pass on their small-rack genetics to their future offspring, resulting in smaller racked bucks in future years.

This study suggests that hunter should learn to distinguish yearling bucks (from older-class bucks) by their smaller bodies, less developed muscles and rounder faces; and pass up all yearling bucks, no matter how big their racks are. Then, once the bucks reach 3-4 years of age, you can cull the bucks with smaller racks.

By July most of the does should be done fawning. The fawns should be growing and following their mothers some of the time. The bucks are growing racks, and all the deer should be feeding on preferred foods.

Planning Ahead

Any type of deer management should take into account several different factors; herd size, buck to doe ratio, age structure of the herd, fawning rates, type of habitat, available food sources, seasonal use of the habitat; and hunting success by age, and sex. One of the first steps in deer management should be to determine the size and makeup of the herd. A fairly accurate count of all the animals should be taken to determine buck:doe ratio and fawning rates; to determine if the herd is in balance with the available habitat, so that overuse of the habitat by the deer does not occur; which could resulting in habitat destruction, poor nutrition, starvation, disease, stress, and poor reproduction and growth of the deer herd. You can start to produce a socially balanced deer herd: 1. By keeping the herd at or below the carrying capacity of the habitat. 2. By balancing the buck to doe ratio of the herd. 3. By ensuring that there are adequate numbers of both sexes and all ages classes of deer in the herd, so that maximum breeding occurs at the appropriate time of the year.

You can find out how many deer there are in the area by having several different people counting deer in different areas, at the same times, on several different days or nights. Be sure to determine the sex of all adult deer, and count all of the fawns. While you may miss some deer using this method, if you use the highest number of deer seen during any one time, you will have a fairly good estimation of the size and makeup of the deer herd n your area. You can also ask your local game managers how many deer they believe there are per square mile in your area. The game manager should also be able to tell you the carrying capacity of the land.

In order for any deer management program to work hunters and game managers must realize that:

• The habitat can carry only so many deer, it makes no difference whether they are bucks or does. Once the number of deer exceeds the carrying capacity of the habitat there will eventually be habitat destruction, which can lead to disease, stress, and starvation of the deer. Or the deer, particularly younger bucks, will leave to find more suitable habitat, making them susceptible to injury and death by natural causes, hunting, or vehicle collisions.
• Once the carrying capacity of the habitat has been determined, the total number of deer should be kept below that capacity, so that there is adequate nutrition in winter, and in case of forage and habitat loss due to natural causes.
• Because the habitat can carry only so many deer, and one of the goals of deer management should be to ensure that there are appropriate numbers of both sexes, and all age classes of deer, one of the first objectives should be to balance the buck to doe ratio of the herd. The best way to increase the buck:doe ratio is to remove some of the does. In order to keep the buck:doe ratio stabilized an appropriate number of both bucks and does should be removed every year.
• To increase the average age of the bucks in the herd younger bucks must be allowed to reach four to five years of age, which is when they should be the dominant breeding bucks. It may be four to five years before there are significant numbers of older bucks available to achieve all the breeding at the proper time.
• The oldest and youngest deer, and bucks that are exhausted from the rut, are usually the weakest and the first to die. In order to keep weaker deer alive when they are under stress their health needs must be provided for. With the threat of infectious diseases, the best way to provide for the nutritional needs of the deer is through habitat improvement, and food plots; not through supplemental feeding.
• Increased deer attraction to a particular property, improved survival and fawning rates, and increased body and antler size can be achieved by providing adequate cover and water, planting deer forage and browse, and providing year round minerals. Supplemental feed can be supplied (only where CWD and TB are not a concern) in the winter and early spring when deer are stressed.

This article is adapted from The Deer Manager’s Manual, and the Deer Addict’s Manual, Volume 1.