How to tell a buck track from a doe track

[DeanoZ]

Thanks ranwin33 for the clarification...in my head I'm thinking "hmmm...4" WIDE track???  Thats not a deer, thats a moose!!!"

[ranwin33]

ORIGINAL: DeanoZ

Thanks ranwin33 for the clarification...in my head I'm thinking "hmmm...4" WIDE track???  Thats not a deer, thats a moose!!!"

Or a cow.

[Everyday Hunter]

ORIGINAL: coach

The sure way to tell:   A doe's back hoof will step into her front hoof track.  So your seeing 2 tracks in one.
While a buck because of their wider chest.....track are side by side....one in front of other.

That might be the best answer so far. It implies that you cannot tell a buck from a doe track if you're just looking at a single track. The pattern of the tracks is also important.

The fact that the buck's chest is wider than a doe's isn't relevant by itself. It's the ratio of his chest to his hips. A full grown buck's front footprints are wider apart than its back footprints. The doe, on the other hand, is generally built wider in the hips relative to her chest, making her rear footprints wider relative to her front prints. The size of the footprint itself should be considered, but is not conclusive.

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned is antler marks in the snow (assuming the snow is deep enough and the rack is big enough to leave an imprint.) Some people say that the distance apart of the trees is an indicator -- wide racked bucks won't walk between narrow trees. But I doubt that one. For one thing, deer will follow the path of least resistance, no matter how wide apart the trees are. For another, the can swing their heads and advance one side of the rack through ahead of the other. For a third, most racks are not wider than the buck's body anyway. And finally, lots of woods have very few trees too close together for a deer to walk through.

Without extra factors aside from the prints themselves, I doubt anyone can tell the print of a buck from the print of a doe if the buck under question hasn't reached skeletal maturity. If his front quarters haven't filled out yet, the prints his adolescent body leaves won't be distinguishable from those of a doe.

One of the factors the Benoits and other deer trackers consider is the weight of the buck as revealed by the track. Remember, they judge a big deer by weight rather than antler size. A 250 pound buck will be more flatfooted (that's why the dewclaws show more) and sink in deeper than a 140 pound doe.

Steve

[Demoderby4]

I don't have much intellect on trying to find out if a buck or doe made a track but i have heard that if snow is rather deer, almost any deer will have drag marks behind em, and i kind of believe that statement after this winter, i was hunting a corn field during most of december and about 8-9 out of every 10 tracks i saw (which was a heck of a lot of tracks in this field!) had drag marks, and i know their are not that many bucks running around in an open field that late in the season lol!

But if the a little bit of snow and their are drag marks i would say that their is a good chance it was a buck that made the track, other than that, to me, the only sure way really is to actually see the buck make the track and go look it over and try to distinguish any differences in his track from a known doe track.

[Archery_NUT]

i have always heard that a bucks tracks will point outwards and a does point inwards slightly when walking. how true this is i dont know

[dadof3upatree]

You can tell a mature buck track from a doe by the tips.  If the tips appear rounded, rather than pointed, and carrys the other traits discussed in the other posts it is a mature buck.  Bucks drag and does prance.