Bucks change location after rut?

[GreyGhost85]

i wouldn't put cameras where I see the larger bucks during the rut. Try placing them in the washes and cuts out in the flats. When you get pics of the larger Bucks concentrate your cams/scouting on that area.

i run my cams at 7,000' elevation. not really any washes or flats. the places i see the big bucks during the rut is where i see big coues year round. the coues do not migrate like mulies. i know for a fact that some of the bucks in the area move 20 miles or more from their summer/fall areas to rut

[CouesKilla]

I know the area I hunt is thick with bucks during the rut, but in early November I struggle to spot a single one. I also rarely find sheds where I hunt. This leads me to believe they move into the area to rut and then move out after the rut. I at first thought they are just really nocturnal until the rut, but the lack of sheds suggests they are just gone come shed season. I hunt at 3100 ft so my guess is the bucks I hunt move high in the summer.

[creed]

They have a home range that they stay in often forming bachelor herds. When the rut starts all bets are off. I had one buck I watched for several years on trailcam that was killed by a hunter 25 miles from where we got pictures of him. Saw another buck from the same area 20 miles away. Both of these were during the rut. They always returned to their home range in March and were with the same bucks that they were with from the year before.

 

There was no mistaking these were the same deer either. One of them was a perfectly symmetrical 4x4 that would net near 200, the other a big muley buck with a whitetail type rack that grossed 218. They move around when the girls smell good!