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Author Topic: Deer wintering spots  (Read 2608 times)

Offline RustyNail

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Deer wintering spots
« on: February 27, 2020, 09:42:57 PM »
How do you find where they winter at? Where do they winter at. I’m talking about Blacktail deer. Thank you!

Offline Onewhohikes

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2020, 05:12:11 AM »
What area you looking at? If you are in a higher elevation spot  then look river valleys, alder patches, etc

Online vandeman17

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2020, 06:24:00 AM »
Find feed and protection from the elements and you will find deer
" I have hunted almost every day of my life, the rest have been wasted"

Offline RustyNail

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2020, 11:05:24 AM »
the hunting spot is at about 1000 ft in elevation.

Offline MooseStock

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2020, 01:46:08 PM »
Blacktail don't winter like the herds of Mule deer do...they pretty much live their lives in an area maybe several miles square...if the weather is bad they may be on a south slope or out of the wind but they know their area totally...Bucks may wander in the rut but then they go home...Thats why they are the toughest hunt in the deer world IMO...Les

Offline grade-creek-rd

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2020, 08:39:42 AM »
WDFW is currently doing a study of blacktail bucks with GPS collars, using 50 bucks as a sample (and when one dies they replace it with another buck in the local area)...so we will hopefully have some data soon (I think they are in year 3 of a 5 year study) and they did a one year study on does. The average home range for a blacktail doe was just around 270 acres (I think 274...been a while since I reviewed the data) and one doe lived in 40 acres for an entire year. Blacktails don't move around much, but they go "nocturnal" most of the year so we don't see them that much. There's always exceptions to the rule, such as Olympic National Park deer that summer high and migrate down as well as the "Cascade" bench deer.

Grade
There's more to life than hunting...there's fishing too!

Online Buckhunter24

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2020, 08:47:25 AM »
WDFW is currently doing a study of blacktail bucks with GPS collars, using 50 bucks as a sample (and when one dies they replace it with another buck in the local area)...so we will hopefully have some data soon (I think they are in year 3 of a 5 year study) and they did a one year study on does. The average home range for a blacktail doe was just around 270 acres (I think 274...been a while since I reviewed the data) and one doe lived in 40 acres for an entire year. Blacktails don't move around much, but they go "nocturnal" most of the year so we don't see them that much. There's always exceptions to the rule, such as Olympic National Park deer that summer high and migrate down as well as the "Cascade" bench deer.

Grade

Thats wild. I knew they.had a tight radius, didnt realize it was quite that small though they really are ghosts

Offline fishnfur

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Re: Deer wintering spots
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2020, 12:06:18 AM »
Every thing I've seen/read/heard says they bed and winter very close to a food source. 

The area should provide thermal protection from the elements (rain/snow/wind/cold) but be close to food, since they will not travel in the winter to feed.  In many cases, they are in full energy conservation mode and cannot intake enough calories to offset daily caloric burn required to just stay alive.  They subsist on a starvation diet in hopes of surviving till spring.  This is not really the case in lowland areas unless it is an unusually cold and rainy/snowy winter.  Most seasons, the lowland deer seem to survive with body fat reserves still intact.

Upper elevations, the deer congregate around the largest conifer trees that provide the most falling moss during wind or weather events.  Lower down, you've got to figure out what they're eating.  Typically small woody browse like Huckelberries and vine maple buds as well as any remaining trailing and other varieties of blackberry, sword fern tips, salal, etc.  You may often find that they're eating W. Hemlock seedlings tops, which is considered to be one of the browse forms that indicates they are starving.  I'm not so sure about that 'cause I see that happening a lot.  Elk hit them too.
“When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.”  - Will Rogers

 


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