Buckmasters Magazine

What do we really know about the things bucks leave behind?

It looks like just another pile of deer poop to you, but your friend doesn’t hesitate.

“That’s a giant buck,” he says. “See how it’s in a large clump? See how thick and long it is? Big buck.”

You ponder his confidence, wondering if he’s about to look up with a giant grin on his face and let you in on the joke. Or maybe he’ll insist the only way to really tell is to taste it before he lifts the scat up to your face.

The Straight Dope on Poop

You don’t believe that part, of course, but what about determining the sex of a deer by the shape of its droppings? It’s a common belief that does leave loose pellets while a buck’s scat consists of a single clump, as if someone took a handful of individual pellets and squeezed them together. Is it true?

Not at all, says Mississippi State University wildlife professor Dr. Steve Demarais.

“The consistency and shape of deer waste is a product of their diet, much like ours is,” he says. “The only thing you might be able to determine is the size of the deer, but you can’t tell if it’s from a 120-pound buck or a 120-pound doe.”

Maine outfitter and lifelong hunter Randy Flannery agrees. A master tracker who has spent most of his 55 years following deer through the Maine snow, he pays little attention to the droppings he finds in the woods.

“That’s an old wives’ tale,” he said. “It all depends on what they’ve been eating.”

Tracks as Big as Your Hand

If judging the sex of a deer by its droppings is impossible, what about a hoof print? Just as some hunters insist large scat is the by-product of a buck, they also swear any larger-than-average track was made by an old, mature buck. Not necessarily, says Flannery, who spends much of his deer season tracking whitetails.

It’s virtually impossible to look at a single hoof print, running or walking, and determine the sex of the animal, he says. A track made by a 120-pound doe will look strikingly similar to a track made by a similar-sized buck. Contrary to what some hunters say, a big, wide track rounded on the front does not mean it’s from a buck.

Environmental factors can influence the size and shape of a deer’s hoof. Hard, sandy and rocky ground can wear down the tips and round the edges, while softer ground will result in sharper tips and more defined edges. Buck and doe hooves are made from the same material and grow at the same rates.

“A lot of guys swear that if they see the dew claw, the track was made by a buck, but that’s not necessarily true, either,” Flannery said. “That comes down to the weight of the ani-mal and the softness of the ground, not the sex of the deer.”

The size of an individual hoof print is not an accurate determination, either. Just as hu-man feet come in all shapes and sizes, so do those of a whitetail. The biggest bucks will generally have the biggest feet, so if a print is exceptionally large, there’s a good chance a buck made it. However, does can have big feet, too.

“My son shot a doe that field-dressed at 188 pounds,” Flannery, owner of Wilderness Escape Outfitters, continued. “She had huge hooves. I guarantee you 99 percent of the skilled trackers out there would have sworn it was a buck if they saw a hoof print from that doe. You can’t say for sure a big hoof print is made by a buck.”

That’s not to say it’s impossible to determine the sex of a deer by its tracks. On the contrary, Flannery, who also gives seminars on tracking deer, has made a pretty good living at it.

“A good tracker can tell if it’s a buck or doe by looking at about 10 feet of tracks,” Flannery said. “You can tell by the way it walks.”

A doe’s back legs will be wider than the front legs and a buck’s gait will have the opposite characteristics. That’s because of their physical characteristics, Flannery explained.

“A doe has wider hips because she gives birth, much like a woman has wider hips,” he said. “A buck’s front legs are slightly wider because he has more weight up front on his shoulders and on his head.”

The differences can be subtle. He admits it took him years to perfect his skill, and he agrees the average deer hunter likely won’t be able to determine the sex of a whitetail by looking at its stride. In many regions, deer don’t leave enough of a trail to allow a hunter to pick up on the differences. Hard ground, leaves and other cover can prevent even the heaviest deer from leaving a discernable trail.

“You need snow or enough soft ground that you can get a good look at the tracks for at least 10 feet before you can really tell what you are looking at,” Flannery said.

Big Rub, Big Buck

If big tracks don’t always lead to a big buck, what about a big rub? In many instances, it’s true. Bigger trees often indicate a bigger buck. However, it’s all but impossible to make specific conclusions about an individual deer based on a rub, says University of Georgia wildlife management professor Dr. Karl Miller.

He agrees that young males are less likely to rub exceptionally large trees and the size of the deer can be gauged in part by a number of factors on the tree itself. Most notably, the height of the highest marks offers some clues since larger bucks stand taller and large racks will reach higher on the tree.

“All deer are different, just like we are all different, so we can really only make generalizations about different age groups when we look at rubs,” Miller said.

What is known is that mature bucks tend to rub earlier in the fall, and they make more rubs than younger bucks. A high number of rubs in one area may be a sign that a mature buck is using it. Researchers discovered that bucks at least 2 ½ years old make more than twice as many rubs as younger deer. In one study, scientists determined that a single mature buck can make up to 1,200 rubs in a single fall. That translates to as many as 15 rubs per day.

However, the rub density might also be a reflection of buck density, adds Miller, or a combination of both. He adds that rubbing activity remains fairly steady right into the rut.

Not all rubs are the same, though. Some hunters, for instance, like to see a large number of twisted, thrashed and otherwise torn up saplings in a small area. That’s likely a sign of aggression, and older bucks tend to be more aggressive. But without actually seeing the deer that made those rubs, it’s difficult to know for sure, Miller said.

Those types of rubs are different from what are known as sign-post rubs, which serve as a way to communicate with other deer in the area. Bucks have glands on their foreheads and deposit scent on trees. Although one buck will make the initial rub, numerous other males will also rub the tree as a way to communicate with their fellow whitetails. In some instances, a single tree or even a fence post can serve as a legacy rub, one that deer use for years after the initial rub was made.

Bucks, however, don’t rub to rid their antlers of velvet. That tissue falls off whether a buck rubs it or not. Miller thinks the velvet peel and the first rubbing activity of the year could be nothing more than a coincidence.

“We have bucks in our pens that don’t have anything to rub on, and their velvet always comes off,” he said.

Scrapes

Scrapes don’t provide many clues about individual bucks, either.

One study in Missouri found no correlation between scrape size and the size of the deer visiting it. However, older, larger bucks were more likely to make scrapes, but less likely to actually visit scrapes than younger ones. A study conducted in 1997 and 1998 by then-University of Georgia graduate student Karen Alexy found that mature bucks rarely visited any of the nine scrapes she monitored via motion-sensor video cameras during a two-year study.

However, she did find that multiple bucks visited individual scrapes, blowing the theory that a single buck makes and uses a scrape. On the contrary, as many as 13 bucks visited one scrape, and nine visited other individual scrapes.

That doesn’t mean a scrape or even a line of scrapes is something to get excited about. Hanging a treestand over a scrape might not be the most effective way to target a specific buck, according to Alexy’s research.

She found that 85 percent of all scrape activity along a field edge and in the woods occurred at night. Other research found the same thing. What’s more, activity at all scrapes, no matter the time of day, was relatively low. Some scrapes had just one or two bucks visit.

Alexy recorded an average of 31 visits per scrape over a two-month period, or about one every other day. Nearly two-thirds of those visits were from does.

That’s not to say a scrape isn’t a good starting point. Any deer sign is good first step, especially if it’s from a buck. Just don’t put all your hope into a single ingredient in the deer hunting equation. Instead, consider them all — except for the big clump of deer poop.

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