deer | Buck Manager

Better Deer Hunting: Whitetail Scrapes or Rubs?

Looking to harvest a good white-tailed buck? Who isn’t? I’m going to first assume that you have a place to hunt and know the terrain of your hunting property. If not, this is critical information you need to know, so get out there. In addition to learning the lay of the land, another one of a hunter’s first objectives should be to determine whether or not the hunting area holds any sizable bucks. And I use the term “sizable” as defined by you. To some, sizable may go hand-in-hand with the term “mature buck” while others may put a number to it, such as 140 Boone and Crockett points.

Big bucks are territorial. You can find these areas by looking for both scrapes and rubs, but scrapes are really what you want to be looking for and I will explain why. Other than how they are made, do you know how scrapes and rubs differ? For one, it’s seldom that one particular buck rub will be worked again later in the year. In fact, a certain tree may be rubbed in consecutive years by a particular buck, but seldom is it ever worked again during that same year. This is not the case with buck scrapes because they will often be revisited and reworked throughout the breeding season. Keep in mind that I am not saying that all whitetail scrapes will be revisited, but the odds are more in your favor than against you. Continue reading “Better Deer Hunting: Whitetail Scrapes or Rubs?”

Acorns As White-tailed Deer Food

Acorns. We know white-tailed deer like to eat them and that they serve as an important fall and winter food item for deer, but how good are they really? This question crossed my mind as I sat in my bow stand intently listening for deer walking quietly through the leaves, but all I heard over and over again was snap, thud, snap, thud, snap… acorns! Live oak acorns, the dominant oak in my neck of the woods, have been falling for a couple of weeks and they are still going strong.

Acorns are rich in nutrients although quality varies between oak species. One thing I do know is that all acorns contain high amounts of fats, carbohydrates, and good amounts of protein, too. From what I have researched, one ounce of dried acorn has on average 140 calories, of which 9 grams is fat, 15 grams is carbohydrate, and 2 grams is protein. Using some simple math, that means a whopping 50% (72 calories) of the caloric intake is from fat! Now you now why deer pig out on them prior to the onset of winter. But the buck doesn’t stop there. Continue reading “Acorns As White-tailed Deer Food”

Whitetail Bucks are Dropping Their Velvet

With the fall deer hunting season just around the corner and thousands of game cameras attached to trees, posts, or anything else an ingenious hunter can mount a camera to, photos are constantly being taken of white-tailed bucks going through rapid antler transformations — from velvet covered antlers to fresh, clean racks. It really is amazing how fast antlers can grow, but just as amazing is how fast a buck can take it all off!

Last week we talked about how minerals are transported from a buck’s skeleton as its antlers grow, but this week we are are touching on the velvet removal process. Velvet is removed because testosterone levels of bucks rise during the fall triggering the mineralization of the cartilage-like tissue. Because a buck’s antlers are very tender during the velvet stage and they have low levels of testosterone, bucks are very friendly towards one another. In fact, you will rarely see bucks fighting at all during the antler growing period.

Antlers harden and then bucks rub off velvet

But don’t think they don’t fight. Bucks do fight, they just do not use their antlers. During the spring and summer, whitetail bucks often settle fights by threats and posturing, but when push comes to shove they fight much likes does — on their hind legs using their front legs to kick! But back to the mineralization of antlers.

Once antlers become totally mineralized, the blood vessels in the velvet surrounding them dies and begins to dry up. As the velvet begins to slough off bucks will aid the process by rubbing their antlers on nearby saplings and trees. Bucks will continue to rub their antlers on brush up until the rut as they work off building aggression and prepare for battle with other white-tailed bucks.

The photos below show a 9-point buck located in central Texas over about a week period. You can identify the buck as the same deer because of his short G4 on the right side, but you can see that this guy went from velvet to clean in short order. And just think, he will be shedding his antlers in about 5 months and starting all over, if he makes it through hunting season!

When Whitetail Bucks Lose Their Velvet

When Do Bucks Lose Their Velvet?

It’s a common and important question hunters ask every year. When do bucks lose their velvet on their antlers? In short, it varies from buck to buck, but the transition from velvet-covered antlers to a “hard-horned” buck takes place in late-summer. The process of antler formation is said to be the most rapid growth known in the animal kingdom.

So, how does a white-tailed buck get such a huge quantity of minerals from his diet and into his antlers so rapidly? Well, they don’t. Yes, a white-tailed buck gets some of the minerals needed for antler growth from its diet. However, the remainder of the minerals needed come from the internal reserves found within its body.

Grow Antlers, Shed Antlers, Repeat

A whitetail buck can not get all the raw material it needs for this rapid growth of antlers from the food it eats that season. Instead, the deer must borrow it from within its body. In a process similar to that of osteoporosis in humans, minerals are taken from a buck’s ribs, sternum, and skull, and redeposited in growing antlers.

When do bucks lose their velvet?

It’s an amazing process. In fact, research has found that bone density may decrease by as much as 30 percent in whitetail bucks following the antler growing season! It also helps explain why mature bucks can grow larger antlers than their younger counterparts. The skeletal bones of a buck continues to grow until it is at least 3 years of age.

As a result, only older bucks can store more of the minerals need for antler growth in their bones. In addition, they also do not have a requirement to use them for skeletal growth. Many bucks will exhibit a significant increase in antler size at 4 years of age.

That is also why the big-antlered bucks always seem to be the heaviest bucks, as well — because they are! Good body condition within each deer found on a property is the key to maintaining a quality deer population in any area. That’s why I continually stress sound habitat management be implemented on your property so that the land can provide optimal year-round deer nutrition.

When Bucks Shed, Lose Their Velvet?

By about the first of September antler growth is generally complete in whitetail bucks across their range. Almost as if someone flipped a switch, bucks undergo a rapid transformation. When it happens, bucks shed the soft velvet from the exterior of their antlers and start to beef-up for the breeding season.

This is marked by a sharp rise in testosterone level that triggers a shutdown of the blood supply to the velvet, which results in velvet dying and being totally removed with amazing speed. The velvet will simply fall off, though many bucks because of increased testosterone levels will begin to rub on shrubs and small trees. Lose velvet hanging from shedding antlers can also be annoying, as witnessed in the video below:

Lastly, when I say velvet is lost fast, I mean fast. Velvet can be completely shed from a whitetail buck’s antlers within a day or two. In fact, I’ve seen an older age class buck with no sign of shedding velvet that was sporting completely clean antlers within 22 hours! Antlers are cool, but white-tailed deer are amazing in their own right.

Impact of Buck to Doe Ratios on Whitetail Fawning Dates

Past articles on this site have discussed buck to doe ratio more than once, but today we are going to talk about how buck to doe ratios impact subsequent fawning dates and recruitment of fawns into your white-tailed deer herd. Many factors can impact rutting or breeding activity, but most of the breeding takes place over a relatively short time in healthy deer herds.

Timing, of course, depends on latitude, local conditions, and a host of other factors, but year-in and year-out most of the rut takes place more or less over the same time each year in a given area. Though often overlooked, buck to doe ratio should be an important deer management consideration on your ranch.

Buck to doe ratio can impact fawning dates on your ranch

In the previous paragraph, a “healthy” deer herd was mentioned and it was stated “most” of the breeding takes place at the same time, but what exactly does that mean? Well, a healthy deer herd would be one that is at carrying capacity for the habitat, has a buck to doe ratio of no fewer than 1 buck per 3 does, and all animals are in good body condition. With all of these parameters in place, it would be expected that majority of the breeding would happen over the course of a 10-day period, or even less.

Ratios and the Rut

Why? Well as deer have evolved, the timing of deer breeding/rutting as become more constricted. A properly timed rut results in a high fawn survival rate and ultimately in the survival of the species. In some areas at northern latitudes, climate conditions can be extreme — so deer have adapted to a narrow fawning window.

If fawns are born too early, it can still be too cold. If too late, they may not have enough time to build up the needed body mass and energy needed to get through the winter. At southern latitudes, temperature is not as much of a factor, but it still plays a role for fawns born too early or too late.

Sex Ratios and Early Rut, Late Rut

So without getting into all the factors that can impact fawning dates right now, let’s talk about buck to doe ratios and how that effects the fawning season. White-tailed does come into estrus for only a day or two — usually in high numbers as if someone hit a switch. If they are not bred within that time, they will come back into estrus 28 days later. If there are not enough bucks to service all the does in an area, those does will not get bred until about a month later. If they aren’t bred then, it’s another 28 days. This explains what some people refer to as the “late rut.”

At this point you may be asking yourself, “What’s the problem?” Well, it’s true that deer populations with a high number of does per buck still have high breeding success (percent of does bred), but those deer herds don’t necessarily have good recruitment of fawns into the adult population. One reason can simply be because of habitat conditions.

Recommended Buck to Doe Ratio

If it turns out to be a dry spring, fawns that are born just one month later than expected may suffer some serious consequences, specifically regarding the available food sources for a doe to maintain herself, produce milk and raise fawns. If that timing ends up being 2 months later, then that may be well into the summer season and the odds of a doe raising those same fawns is much closer to zero.

In short, manage lands for a proper buck to doe ratio and it will help increase both breeding and fawning success. It’s recommended that there be no more than 3 does for every 1 buck, with the goal being 2 does per buck in most free-ranging deer herds. In the future, we will discuss some of the other factors that impact fawn survival and recruitment. Deer population parameters are closely intertwined, and the buck to doe ratio of your herd is much more than just a number.