Ol Bud

New to huntin! Really excited! Can anyone tell me how to tell the differance from buck and doe trails? I just bought a 40 and its swampy and has a river running through the horthwest corner although its preatty open on either side. Where do I start? Any advice will graetly apprecited! Thanks

xXx6182

From my expereince a buck track will have 4 " holes" instead of just the 2. But some guys think there is no way to tell. I know that there is a huge buck around my land cause I have seen his tracks. As far as scouting I really can' t help you there. I scout but I do it at the wrong time of year, I am always too late or too early. Just use your common sense. Check around corn fields and bean fields. Check on the edge of woods for paths or tracks. Look for the food source they may like. Where ever you find a trail see if there are any low hanging limbs with leaves on it, see if they are chewed up and if they are then the chances are that is a buck. BUT I am no expert so I may be wrong about all of this too. Good luck.

whitetails & muskies

Ol Bud, not sure where Foxboro is, but I hunt exclusively in the Lake Superior snow belt country and have found some of my best spots when scouting as soon as the snow leaves the ground in April. You can find scrapes that still look fresh, rubs too...good time to find sheds as well. If you find one, two or three year old rubs in the same spot, all the better, that means the big boys frequent that particular area. Buck / doe tracks?? I pretty much look at size and focus on the biggies...pretty much a sure thing if you can lay four fingers across the track!! :-)

Russ otten

Check any droppings you should come upon. Doe droppings will usually be scattered, Buck droppings will usually be in a clump. This is not a hard, fast rule but is true more than not. The sexes usually use their own trails. I seen a buck using one certain trail one year and it was littered with clumped droppings. ( This buck was shot at night by a poacher. We run him off, but didn' t find the 8pt. buck til morning and the dogs/Coyotes had found it.) Other trails were scattered where I knew does used.
Russ

timbercruiser

Best way would be to put a trail camera on the trails. You could find out size, number and time of day the of most traffic.

kevin1

Ditto on the trail cam . The larger and wider the print is the more likely that a buck made it . Dew claw marks mean little since both sexes have them , and softer ground will make their hooves sink . So you got 40 acres of land with a river and swampy ground ? I' d focus on any trails leading from the swamp to the river . Deer need about 1 quart of water for every 10 lbs of body weight daily for hydration and their digestive process . However , they may be able to get that from the swampy area without breaking cover . The edges where the open parts are would also be good areas to watch , deer love edges . Get to know your 40 like the back of your hand , soon you' ll know where they sleep and move . By the way , would you consider adopting me ? I have a job and I don' t eat much ...

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Rack-attack

Sure - When you see a deer with antlers standing in the track, then you can be sure that is a buck track

Tazman

Well I will start off with my standard line about deer caca, buck taste like chocolate and doe taste like vanilla!

Ol Bud does and young bucks use primary trails, another words any trail you see that is heavily traveled will 90% of the time will be doe and young bucks. Older more mature bucks will generaly use trails to the sides of primary trails, sometimes they will use trails totally seperate from the primary trails. Buck trails are harder to easily identify, but when you think you may have found one, preferably well before the season slowly walk it looking for old rubs on trees, you may only find one rub or many, some bucks do multiple rubs and others will fall in love with a particular tree. Of course multiple rubs can also be the result of multiple bucks. Follow the trail until you either come upon a bedding or feeding area, hopefully you will find a bedding area. Do not go into it, what you need to do is figure out several different stand locations to allow for different wind directions, with a big buck you have to be near their bedding area or you probably never get a shot at him. They return to their bedding areas before the doe even finish feeding and leave their bedding area long after the doe have left to feed. Now when the rut coms on who knows, even the big boys get stupid then, where the does are is where the bucks will soon be if not there all ready.

kevin1

Rack you' re a crack up !