Eight things to know about bachelor groups of bucks that can help you as a hunter

I just checked the calendar, and as I write this, there are 28 days until the 2024 bowhunting opener in Minnesota. Of course, there’s always plenty to do in the weeks ahead: shoot the bow, prep some stands, gather clothing and gear for the opener, and so on.

But an often overlooked – and important – exercise is locating and studying bachelor groups of bucks. This has long been one of my favorite activities on summer evenings starting in July.

My friends and I enjoy driving rural roads in the area, keeping an eye on alfalfa and soybean fields for feeding velvet bucks. Even if I’m not going to hunt the properties we’re glassing, it’s always fun to watch as bucks feed and interact with each other.

In addition to just being entertained (who doesn’t like watching whopper bucks, even from afar?), we can learn a lot about whitetails from observing them during this unique period of the year.

Here are eight things to know about bachelor groups.

MORE HUNTING FEATURES FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:

Three whitetail food sources bowhunters should scout now in preparation for the September opener

A Quick Chat with bowhunting great Andy May on early-season tactics

Video: Breaking down an early-season archery setup for whitetails

Groups form early

While bachelor groups are normally associated with velvet-clad bucks in summer, many of these groups form immediately after the rut and in the first weeks of winter.

I’ve watched bucks pair up and start running together in the immediate post-rut and stick together throughout the months ahead.

Sure they may be, and often are, joined by other bucks as the year progresses, but it’s not unusual to see bucks seeking each other’s company not long after the main breeding peak passes.

A survival strategy?

Naturally there’s speculation about why bachelor groups form. While no one seems to be positively certain, one likely explanation is that a group of bucks simply has more eyes, ears, and noses to detect danger.

This seems to make perfect sense, because whitetails are typically pretty social critters, and there is obviously strength in numbers when it comes to detecting (and possibly warding off) predators.

They’re fairly predictable

One thing we learn about bachelor groups as we drive around is that they tend to stick to a relatively small area, usually associated with a prime food source such as soybeans or alfalfa.

This observation lines up nicely with science, which has shown that of all phases during the year, the whitetail home range is smallest during the summer.

Dominance hierarchy

Obviously, summer bucks are in full velvet and protective of their rapidly growing – but tender – antlers. So they don’t engage in any sparring or fighting while in velvet, but they do have other ways of asserting authority over other deer.

I’ve watched bucks posture, body-bump, and kick at each other, especially as they jockey for position at food sources.

All these aggressive maneuvers give bigger – or at least more aggressive –bucks the chance to say, “I’m the boss,” to other deer.

And, it should be noted, bachelor groups often stay intact for a time after velvet shed, and bucks are often eager to spar and/or fight as soon as antlers have hardened – perhaps as a chance to finally settle things after a summer of lesser “fighting” occurs.

Indeed, several veteran hunters I know feel that some of the harshest buck fights of the season occur in early fall, their theory being that frustrated bucks can now use their headgear, not to mention that a buck shifting his core area after velvet shed might encounter a strange buck and decide to duke it out.

They reveal great early season hunting spots

It’s fairly well known that shortly after velvet shed, bachelor groups may break up and some of the deer disperse.

This fact causes some people to dismiss the importance of glassing summer bachelor groups under the belief that any information they glean from these encounters will be useless come hunting season. This is partly true, but not entirely, and here’s why.

Most of the dispersal that occurs following velvet shed is done by yearling bucks, which typically elect to move to areas where they don’t have to mess with mature bucks. Meanwhile, the older deer that comprised the exciting element of the bachelor group tend to stick around, especially if the late-summer/early-fall food source remains viable.

Sometimes these mature bucks will maintain the highly visible feeding routines they exhibited in late summer. But even if they don’t, most of them won’t be far away. Continued scouting and trail cameras can reveal their new hangouts.

Not every deer participates

Another fairly well-accepted fact about whitetail bucks is that they’re not all cut from the same cloth. While most bucks readily accept the companionship of other antlered buddies, there will always be a loner or two that wants nothing to do with other deer.

In my experience, this is most likely to occur with older bucks – animals that have lived long enough to develop a unique personality.

The largest buck I’ve ever tagged was a perfect example. While our cameras captured pics of a couple of different bachelor groups on this farm, my hunting buddy and I noted that every pic of this 170-class buck was a solo shot.

He simply seemed to prefer his own company, and the night I arrowed him (the first week of Minnesota’s early archery season), he ignored the presence of four young bucks in a nearby food plot and headed toward the empty plot where I was waiting.

This buck doesn’t appear to be an outlier. I’ve noted several older bucks over the years that just seemed to prefer solitary life. This is important info; if the bachelor groups you’re observing don’t contain any whoppers, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a dandy living nearby.

They’re lazy

Telemetry has established that bucks (and other deer) have the smallest home range during summer. I’ll take this a step further and opine that they bed closer to food than at any other time of the season, with the exception of the post-rut.

During late season, bucks bed close to food to conserve energy, but in the summer they do basically the same thing, but for different reasons.

In the farm country where I hunt, I’m convinced that at least part of this strategy is insect avoidance. When mosquitoes, gnats, and other nasties get thick, it’s pretty common to see whitetails (nice bucks included) feeding in open fields at midday.

While hunger is an obvious factor, I believe they also just need a break from insect bites, so bedding within an easy walk to a field or opening makes perfect sense.

Whitetails, especially mature bucks, are basically lazy creatures, and they rarely travel farther than they have to when seeking food and cover. And because bucks are consuming a tremendous number of calories during summer, why burn off a bunch of energy walking from bed to feed if you don’t have to?

Veteran Kentucky guide Mark Clifford believes that early-fall bucks may bed less than 50 yards from a preferred food source. That’s one reason why he never lets his clients hunt during mornings, because it’s nearly impossible to beat a buck back to his bedroom.

Hunt them carefully

It’s no secret that whitetails, especially mature bucks, respond quickly once they sense hunting pressure. Telemetry studies have shown that deer that were once using fields and food plots during daylight in the summer stopped visiting those spots when the sun was up and hunting season was on.

While it took bucks only a few days to respond to the influx of hunters in the woods during this study, it’s possible to buy yourself more time if you’re careful with stand placement, entry/exit, and not over-hunting an area.

Still, once you start invading a buck’s happy places, the clock is ticking on how long he feels comfortable there. And if you’re dealing with a multiple-buck bachelor group, consider that clock to be humming even faster.