Summer is a good time to be a whitetail buck. There’s plenty of food to go around. Antlers are growing. And you get to hang out with your buddies all the time. Bucks form these “bachelor groups” with other bucks for a few reasons. In summer, testosterone levels are low, so bucks aren’t worried about breeding rights, and they tolerate each other, although there is still a pecking order among them. Does are protective of their fawns, so the bucks get the hint that they should leave mom and the kids alone, so they just go hang with their buds. And having multiple sets of eyes, ears and noses makes it easier for the group to detect predators.
Meanwhile, during summer, antlers are growing quickly. The growing antlers are covered with tiny hairs called “velvet.” While antlers are in velvet, they are soft, spongy and easily damaged. Thus, you’ll often see bucks out in the open where they are less likely to damage their antlers on brush or low-hanging branches. At peak antler growth during mid-summer, a mature whitetail can grow a half-inch of antler a day!
By August, however, things begin changing. The days grow shorter. This change in photoperiod stimulates the pineal gland to increase melatonin production, which ultimately leads to increased testosterone production. As testosterone levels increase, the blood flow to the growing antlers is diminished, the spongy antlers calcify and the velvet coating dies.
When the velvet dies, for reasons we can only speculate, bucks are spurred to rub the velvet from their antlers on brush or trees. This process can take from 3 hours to a couple days, depending in part on a buck’s experience in rubbing antlers and the sheer size of the buck’s rack. This is a bloody ordeal because blood lies within the dying velvet, and a buck that has recently shed its velvet will have blood-stained antlers for a day or two until the blood is rubbed or washed off. Bucks generally eat the shed velvet, perhaps to regain trace minerals.
Increased testosterone levels also break up the bachelor party. Although breeding season is still a couple months away, bucks begin to view their “friends” as rivals. The group splits up, and bucks become mostly solitary.
After a split, the buck’s movements become harder to trace and less predictable. Some states, like North Dakota and Wyoming, have early archery seasons that begin in August or early September. On opening day, bucks in these states will likely still be in velvet and traveling in groups, making them more visible and easier to pattern. There has been increased interest in recent years in hunting states with early archery seasons to take advantage of bucks still in bachelor groups.
If you’re lucky enough to hunt in such a state, scouting is key. Watch which fields bucks use and then try to intercept them as they move between bedding and feeding areas. When bucks are still in a group, there are more noses, ears and eyes to detect hunters. If one deer detects a hunter, it will warn all the others, making it harder for a hunter to outwit the group, but the tradeoff is that it’s easier to see and follow the movements of a herd of deer versus a single deer.
Once bucks shed their velvet, their hormone levels gradually increase as they move slowly toward the rut. But if you can intercept a buck before that happens, you’re likely to enjoy a more successful hunt.
