I bet it would be pretty hard to make an old buck abandon his core area after he’s had it established his whole life. This is one of the reason why I look at small summer plots and feeders, etc as being very limited in their impacts….I know a lot of folks look at summer plots and see them as drawing in bucks from the neighbors or bringing in new bucks to call their place home. etc….but I just don’t think that’s the case…..I think what you would really want to shoot for in these situations would be to concentrate the local doe groups onto your property and have them draw in the bucks. The crazy thing to me though is how folks plant summer plots, put out feeders, trap coyotes, etc, etc…..and then come deer season they start blasting their does because they “need shooting”.

The good buck I shot this year had returned to my place during the rut for at least a second straight year. We’re talking about literally returning to the same green field. I’d be curious to know if he had done it prior to that as well. That leads me to believe that other bucks are likely doing the same thing. They spend most of the year in their safe core area that they found as a dispersing yearling and then move into a different area of high doe concentrations for the rut. If many return to the same areas year after year then it would probably be good to protect as many does as you could on your place instead of shooting the chit out of them for no good reason. You may be drawing in bucks from literally several miles around ...... especially if your neighbors are “managing does”.