Mid-late October buck behavior questions

[HighUintas]

I'm in Utah and hunting the Wasatch on an archery buck tag. There's some snow on the N slopes, but not a lot. Maybe a few inches deep at most. I know bucks disappear after velvet and reappear when they start looking for does. So...


1. When do bucks generally start moving out of wherever they hide to transition to looking for does?
2. Is it likely or unlikely that they're bedding on N slopes with snow? I don't know much about mule deer and my brain is always on elk. So I keep wanting to glass N facing snowy slopes.

 

[HighUintas]

Anyone?

 

[wytx]

We generally start seeing pre rut staging with doe groups by the last week in Oct. Mature bucks seem to show up out of no where and start hanging around the doe groups.
We have seen some sparring already this year, younger bucks but not yearlings.

 

[HighUintas]

We generally start seeing pre rut staging with doe groups by the last week in Oct. Mature bucks seem to show up out of no where and start hanging around the doe groups.
We have seen some sparring already this year, younger bucks but not yearlings.

Thank you! I'll just keep watching the doe groups I've already located.

 

[wytx]

Never hunted Utah so take that with a grain of salt, but it holds for our area of Wyoming.
Looking forward to our last week in Oct. and the cold weather coming in for it.
We've taken solitary mature bucks and bucks with doe groups but it seems to never fail , new bucks show up that last week into the rut if you have doe numbers.

Good luck and if you have a good buck patterned- go get him.