Human Influence on Buck Movement “Good and Bad”

So how do we influence buck movement? Well, it can be pretty easy. Heck, we even do it without knowing many times. On the flip side, we can spend a tremendous amount of time and effort to not negatively influence a bucks movement.

I was doing some summer scouting many years ago, and had a big 8 pointer I was trying to pattern. This particular buck would make his way from my property just before dark and cross the county gravel road to feed out in a neighbors soybean field. This 8 pointer was probably the most patternable mature buck I have ever hunted, and I wish I could say I was successful in my pursuit for that buck, but unfortunately I was not.

Even though I was not able to gain another mature buck for my wall, I was successful in gaining experience and witnessing how we as hunters, and just humans in general influence deer movement.

I carefully snuck in one hot and uncomfortable mid-day to put up one of my trail cameras to try and narrow down where this particular buck was coming from. After letting my camera do it’s job for a couple weeks, I had all the information I needed to go in and hang a stand. Another very hot and uncomfortable mid-day trip was made trying to ensure I disturbed the area as little as possible, and then got out of there. From that point, it was a waiting game, and I only scouted from afar. Although the buck kept on the same pattern, and like I mentioned earlier, I was not able to harvest that buck. My approach and low impact scouting did prove successful in not negatively influencing that bucks movements, and it did provide me with an encounter with that buck at 30 yards on my first sit on stand. Unfortunately he moved through my shooting lane too quickly on his way out to the bean field, and I was not presented with a shot opportunity.

One evening while glassing the bean field for the 8 pointer that I was hunting, I was sitting on a hill 600-700 yards from where the deer had been crossing from my property to the neighbors. I wanted to make sure I was far enough away to ensure that I didn’t bump the buck off of his pattern. While sitting there glassing the buck, who was with numerous other bucks and does, a big 10 pointer entered the bean field from the neighbors timber directly across from my location. My attention turned to the 10 pointer who I had not seen before and who was much bigger than the 150 class 8 pointer that I had been watching.

This particular buck was by himself and several hundred yards away from any other deer. The buck fed on the beans for 10-15 minutes seemingly calm and relatively at ease. That all changed when I heard a dirt bike fire up in the distance. The house where I heard the dirt bike had to be nearly 3/4 of a mile to a mile from where I was, and was not even visible to the deer or myself. As soon as that bike fired up and revved it’s engine, that 10 pointer threw his head up, and then was gone. I was quite shocked because none of the other deer in the field were alerted.

Different bucks respond differently to human influence just like those bucks in the bean field that evening. Some will be never seen again if they encounter a human or human scent, sight or sound. While others will go on about their business seemingly unphased by human influence. We can all take steps to limit the negative effects we have on deer movement, and at the same time concentrate on things that can positively effect movement.

So let’s talk about some of the other factors that influenced these particular bucks and their movement.

1. The neighbors soybeans, that’s what the draw was for those deer to cross the road. Had my field been in soybeans, I would bet the deer would have stayed on my property. As luck would have it, my crop rotation happen to be corn that year. Instead of relying on luck or trying to time a crop rotation, you can implement a variety of habitat plans to ensure an attractive food source on your property year around.

2. My timber ended before the road, but I did have a corn field that came right up to the road.

The deer felt safe because of sufficient cover, lack of human intrusion, and they were drawn by a very attractive food source on the neighbors property. If your property lacks sufficient cover to allow whitetail deer to feel safe and comfortable, consider working with a wildlife consulting company or a whitetail land consulting company that can assist you in implementing habitat plans that can ensure your deer heard has everything they want and need.

3. Obviously the dirt bike had an adverse effect on the big 10 pointers movement, but left the other deer seemingly unaffected by the sound.

In closing, I would recommend using a very low impact scouting technique and try to limit any of the negative influences you may have on your properties. We can all do things to help positively effect deer movement, some of the strategies I’ve used in the past are: Food plots, creating a more convenient crossing at a creek, mowing paths or clearing paths (deer tend to like the path of least resistance) etc. Keep in mind, that we can also take advantage of some of our neighbors effects on deer movement. What May play out as a negative effect for them could potentially be a positive effect for us.