Bucks and pressure

Bucks and pressure

Each buck is different, with his own individual personality. Because of that, there rare are cut and dried rules or blanket statements that apply to every buck in a given situation. The best we can really hope for is to identify tendencies.

To answer this question, the first thing one must establish is why the area has a low deer per square mile (DPSM) population. If it is because of limited cover, a mature buck may have the tendency to put up with more human pressure than those in higher DPSM areas. You often see this in more urban settings, where deer have little choice in where to seek cover. On the flip side, if one is referring to big woods deer in low DPSM areas, the mature bucks living there often have the tendency not to put up with much pressure at all. This makes sense, as they often have larger home ranges and a surplus of areas where they’ll rarely be bothered.

In higher DPSM areas, in areas of good age dynamics, the buck hierarchy is often an incentive to stay put, at least for dominant bucks. A dominant buck rules his core area and at least much of his home range. However, if he shifts his core area he will likely have to fight to try to reestablish his dominance. He may or may not be able to achieve dominance over his new core area.

In any case, bucks can and will shift core areas, it’s relatively rare for them to abandon their established home range. Of course, that’s often of little consolation if he shifts his core area from your property to the neighbor’s.

One can never say never, but if all one is doing is routine food plot creation and maintenance, odds are that those activities won’t inspire your bucks to shift their core areas. If one is otherwise keeping human disturbances to a minimum and they only have bucks on their property during the rut, odds are high that it has more to do with the quality of the habitat and/or how it’s setup than plot creation and maintenance.