Buck Survey

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
I was watching a youtube video and the guy was saying how many bucks he had on camera, and of course it was way high especially for the amount of land he had. So I was curious if anyone here kept up with how many different bucks they had pics of?
It would be interesting to see how numbers go as far as land size and location.
I realize it changes and you get drifters this time of year, but just a total of how many different bucks you have on camera so far.
And yes I know you dont get them all on camera 😄
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
We have plenty of young bucks. Is age a factor in the survey?

No its not, I doesnt matter if its a 1.5yr old spike or a 5.5yr old 10ptr.
I guess if you want to break it down to age or points would be good to know but not necessary.
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
I had 17 different bucks in my backyard corn pile(dec-Jan) 2 years ago.

On hunting properties I only keep up with ‘shooters’. No way I wanna try to keep up with all the youngins running around…
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
I had 17 different bucks in my backyard corn pile(dec-Jan) 2 years ago.

On hunting properties I only keep up with ‘shooters’. No way I wanna try to keep up with all the youngins running around…

How many shooters would you save you have? Same here about small bucks, but Im going to start now just for the heck of it.

17 in the backyard is more than I have on my hunting land so far...lol
Granted thats only on 1 camera, just put another out last week.
 

JoeSam1975

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I just counted. I save all buck pics. 14 on the farm I hunt around my house. 223 acres. That's on 2 cameras.
 

TrkyJedi

Eight Pointer
I have 3 properties, I'm going to guesstimate I have probably 65-75 total bucks on the 3 properties. I don't pay any attention to them unless they are 3 yrs old, I have 11 - 3 yr olds. 3 - 4yr olds and 1 - 5/6 yr old. The 5/6 yr old is the only one I would shoot if given the chance this year. I prefer to shoot mid 140's or above. That takes a strong 4.5 yr old. I would shoot a smaller scoring deer if he was at least 5.5 yrs or older and was a threat to chase off potential giants that are 3.5 & 4.5 yrs old. I don't shoot a deer every year, usually 1 about every 2nd or 3rd year. I don't want to be disappointed when I walk up to him.
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
I have 3 properties, I'm going to guesstimate I have probably 65-75 total bucks on the 3 properties. I don't pay any attention to them unless they are 3 yrs old, I have 11 - 3 yr olds. 3 - 4yr olds and 1 - 5/6 yr old. The 5/6 yr old is the only one I would shoot if given the chance this year. I prefer to shoot mid 140's or above. That takes a strong 4.5 yr old. I would shoot a smaller scoring deer if he was at least 5.5 yrs or older and was a threat to chase off potential giants that are 3.5 & 4.5 yrs old. I don't shoot a deer every year, usually 1 about every 2nd or 3rd year. I don't want to be disappointed when I walk up to him.

Good info! Thx
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
How many shooters would you save you have? Same here about small bucks, but Im going to start now just for the heck of it.

17 in the backyard is more than I have on my hunting land so far...lol
Granted thats only on 1 camera, just put another out last week.
When season started I had 5 shooters(4.5 or better) at the farm and 2 behind the house.
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Must be nice.....I have pics of one buck thats a good one on 1 farm I hunt and 0 pics on the other.
I swear Im tempted to go back to my brown its down days 😄
Of course I realize just because I dont have pics doesn't mean they arent there.
 

dc bigdaddy

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
we have 3 or 4 resident baby bucks this fall. I've had 2 decent bucks walk by the camera is all. One of those was last night.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
I have 3 properties, I'm going to guesstimate I have probably 65-75 total bucks on the 3 properties. I don't pay any attention to them unless they are 3 yrs old, I have 11 - 3 yr olds. 3 - 4yr olds and 1 - 5/6 yr old. The 5/6 yr old is the only one I would shoot if given the chance this year. I prefer to shoot mid 140's or above. That takes a strong 4.5 yr old. I would shoot a smaller scoring deer if he was at least 5.5 yrs or older and was a threat to chase off potential giants that are 3.5 & 4.5 yrs old. I don't shoot a deer every year, usually 1 about every 2nd or 3rd year. I don't want to be disappointed when I walk up to him.

nice area you’re hunting
 

TrkyJedi

Eight Pointer
nice area you’re hunting
Thanks Woodmoose. They are good areas, none of them really close together but I've had them for 4-12 years and not a lot of surrounding pressure. I can afford to give them time to grow. I try to provide good food and minerals and time. Winning combination.
 

DeerManager

Eight Pointer
I had my camera out since March of this year on a 140 acre tract. I had 18 deer that were frequently coming into to feed. 7 were bucks, 11 were does. Not included in the 18 were the fawns. I only had three fawns born this year or lived , which is odd to me.
 
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DeerManager

Eight Pointer
Must be nice.....I have pics of one buck thats a good one on 1 farm I hunt and 0 pics on the other.
I swear Im tempted to go back to my brown its down days 😄
Of course I realize just because I dont have pics doesn't mean they arent there.
On a bow hunt, early this season, I had several deer come in, including a very nice 9 pointer. I have put in a lot pf preparation this year in hopes to get an chance at two bigger deer so I did not release an arrow. It was one of the sits I have had in several years. Anyway, after the hunt I was thinking how I would go hunting in hopes to get a deer and shoot the first deer that gave me the chance. Those days, compared to way I hunt these days, were simpler. Then I received a pic, via cell cam, of one of the big bucks and all else was forgotten 🤣 . Seriously though, the days of "brown its down" were the best!
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Picked up another 8ptr on my camera. So thats 3 I have pics of in this one spot on this farm I would shoot and I seen another 8ptr Monday about 16" wide but young.
Havent kept all buck pics before but going to start now.
Of course I have other spots I could put a camera and probably get alot more pics but dont feel comfortable putting them out there.

Newest 8pt
 

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Johnnie

Ten Pointer
MJ,
I have ran several full scale surveys at my old club. One camera per every 100-150 acres, baited for a month or so, usually early Aug to early Sept. Usually these would result in anywhere from 20-50,000 pictures each year. Some more, some less. I would scan through quickly and remove the non-deer pictures which was usually about 50% or so with all of the other critters around. Then I would carefully view every buck pic, sketch the rack, name the buck, keep a few different angles in a separate folder and keep a tally of how many bucks, does, fawns, and individual bucks were photographed. A little easy math and you can calculate buck/doe, fawn/doe, mature buck/doe ratio, density, etc.... It was painstaking work, I typically had about 75-100 hours of driving to/from and baiting sites and then another 30-40 or so hours going through the pictures each year. Ten years of that, I probably went through over 200k pictures after taking out the non-deer pics. Some bucks I would have hundreds of pictures of, some, one picture only. I only categorize the bucks by 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5+ but it was fun to see the ratios and how things changed from year to year based on the previous years kill. The deer density usually lined up with the state estimates. I could ramble on, but....

Johnnie
 

Scrub

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Land at the house, 13acres, probably 12-15,…..other farm 41 acres maybe 6…..
 
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MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
MJ,
I have ran several full scale surveys at my old club. One camera per every 100-150 acres, baited for a month or so, usually early Aug to early Sept. Usually these would result in anywhere from 20-50,000 pictures each year. Some more, some less. I would scan through quickly and remove the non-deer pictures which was usually about 50% or so with all of the other critters around. Then I would carefully view every buck pic, sketch the rack, name the buck, keep a few different angles in a separate folder and keep a tally of how many bucks, does, fawns, and individual bucks were photographed. A little easy math and you can calculate buck/doe, fawn/doe, mature buck/doe ratio, density, etc.... It was painstaking work, I typically had about 75-100 hours of driving to/from and baiting sites and then another 30-40 or so hours going through the pictures each year. Ten years of that, I probably went through over 200k pictures after taking out the non-deer pics. Some bucks I would have hundreds of pictures of, some, one picture only. I only categorize the bucks by 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5+ but it was fun to see the ratios and how things changed from year to year based on the previous years kill. The deer density usually lined up with the state estimates. I could ramble on, but....

Johnnie

So how man acres was the club and wha would you say the total buck count was.....mabe just 2.5yr olds and older bucks?
 

Johnnie

Ten Pointer
I think the first year it was around 2200 acres, and by year ten it was closer to 2700. All contiguous, but broken by roads. There is observed bucks, and calculated bucks. Most years I would name 30-50 different bucks (camera failures were far too common). But by calculation the number was closer to 60 I think. In my experience, most hunters WAY underestimate some bucks' range. Some bucks would consistently wander a mile to two miles on camera, while other bucks would be on the same camera every night. They are individuals. Some camera locations would see 15 different bucks and others would only have does. Location, location, location as they say. Typically, roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the named bucks were yearlings if I remember correctly.

Johnnie
 

shotgunner

Ten Pointer
This year would really skew the numbers for our land. We lease about 250 acres. We have been running 2 cameras for 4 seasons and I know for a fact we have way more deer this year. Several photos with 8 does and yearlings at one time. They are eating twice the corn as the last 3 years. We have at least 17 bucks that I would say are 2.5 and up. I killed an 8 with the muzzleloader and biologist said he was 3.5 or 4.5. They were not sure. Never had him on camera but body size he looks very similar to most of those 17 except for 3-4 that are substantially bigger. Now I know our increased numbers are because of some land management that is going on around us. But we are having fun seeing all these deer and knowing what is walking around. Just hoping to keep a few around for next year. We are going to put out a large amount of bait after the season to sort of inventory what made it. Very excited to see the outcome.
 

25contender

Twelve Pointer
So far this year I have over 500 pics of up and comers and shooters. Of course some are of the same deer throughout the year. We probably have 15 that are legit older bucks.
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
This year would really skew the numbers for our land. We lease about 250 acres. We have been running 2 cameras for 4 seasons and I know for a fact we have way more deer this year. Several photos with 8 does and yearlings at one time. They are eating twice the corn as the last 3 years. We have at least 17 bucks that I would say are 2.5 and up. I killed an 8 with the muzzleloader and biologist said he was 3.5 or 4.5. They were not sure. Never had him on camera but body size he looks very similar to most of those 17 except for 3-4 that are substantially bigger. Now I know our increased numbers are because of some land management that is going on around us. But we are having fun seeing all these deer and knowing what is walking around. Just hoping to keep a few around for next year. We are going to put out a large amount of bait after the season to sort of inventory what made it. Very excited to see the outcome.
17 bucks that are 2.5 and older on 250 acres is a big number , your on a great place sounds like.
 
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