Making deer (buck) tracks

[nwalpineguide]

I enjoy making deer tracks, and then observing the track I made as it changes or deteriorates over time. Rain, snow, humidity, sunlight and wind as well other things, like falling pine needles or leaves affects the way a track appears over time. This helps me compare and contrast tracks I find while scouting and hunting. A good reference.

I do this exercise with sand, mud, snow, dirt etc. Gives me something interesting to do that's  deer hunting related during the off months. The hoof on this buck was slightly longer than 3 inches, a good size track indicative of a mature buck. Although I've seen some size 11 doe tracks as well (grin).



Enjoy!

[Skyvalhunter]

So its you I have been following around in the woods, I thought it was a 1 legged deer. Can you make the due claws a little more pronounced next time so I know its a buck.

[huntnfmly]

So its you I have been following around in the woods, I thought it was a 1 legged deer. Can you make the due claws a little more pronounced next time so I know its a buck.

😆

[nwwanderer]

Have an old spike foot if you would like some variety!!!

[Jimmer]

How do you know you have the proper weight, pressure? I think that would be a big factor

[DOUBLELUNG]

Although I've seen some size 11 doe tracks as well (grin).

Reminds me of one of my first deer hunts in Northern NH, where whitetail does can run up to 200 lbs live weight.  I had hunted all morning in the late November north woods on fresh powder, and decided to post up for the afternoon above a series of beaver ponds.  Not long after I saw a big deer moving slowly downstream through the thick brush.  Despite my best efforts with the binoculars, I couldn't put any bone on her head (buck only or I'd have shot my 2nd ever deer).  About half an hour later I saw a hunter in orange following that same route.  I waved until he saw me, then went down to chat.  He was on the track and asked if I'd seen the deer.  When i said "yep, big doe", he let loose with a string of cuss words and told me he'd been on that track since daybreak (about 6 hours).  I went and looked at the tracks after he moved on, they were huge, pushing 4".  The only indication it might not be a buck was the lack of toe dragging, but had I cut that track and not seen the deer, I'd have been following it too. 

[teanawayslayer]

Ok this is plain weird!

[elkrack]

My old man is a prankster and has had some fun “making” tracks. Elk tracks walking down the side of a skidder road then putting  a couple of hoof tracks on the hood of the parked truck   would have loved to see the reaction of the hunter. Sorry not trying to jack the thread this just brought up a great memory 

[nwalpineguide]

My old man is a prankster and has had some fun “making” tracks. Elk tracks walking down the side of a skidder road then putting  a couple of hoof tracks on the hood of the parked truck   would have loved to see the reaction of the hunter. Sorry not trying to jack the thread this just brought up a great memory 

GREAT anecdote and memory elkrack! Thanks for sharing that. You have just given me a great idea for placing deer tracks in 3 feet of snow around my neighbors' places along the Chiwawa River. This, in the depths of winter when all the local deer have migrated to the Swakane, Entiat or elsewhere winter ranges.

Can't wait to see the quizzical looks, as well comments my neighbors will certainly share with me....it will be difficult to hide my laughter!

[bigmacc]

Well if we need a laugh during the doldrums of winter I may have one that has to do with deer tracks. I think it was back in the 80,s,(could have been the 70,s ) we had just had a hellacious blizzard hit in the Methow, the storm dropped up to 2 feet in some areas of the valley in about a 24-30 hour span. Our wall tents caved in on us overnight as many others did also in the area we were hunting. We had  5 nice big bucks already hanging and were 2 short of filling up that year, the migration had already started about 4 days prior to this storm hitting and the deer were getting out of the high country, in fact all 5 bucks that we had killed a couple days prior were all killed in a route we know of, 3 were killed one day while traveling with a herd of about 120 and the other 2 were killed the next morning less than 24hours later traveling in a herd of over 75 head, the weather was beautiful, blue skies and about 40-50 degrees when we killed those bucks but we had heard the weather was about to make a drastic turn and we planted ourselves in that particular migration route on a hunch by my dad, the other 2 guys went into a different area and came up empty but by the end of the season killed a couple dandy 4 points. Any way, we were sitting around one day with nothing left to do, we had all our bucks and had 3 days to go before leaving, we did lots of scouting, taking notes of movement or lack of in lots of different areas and one day a buddy picked up a big old buck leg that was near the pole, the wheels started turning. there were 4 other camps in the area, all of whom we knew well and all were out hunting. We took a few of the legs/feet and went to work. We made tracks coming out of the trees heading towards one of their tents, the tracks went into the tent and we made a spot that looked like a deer had bedded down, then the tracks went to another tent and knocked over a bunch of stuff on a table outside and that deer actually knocked over some milk and lapped it up and got into a bag of apples and partially ate a few and left the cores spread around half eaten with tracks all over around the table. Then the deer headed over to a truck where on an open tailgate a bag of unopened potato chips layed, well that darn deer tore the bag of chips apart and made a heck of a mess, apparently they love BBQ. Then the tracks led off into a thicket about 20 yards away. We told them when they got back what we had witnessed, we said we were sitting by the fire having a cup of coffee when we seen movement over by the tent and were blown away to see a nice 4 point coming out of the tent flaps, we just sat and watched in awe as it wandered around their camp getting into stuff, we already had our deer so there was nothing to do but just watch what was happening, something we would never see again in a million years We told them the buck went over to the table sniffing and knocking over stuff until he found what he was looking for which was the BBQ chips he found on the tailgate, we told them he knocked them to the ground, kicked, pawed and bit at the bag until open, he ate half the bag and wandered away. We were both amazed and astonished at what we just witnessed, that story stuck for over two years and was told many times until one year while sitting around the fire the mystery was solved......Thanks to a beverage from Golden Colorado

[nwalpineguide]

Well if we need a laugh during the doldrums of winter I may have one that has to do with deer tracks. I think it was back in the 80,s,(could have been the 70,s ) we had just had a hellacious blizzard hit in the Methow, the storm dropped up to 2 feet in some areas of the valley in about a 24-30 hour span. Our wall tents caved in on us overnight as many others did also in the area we were hunting. We had  5 nice big bucks already hanging and were 2 short of filling up that year, the migration had already started about 4 days prior to this storm hitting and the deer were getting out of the high country, in fact all 5 bucks that we had killed a couple days prior were all killed in a route we know of, 3 were killed one day while traveling with a herd of about 120 and the other 2 were killed the next morning less than 24hours later traveling in a herd of over 75 head, the weather was beautiful, blue skies and about 40-50 degrees when we killed those bucks but we had heard the weather was about to make a drastic turn and we planted ourselves in that particular migration route on a hunch by my dad, the other 2 guys went into a different area and came up empty but by the end of the season killed a couple dandy 4 points. Any way, we were sitting around one day with nothing left to do, we had all our bucks and had 3 days to go before leaving, we did lots of scouting, taking notes of movement or lack of in lots of different areas and one day a buddy picked up a big old buck leg that was near the pole, the wheels started turning. there were 4 other camps in the area, all of whom we knew well and all were out hunting. We took a few of the legs/feet and went to work. We made tracks coming out of the trees heading towards one of their tents, the tracks went into the tent and we made a spot that looked like a deer had bedded down, then the tracks went to another tent and knocked over a bunch of stuff on a table outside and that deer actually knocked over some milk and lapped it up and got into a bag of apples and partially ate a few and left the cores spread around half eaten with tracks all over around the table. Then the deer headed over to a truck where on an open tailgate a bag of unopened potato chips layed, well that darn deer tore the bag of chips apart and made a heck of a mess, apparently they love BBQ. Then the tracks led off into a thicket about 20 yards away. We told them when they got back what we had witnessed, we said we were sitting by the fire having a cup of coffee when we seen movement over by the tent and were blown away to see a nice 4 point coming out of the tent flaps, we just sat and watched in awe as it wandered around their camp getting into stuff, we already had our deer so there was nothing to do but just watch what was happening, something we would never see again in a million years We told them the buck went over to the table sniffing and knocking over stuff until he found what he was looking for which was the BBQ chips he found on the tailgate, we told them he knocked them to the ground, kicked, pawed and bit at the bag until open, he ate half the bag and wandered away. We were both amazed and astonished at what we just witnessed, that story stuck for over two years and was told many times until one year while sitting around the fire the mystery was solved......Thanks to a beverage from Golden Colorado

LMAO as this is fantastic! Man are the cogs churning in my head now. Thanks for sharing this bigmacc.

[Angry Perch]

My old man is a prankster and has had some fun “making” tracks. Elk tracks walking down the side of a skidder road then putting  a couple of hoof tracks on the hood of the parked truck   would have loved to see the reaction of the hunter. Sorry not trying to jack the thread this just brought up a great memory 

GREAT anecdote and memory elkrack! Thanks for sharing that. You have just given me a great idea for placing deer tracks in 3 feet of snow around my neighbors' places along the Chiwawa River. This, in the depths of winter when all the local deer have migrated to the Swakane, Entiat or elsewhere winter ranges.

Can't wait to see the quizzical looks, as well comments my neighbors will certainly share with me....it will be difficult to hide my laughter!

That's the kind of shenanigans I like to here about going on in the old neighborhood! Miss that place!
TD

[erk444]

Well if we need a laugh during the doldrums of winter I may have one that has to do with deer tracks. I think it was back in the 80,s,(could have been the 70,s ) we had just had a hellacious blizzard hit in the Methow, the storm dropped up to 2 feet in some areas of the valley in about a 24-30 hour span. Our wall tents caved in on us overnight as many others did also in the area we were hunting. We had  5 nice big bucks already hanging and were 2 short of filling up that year, the migration had already started about 4 days prior to this storm hitting and the deer were getting out of the high country, in fact all 5 bucks that we had killed a couple days prior were all killed in a route we know of, 3 were killed one day while traveling with a herd of about 120 and the other 2 were killed the next morning less than 24hours later traveling in a herd of over 75 head, the weather was beautiful, blue skies and about 40-50 degrees when we killed those bucks but we had heard the weather was about to make a drastic turn and we planted ourselves in that particular migration route on a hunch by my dad, the other 2 guys went into a different area and came up empty but by the end of the season killed a couple dandy 4 points. Any way, we were sitting around one day with nothing left to do, we had all our bucks and had 3 days to go before leaving, we did lots of scouting, taking notes of movement or lack of in lots of different areas and one day a buddy picked up a big old buck leg that was near the pole, the wheels started turning. there were 4 other camps in the area, all of whom we knew well and all were out hunting. We took a few of the legs/feet and went to work. We made tracks coming out of the trees heading towards one of their tents, the tracks went into the tent and we made a spot that looked like a deer had bedded down, then the tracks went to another tent and knocked over a bunch of stuff on a table outside and that deer actually knocked over some milk and lapped it up and got into a bag of apples and partially ate a few and left the cores spread around half eaten with tracks all over around the table. Then the deer headed over to a truck where on an open tailgate a bag of unopened potato chips layed, well that darn deer tore the bag of chips apart and made a heck of a mess, apparently they love BBQ. Then the tracks led off into a thicket about 20 yards away. We told them when they got back what we had witnessed, we said we were sitting by the fire having a cup of coffee when we seen movement over by the tent and were blown away to see a nice 4 point coming out of the tent flaps, we just sat and watched in awe as it wandered around their camp getting into stuff, we already had our deer so there was nothing to do but just watch what was happening, something we would never see again in a million years We told them the buck went over to the table sniffing and knocking over stuff until he found what he was looking for which was the BBQ chips he found on the tailgate, we told them he knocked them to the ground, kicked, pawed and bit at the bag until open, he ate half the bag and wandered away. We were both amazed and astonished at what we just witnessed, that story stuck for over two years and was told many times until one year while sitting around the fire the mystery was solved......Thanks to a beverage from Golden Colorado

How did you cover your tracks??

[bigmacc]

Well if we need a laugh during the doldrums of winter I may have one that has to do with deer tracks. I think it was back in the 80,s,(could have been the 70,s ) we had just had a hellacious blizzard hit in the Methow, the storm dropped up to 2 feet in some areas of the valley in about a 24-30 hour span. Our wall tents caved in on us overnight as many others did also in the area we were hunting. We had  5 nice big bucks already hanging and were 2 short of filling up that year, the migration had already started about 4 days prior to this storm hitting and the deer were getting out of the high country, in fact all 5 bucks that we had killed a couple days prior were all killed in a route we know of, 3 were killed one day while traveling with a herd of about 120 and the other 2 were killed the next morning less than 24hours later traveling in a herd of over 75 head, the weather was beautiful, blue skies and about 40-50 degrees when we killed those bucks but we had heard the weather was about to make a drastic turn and we planted ourselves in that particular migration route on a hunch by my dad, the other 2 guys went into a different area and came up empty but by the end of the season killed a couple dandy 4 points. Any way, we were sitting around one day with nothing left to do, we had all our bucks and had 3 days to go before leaving, we did lots of scouting, taking notes of movement or lack of in lots of different areas and one day a buddy picked up a big old buck leg that was near the pole, the wheels started turning. there were 4 other camps in the area, all of whom we knew well and all were out hunting. We took a few of the legs/feet and went to work. We made tracks coming out of the trees heading towards one of their tents, the tracks went into the tent and we made a spot that looked like a deer had bedded down, then the tracks went to another tent and knocked over a bunch of stuff on a table outside and that deer actually knocked over some milk and lapped it up and got into a bag of apples and partially ate a few and left the cores spread around half eaten with tracks all over around the table. Then the deer headed over to a truck where on an open tailgate a bag of unopened potato chips layed, well that darn deer tore the bag of chips apart and made a heck of a mess, apparently they love BBQ. Then the tracks led off into a thicket about 20 yards away. We told them when they got back what we had witnessed, we said we were sitting by the fire having a cup of coffee when we seen movement over by the tent and were blown away to see a nice 4 point coming out of the tent flaps, we just sat and watched in awe as it wandered around their camp getting into stuff, we already had our deer so there was nothing to do but just watch what was happening, something we would never see again in a million years We told them the buck went over to the table sniffing and knocking over stuff until he found what he was looking for which was the BBQ chips he found on the tailgate, we told them he knocked them to the ground, kicked, pawed and bit at the bag until open, he ate half the bag and wandered away. We were both amazed and astonished at what we just witnessed, that story stuck for over two years and was told many times until one year while sitting around the fire the mystery was solved......Thanks to a beverage from Golden Colorado

How did you cover your tracks??

There were already plenty of human tracks in the area, the snow had been on the ground for a few days and with about 20 hunters within the 5 camps that wasn't even an issue.