Mature buck avoids deer trails. How many of you have seen this behavior?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I've seen this a lot with BlacKtail bucks..... For years i had a trail through a very dense section of wild blackberries that i kept trimmed up so the deer would use it. Deer will NOT go though blackberry patches if there is another way around it.

In this case even the mature bucks were using this trail i had blazed, but only at night after dark. One day i was coming down it heading for home and jumped 3 very nice bucks that were bedded down just off nmy trail. two of them were only 2-3 year old deer, and they ran ahead of me to where the trail came right out on the road by my house, then ran right down the road to the next spot into the timber. The mature buck stopped at the road and wouldn't go out onto the pavement. I couldn't see them.... but i could hear the hoofs on the pavement as they came out on the road....i only counted two deer and there were 3.... So i knew right then the big boy was going to hunker down and try to sneak back by me rather that go out into the road.... these mature bucks are smart... very smart.

But.... i knew what he was doing, and there was only one other trail through those briars to get past me. He knew i was there, he could smell me i know... but i waited patiently for 15 minutes and watched an opening to the other trail..... When he came into it he was literally crawling on his knees and keeping his head low..... i whistled softly at him to get him to freeze, then i took him....

Look at the size of this guy.... 300 pound black tail here.

 

 

look at the size of the back straps on this monster...

 

[Krex1010]

I've definitely noticed this behavior before, thought about why it seems like all the mature bucks stop using the doe trails as fall progresses. My feeling is that it's all about mature buck being lazy and wanting easy women. We have all seen young bucks chasing does that aren't ready, the ladies want none of it and high tail out of there and the buck chases and wastes time and energy. The mature bucks learn from their younger days and wasted calories. So they hang back, they check the does from a distance, they don't pressure them before they are ready, when the time is right the move in on a doe and sweep her off her hooves. She's ready, she's not tired from running and she's not annoyed from running away. This time of year look for the does, and I garuntee a mature buck or three is within scent distance keeping a nose on those ladies.

[Wallydog]

Defiantely right Dennis. As a matter of fact I have never seen bigger bucks follow paths unless it was in a swamp where they are forced to.

[Sawpilot 75]

I'm no expert but when I have had success on old bucks its been off of trails downwind of known bedding areas.

[jonsimoneau]

Mature bucks move downwind a lot. My sightings and trail camera pics/videos have confirmed this. I killed the buck in my avitar as he quartered downwind. Bucks know where the does bed. They will often go from one bedding area to the next checking trails as they go and will often check the actual bedding areas from downwind.
    Have you ever noticed how there is often a trail just inside from a field edge that parallels the edge? Normally 10 to 30 yards in from the edge? Regaurdless of wind direction a buck can cruise down this trail and scent check each and every perpendicular trail leading from the fields. When he smells something he likes he can simply follow it right to the doe. I'm talking morning movement here.
     I had one area I hunted years ago in hilly terrain. There was a huge ridge that ran north and south. The sides of the ridge were open hardwoods but the top was thick and nasty. The does would bed on top of the ridge in the thicker stuff. During the rut when there was a westerly wind, the bucks would walk the side of the ridge about 1/3 down from the top. They could smell any does up in the bedding area, they could easily see in the bottoms, and walking 1/3 down from the top also kept them from being skylined.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Interesting stuff, everyone! Thanks!