Much has been written, both popular and scientific, on the factors that affect deer movement. The problem is that there are a lot of variables that can affect deer movement, and this complicates most scientific studies. These variables include: hormones and breeding, food, moon phase, human pressure, wind, temperature, barometric pressure, buck-to-doe ratio; and the list goes on and on.

Here are a few facts that may help you plan you upcoming deer hunts.

What I have attempted to do is look at a studies, and pass them along in a way that we all can use here in Western New York.

As with all studies, few are done on the deer we hunt here in Western New York, but there have been a couple. Each study offers information regarding its study group and each core group is in different parts of the county.

Part of the problem is that when studying one variable, such as deer movement and temperature, the results may become clouded because of other variables like barometric pressure or the moon cycle acting at the same time. We can speculate about the results and the differences in results from studies done in two different areas, but it is just speculation. I’ll pass along the science and leave the interpretations up to you.

When doing studies on whitetail deer, or any other wild critter, the main problem we have is that wild critters don’t talk the same language we do. So, in turn, field observations are the best way to connect most studies.

Dr. Mark Conners presented data on deer movements on Chesapeake Farms on the eastern shore of Maryland. He looked at the travel distance by time of day and found the peak time for deer movement was 5-7 a.m. and in the evening. No surprise here. In August, he found that in the morning, bucks moved about 330 yards, with little movement in the day, then movement of 435 yards in the evening. In October, he found they moved between 330 and 650 yards in the morning and 220 to 330 yards in the evening, but there was a lot of individual variation in daily movements at this time. Come November, the individual buck movements were highly variable. Some moved a lot more than others. And some bucks moved continually throughout the day.

It has been a long-accepted fact that there are two major factors that affect movement, regardless of the weather — the need to breed and the need to feed. Obviously, deer must do both, but there is no doubt that weather and other variables affect the need to breed and the need to feed.

Another study was done recently that watched their movements as being inactive-bedded, standing- or active-feeding, walking or running. The bucks were followed 24 hours a day during the pre-rut and the rut, collecting data for six consecutive years. The first is their need to breed. For bucks, testosterone is the driving force that gets them into breeding condition. The second factor is their need to feed. These two factors determine why and when they move. Weather, moon, human pressure, buck-to-doe ratio, and other things can enter in, but when it comes to deer movement, these are the keys.

What is interesting is that 57 percent of the time bucks are inactive. This means that more than half the time they are either bedded or standing in one spot. Assuming that 30 percent of that is bedding at night, there is another one-quarter of the 24-hour day when they are fairly inaccessible to you. This explains why we don’t have bucks running around under our tree stands or near our ground blinds all the time. When you look at the big picture it becomes obvious that bucks don’t move around all that much.

The closer one can set up to those areas without bumping them, the better chance you have of seeing a buck when he is active. Daytime movements peak when you thought they did — 7-9 a.m. and 6-7 p.m.

Charles Alsheimer, and others, believe that in the fall, buck movements decrease sharply when you get above 45 degrees. Not so in the south. With the thought that the post-rut (Nov. 26-Dec. 16) buck activity increased as change in hourly. During the peak rut you need to be hunting, regardless of how warm it might be.

What is interesting is Charlie Alsheimer uses 45 degrees as a rule of thumb for deer movement in New York and elsewhere in the north. When it gets warmer than that, deer movement in November is curtailed, but there is still some movement. When it’s really, really cold, movements will also change. They will get out of the wind, spend time on sunny hillsides, especially those out of the wind, and become more active during the warmest parts of the day. In cold weather, during the rut, there may be an exception. In my experience, when a nasty snowstorm hits during the night, and the morning temperatures are cold, buck activity can be very good.