Nobody wants to blow a shot and wound a deer, but it happens. If you wing or graze a buck with an arrow or bullet, will he return and stay in his core area, or will he leave for good? I reached out to a couple of America’s top deer biologists who are also hard-core hunters for their thoughts. “Yes, a mature buck will come back to the area where he was injured,” says Kip Adams of the Quality Deer Management Association. “Depending on where it occurred, maybe in an open food plot or field, a buck might not move there during daylight hours for a while, but he’s not leaving his home range. That’s where he feels safest, so [...]

Most of the trees that bucks rubbed last October and November are still whitish scars on the trees, and easy to spot in the spring woods. Look especially close for “signpost” rubs--large, scarred trees that mark some section of a mature buck’s core living area. Missouri whitetail scientist Grant Woods says that while mature bucks blaze the rubs on thick trees during the lead up to the fall rut, many deer interact with them year-round. “Big rubs act as communal pheromone wicks and are located in areas with high deer traffic,” he says. Bucks and does can easily see the rubs and sometimes veer over for a sniff. Many signpost rubs are rubbed again and again by rutting bucks each [...]