How Far do Bucks Travel during the Rut?

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Not Looking for biological studies.
Want your trail cam/personal experiences.
How far have you seen one roam?
@sky hawk please share your experience- I couldnt find the thread - I know it's older than most of the current regular poster's membership so you will have a new audience for that astounding tale.

Just asking about it. I saw one Saturday night that needs to come about 17 miles so I can kill him. He was heading my way- Wonder how long it will take him? :)
I guess I could go to him but what challenge would that be? Besides he was on the land of the guy who showed me a bunch about deer hunting.

So give us some hope that a wanderer may show up or worse our home rangers may be long gone.
Anyone with a tale?
 

DaddyRat

Six Pointer
I’ve heard they will travel up to 14 miles in a day. No idea if that is true. I will say several years ago. I saw one on my bus route with a unique rack. It was 2 to 3 miles from my house. I am fairly certain I killed it or it’s twin during the gun season. I know of one last year that was caught on trail cam and then killed a week or so later maybe 5 miles away. Good luck either way.
 

GUP

Ten Pointer
Read a story once about a huge buck killed by a guy on his property at like 8:30 in the morning. One of his neighbors had the deer on his camera at 6:30 that same morning. His neighbors farm was just over 2 miles away. Buck traveled over 2 miles in 2 hours. I think certain deer travel long distances during the rut.
 
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bigten

bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Too many variables to pin down any type of distance. Area and herd dependant, as they will travel the necessary area to fulfill the need. Some places may be within a mile or less, while others could be several
miles.. Gotta know the area and the deer density to even make an educated guess. Even at that it's a crapshoot as they can travel a 360° circumstance of any area.
 
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oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
brownisdown said:
As far as they need to in order to fill their desire to breed.
Click to expand...
this is true but looking for the known travel of A buck.
caught on cell at location A -
Killed or filmed or seen at location B - x miles away.
That kind of stuff is whta I was hoping to hear.
 

timber

Twelve Pointer
I would say here probably a mile or 2. They don’t have much need to go further when they have all they can handle at home. Going by the lack of deer some see on here they might have to wear out a set of hooves to get what they want.
 
Wyle1

Wyle1

Spike
My hunting buddy shot one a few years ago that a guy he knows had trail cam pics of him about 2 1/2 miles away. Shot around this time of year so was roaming. Guess it depends on the doe population in the area also
 
Hughes

Hughes

Six Pointer
Real good friend of mine shot a monster in Saskatchewan a couple years ago. Deer showed up on camera about 10 PM. Shot him the following morning. Camera was 12 miles away from where he shot the buck. And yes, it was the same exact buck. Very recognizable rack.
 

warhorse

Eight Pointer
I've got 6 cameras in the area of around 600 acres. Cameras are spaced apart anywhere from 1/2 mile to 400 yards apart. I've got one funky spike that frequents 2 of the cameras and they are 400 yards apart. I've got a decent 8 pointer that frequented one camera all times of the day day and night. Last week he moved across a major road to another camera that is about 500 yards away from the original. He has now moved back across the road and frequenting a 3rd camera that is 400 yards away from the original he frequented. Other than those 2 deer the bucks I get pictures of are unique to that camera sight. The area I hunt is overwhelmed with does so that may prevent the bucks from traveling far during the rut.
 
sky hawk

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
oldest school said:
Not Looking for biological studies.
Want your trail cam/personal experiences.
How far have you seen one roam?
@sky hawk please share your experience- I couldnt find the thread - I know it's older than most of the current regular poster's membership so you will have a new audience for that astounding tale.
Click to expand...
I think the story you're talking about is the one where my buddy's Dad hit a buck with his truck that we had on camera. It wasn't a crazy distance away - it was hit about 2 1/2 miles away from where the picture was taken. What was incredible about that story was the friend and his father live an hour away from our property and he had no idea when he sent me the picture of the rack that he had hit it near where we hunt.

I'm not sure if I can find that thread...
 
Ol Copper

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
I dont know how far they will travel in whole, but I did see a certain known buck in Illinois travel 10 miles in about 7.5-8 hours.
He was outside of one township about a 1/2 hour before dark, I saw him the next morning at daylight in the next township north. He traveled one creek drainage, in a straight line for 10 miles.
 
dobber

dobber

Old Mossy Horns
killed a decent 10 years back, old mature buck with many years of pictures. My buddy had cameras up all over the place and he captured them all, only one picture in day time. I shot that buck mid afternoon about 3 miles from where he was the night before.
If they find love they will not travel, if they dont find love they will roam till they do.
Dont think there is a definite answer, but its like most guys, we will travel to the corner bar to find lovin and we will also go to Spring break vacation a thousand miles away for a chance at the same result lol
3 different types of behaviour and travel distances
1700479481664.png
 
kilerhamilton

kilerhamilton

Old Mossy Horns
I’ve had one on camera from the north side of town to the south side of town. As you know Pittsboro, that means he walked through downtown to get there. Or took a long long way around.
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
I've had a couple that were on cam at one end of the property and that evening were at the other end of the property 3 or so miles away. They did that pretty regularly before they started chasing and ended up god knows where.
They seemed to be on a big loop checking scrapes and would end up back where they started a couple of days later.
Had 1 that would make the loop about every night and would be back in the same general area bedding before sunrise. We back tracked him with cams over about 2 seasons. He had a pattern and stuck to it like clockwork. If it was daylight he was in thick marsh/cane. Never went after em with cams in the cane, as they'd just burn up batteries with all the crap moving in the wind with no clearings to set the cameras up in.
Most of em had 1 thing in common though, they did the loop in the dark with very few daylight photos.
 
TravisLH

TravisLH

Old Mossy Horns
oldest school said:
Not Looking for biological studies.
Want your trail cam/personal experiences.
How far have you seen one roam?
@sky hawk please share your experience- I couldnt find the thread - I know it's older than most of the current regular poster's membership so you will have a new audience for that astounding tale.

Just asking about it. I saw one Saturday night that needs to come about 17 miles so I can kill him. He was heading my way- Wonder how long it will take him? :)
I guess I could go to him but what challenge would that be? Besides he was on the land of the guy who showed me a bunch about deer hunting.

So give us some hope that a wanderer may show up or worse our home rangers may be long gone.
Anyone with a tale?
Click to expand...
Had a really nice 9pt on cam all summer a few years ago, he was killed 12 miles as the crow flies from where I had him. Every rut I see new bucks show up
 
Buxndiverdux

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
I've got one this year, that has traveled 2 miles, across 2 paved roads and 2 swamps. Trail cam pics and actually saw him a couple different days.
 
TrkyJedi

TrkyJedi

Eight Pointer
I've had 1 move about 3 miles to different tracts of land I hunt and a friend I know had 1 on a tract that moved 8 miles across 2 major highways to end up on another 15 acre tract of his and he killed him there. 150 inch deer.
 
kilerhamilton

kilerhamilton

Old Mossy Horns
kilerhamilton said:
I’ve had one on camera from the north side of town to the south side of town. As you know Pittsboro, that means he walked through downtown to get there. Or took a long long way around.
Click to expand...
I’ve had one on the “plant” property down past state employees CU. That got killed on 15-501 N behind that neighborhood where o Riley’s is.. 🧐
 
DeerManager

DeerManager

Eight Pointer
I don’t know exactly but I know one that back in 2014 traveled around three miles ( as the crow flies) from where he was a regular on camera before I laid him to rest on on the 5th of December. I am thankful he wonder off from his home range. The guy that had him on camera was no as happy, but he was in decent spirits.
 

bowhnter88

Six Pointer
I shot one in 2021 that a buddy missed the evening before, he missed him at 4:45 pm and I shot him behind a doe at 7:30 the next morning. 2 miles apart.
 
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