Howa 243
Think you have that in a nutshell ,I observed some reds last season strutting about and sizing up one week before the season start , some in partial velvet some hard antler , the velvets where the ones doing there stuff ,the groups as far as I observed had already a dominance line , They split up by the end of august and went seperate ways , Interestingly at the same time the hinds where grouping up more after calving , in preperation for the RUT, During rut Stags will seldom eat much !!to busy covering their Julies !!However an upstart may pick off the fringes and cover succsesfully,Aint Genes BRILLIANT .I am happy to be corrected If anyone has a better explaination , These are just my observations , from my own experiences.
Regards Trapper