Average migration distance?

[PolarBear]

Does anyone remember when old man Eastman tracked "Popeye" for over 200 miles during his winter migration?

[huntnnw]

Lotta whitetails in NE WA migrate..Almost all the mt deer will move somewhere...and then there is the clayton/deer park herd that is farm country that migrate like stated above one of the few if only herds of whitetails that migrate outta farm country in the state. I lived in this area and it didnt matter if it snowed or not by Nov 30th every years the deer just started disapperaing and by early Dec then were gone.

[fish vacuum]

Blacktail Bucks have a "core" area sometime less the a 1/4 mile in diameter, that they move in and out of never leaving the core very far unless something forces them out. I watched a study where they tagged 10 blacktail bucks with GPS trackers. Six of the ten (the most dominant bucks had over lapping core areas. The less dominant bucks were forced into fringe areas and running with other non-dominant bucks. The most dominant buck stayed within the vicinity of his core area for over three years, that was far smaller then any other core area but more secure. They believe he stayed there until he was displaced by a new buck. That core was two small draws with a connecting narrow saddle. One draw a little bigger then a football field the other about four times tha size.
Only the non-dominant bucks traveled more then a couple miles form the area they were tagged

I would believe this to be true for the lower elevation BT's that do not have to migrate. The area's we usually hunt have an annual average snowfall of around 50 feet. So they do move a fair distance in a years time.

My thoughts too. It's impossible to say blacktails all act a certain way. The blacktails that walk through my yard are locals that probably never travel outside of a square mile. The area I usually hunt blacktails has a mix of local deer and higher elevation deer from 4000' higher once the snow flies.

[MtnMuley]

Mule deer can flat out cover some ground when pushed. On occassion it has been documented that if pushed by severe weather they have been known to move 50 miles in a 24 hour period.Even during a normal migration year,during an "average"winter, some will migrate that far at there own pace.Some will migrate 5 or 10 miles,some 40 or 50,some will even travel farther to the winter range depending on what mother nature throws at em in regards to weather.Without alot of "details" a pardner of ours shot a big buck some years ago that had a collar and transmitter around its neck,he was a "big boy" of a buck! He followed the instructions on the collar and called it in. He was told by the bio the story of this buck,they had collared him 7 years earlier and the batteries had went dead the last 2 years of his life and they didnt know if he was alive or dead. The years the transmitter was working he was spending his summers in British Columbia and wintering in the Methow. Where we shot him was about 60 miles from his summer range in B.C. The 3 or 4 years they tracked  him, his winters were spent in a 3 to 5 mile radious area in the Methow.

Interesting. I've often wondered how many Canadian deer we see, if any.

[huntnnw]

they get some in NE WA I know for sure

[lewy]

  Animal migrations always capture my interest, one thing I have learned over the years is that there are some animals that are just plain tough and hold tight. I have picked up some sheds in some places were nothing should be in the winter months

[buckfvr]

We've picked up more than one whitetail shed @ 5k..............

[TommyH]

There gone from my place mid winter. Some areas are void of any deer, few other areas are loaded with them,
 southern facing hills.

[Grizman]

Interesting topic.  Here are my observations.  I live in NE WA at 3200'. We have white tails all around our place from 3200' to 5600'.  I am able to be out among them on a daily basis.  The deer in our area stay until on of two things happen.  1). We get about 24" of snow on the ground, or 2) the barometer tells them that a big storm is on it's way.  I have watched the deer stay until mid December when we are having a light winter with snowfalls of a few inches at a time.  I have also watched them pick up and leave with only 8-10" of snow on the ground followed by a big dump of 12" or more in a single storm.  Our deer head to the two river valleys to our east and west.  During the winter, you will not find a deer track between about Dec and late Mar.  Then, they show up again.  They all leav within days and they all return within about a two week period.  Their migration distance from our area is 10 miles if the go east and about 20-25 miles for the ones going west.  The most interesting thing to me is when the deer leave almost over night with only a small amount of snow on the ground, and about 3 days later we get a total dump of deep snow that will last until spring.  How do they know!!!  Hence the old saying among hunters, " hunt the storm fronts"

[blindluck]

I've heard in colorado the mule deer migrate up to 500 miles

Considering Colorado is less than 400 miles across, I am skeptical about this.  Serengeti wildebeest migrate about 500 miles as year.
My experience in NE Washington tells me that mule deer migrate more reliably by altitude than distance.  I will stand corrected if I have it wrong, however.

I think I saw it on Meateater on the outdoor channel, they must migrate across state lines.

[baldopepper]

As others have said it really depends on the area.  I'm more familiar with the migrations of the mule deer in Utah and I know in some areas there they migrate well over 100 miles and an area we hunted a lot, the migration was just a few miles.  It's really something when you are in the middle of a migration.  One year we sat in camp (it had snowed hard the day before and was still snowing as we sat in camp) we watched a hillside while literally hundreds of deer marched across it during the day. None of us had ever seen anything like it (my brother and cousin shot nice bucks while sitting in lawn chairs in camp).  The next day the snow on that hillside had tracks that looked like a herd of sheep had been driven across it. It seems to me that if the first snow is a really deep one, they just head to their regular winter area, but if it's just a light snow they only head far enough to find easier browsing. Contrary to popular belief the big bucks head down as early as the does and fawns if not earlier (at least that's been our observation over the years).  Hunter success can really vary when it's migration time.  An area you scouted or hunted one week with lots of animals can be totally bare the next week and vica versa. 

[PolarBear]

We have run into whitetails in 101 at 6,800' + in the Snow peak area and have seen the very same bucks clean down near the rez line on the San Poil during the winter.  It is only around 12-14 miles as the crow flies but more like 60 or more foot miles.  My hunting buddy from over there has seen mulie bucks that refuse to migrate out of the peaks and live all winter in 10 x 10 spots hollowed out in 5-6 feet of snow.

[Alchase]

Blacktail Bucks have a "core" area sometime less the a 1/4 mile in diameter, that they move in and out of never leaving the core very far unless something forces them out. I watched a study where they tagged 10 blacktail bucks with GPS trackers. Six of the ten (the most dominant bucks had over lapping core areas. The less dominant bucks were forced into fringe areas and running with other non-dominant bucks. The most dominant buck stayed within the vicinity of his core area for over three years, that was far smaller then any other core area but more secure. They believe he stayed there until he was displaced by a new buck. That core was two small draws with a connecting narrow saddle. One draw a little bigger then a football field the other about four times tha size.
Only the non-dominant bucks traveled more then a couple miles form the area they were tagged

I would believe this to be true for the lower elevation BT's that do not have to migrate. The area's we usually hunt have an annual average snowfall of around 50 feet. So they do move a fair distance in a years time.

They did not say the location, but it had to be around the Raymond and Nacelle vicinity?
Definitely not high elevation.

[bigmacc]

Mule deer can flat out cover some ground when pushed. On occassion it has been documented that if pushed by severe weather they have been known to move 50 miles in a 24 hour period.Even during a normal migration year,during an "average"winter, some will migrate that far at there own pace.Some will migrate 5 or 10 miles,some 40 or 50,some will even travel farther to the winter range depending on what mother nature throws at em in regards to weather.Without alot of "details" a pardner of ours shot a big buck some years ago that had a collar and transmitter around its neck,he was a "big boy" of a buck! He followed the instructions on the collar and called it in. He was told by the bio the story of this buck,they had collared him 7 years earlier and the batteries had went dead the last 2 years of his life and they didnt know if he was alive or dead. The years the transmitter was working he was spending his summers in British Columbia and wintering in the Methow. Where we shot him was about 60 miles from his summer range in B.C. The 3 or 4 years they tracked  him, his winters were spent in a 3 to 5 mile radious area in the Methow.

Interesting. I've often wondered how many Canadian deer we see, if any.

MtnMuley, right around 40 years ago an old friend of ours was asked by Outdoor Life magazine to pack in some photographers and a writer into an area to do a story about "border jumpers", it was a story about deer migrating across the border from Canada into Washington. At that time there was a bit of a "scurmish" between B.C and Wa. about who,s deer were who,s . I guess alot of guys back then knew some migration routes comming out of Canada(my family had a few of those routes pegged back in the day also but always hunted them on the Washington side),anyways,some of these ya-hoos(not my family) would sit on the border and even nudge across into Canada and drop bucks and scoot back into Washington on the sly. There are deer that jump the border and hunters ...you would probably be surprised of how many Canadian deer you would see,(and not know it) especially during a really bad winter up north of the border

[bigmacc]

Back in the late 60,s when the Methow hit 67 below zero,(huge winter kill)that weather came down from the north via the Fraser river up in B.C. A lot of deer,pets,livestock were lost in that "flash freeze". A whole bunch of those deer that died that winter came out of Canada,trying to stay one step ahead of that brutal cold front,some parished as far south of their home in B.C as the Columbia river(pateros).....Some of those deer traveled a long way to die.