The deer visits their other groups once it is winter, and sometime they also meet in groups in common ranges. They sometimes settle in one place during the winter when there is food scarcity. Later the mature bucks join groups of their choice and the fawns of the year accompany their doe to their summer places. That's how this animal starts their grouping. When you have a good knowledge of how the doe and the buck groups and how they arrange their shelter, that can help you to better on how you will plan your action once you starts hunting for the deer. Therefore good knowledge is always preferable when going for hunting deer.



At the spring "break up" of the yard, our doe, accompanied by her fawn of the year before, will return to her summer range. There she will probably bear two fawns and the four deer will repeat the life of the year before. The following spring, the oldest fawn will be on its own. If it is a doe she will seek a range of her own and will start a new family group. Quite often this new range will adjoin and include a portion of the territory where the animal was reared, but the two groups will seldom travel together. The life of a mature buck is different from that of a doe. He has no family ties. He has no responsibilities except to himself, and for this reason he usually leads a solitary life during the summer. When he leaves his mother, he picks a range of his own, sometimes in company with another buck but often alone. During the time when his antlers are growing, he travels very little, but as soon as they are hard and polished, he begins to extend his range so that by the time that the rutting season starts, he has a general idea of the country and the doe population over a considerable territory. The important thing for the hunter to remember about this situation is that the buck does not have the intimate knowledge of each range that the local doe has and that he must depend on the doe's knowledge and strategy for safety, or return to his own range when in danger.

During the rutting season, the buck travels extensively, stopping for a short time with any doe that welcomes his attention, then going on in search of another. Since the hunting season coincides, at least in part, with the breeding season, and the goal of most hunting trips is a buck, it is highly desirable to understand the actions of buck deer at this time of year.

Reproduction is the compelling urge at this time and other activities are subordinate. Fighting other bucks is done to establish and defend the fitness of a buck to increase the herd under the law of "survival of the fittest." Feeding at this time is merely incidental to the business at hand. Travel is intended to be a means of reaching as many doe as possible in the allotted time.

Self-preservation is the only thing that is more important and, in some cases, even this seems to be disregarded. When a buck has found a willing doe, he will stay with her for a time or, if there are other doe in the immediate vicinity, he will divide his time among them. If he is startled by hunters while in the company of a doe, he will follow her lead and depend on her strategy to remove the danger. Once he has submitted his safety to a doe's direction, he will follow her almost blindly.

Any danger that she passes through, he will attempt, yet always following, never taking the dangerous leading position. If he is startled while alone, he will usually go to the nearest doe for leadership even though this places her in jeopardy. Sometimes he passes on by, leaving her to cope with the danger. Sometimes he will go to a feeding area where there are tracks enough to confuse a hunter and possibly transfer his attention to some other deer. This lack of chivalry is a buck characteristic that should be remembered by the hunter when he is attempting to hunt deer.

The extensive traveling habits of the bucks during the rutting season are also the hunting season. Try to collect as much information about the movements of the bucks. The bucks during this travels with the intention of reaching as many doe as possible within this allotted time basically meant for reproducing. And the bucks mainly follow the doe during this period.

Don't waste your time in following the wrong tracks of your deer that you are hunting and try to invest your time in places where the deer can get food to eat and that where you can do your hunting in much easier ways. This will save you time and your energy.