Hunting the rut more effectively

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justin84
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby justin84 » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:03 am

Bump...this thread is priceless


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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby Stanley » Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:01 am

DaveT1963 wrote:Rut hunting means different things to different people. The rut actually runs from Sept (when bucks start shedding velvet and their sacks drop) all the way until the last doe is bred (which can be in Feb). Obviously there are different phases to what the bucks are doing. Here is how I break it down.

Sep-mid Oct - pre rut. This is when bachelor groups break up, big bucks isolate themselves (some refer this to Oct lull) and the older bucks are preparing for the upcoming chase and breeding cycles. My focus during this time is to concentrate on entry and exit to bedding areas. I get as close as I can to the beds without disturbing them. Usually 60-100 yards, I typically find staging areas (identified by the presence of a lot of rubs) on their exit trails. For morning entrance I ALWAYS set up 50-100 yards downwind of the bedding as the older bucks Jhook into their beds. Look for a faint trail downwind of bedding and then set up downwind of that. I have a habit of blazing trails where I want them in early spring and the bucks take them over. To me this is the easiest time to kill a buck as they are predictable as they are going to be.

Mid Oct - first few days of Nov - Cruising - this is where I focus on funnels and downwind of doe bedding areas. What I find is that older bucks now vacate late summer beds and move more towards bedding down wind of does. So I look for high ground, open ground downwind of the does. If you don't disturb these the does typically bed in same areas so the bucks have preferred beds year after year in the same areas. This is also the time I have my best luck with rattling and grunt calls.

5 Nov -12 Nov - Chasing phase - here I concentrate once again on bottlenecks that DOEs use at this time. I abandon the buck trails and start hunting over known doe travel routes through brush/cover and close to their beds. You could also hunt funnels between bedding areas. Aggressive rattling and snort wheeze calls work pretty good for me during this time. Obviously the exact dates are not set in stone - when I see the young bucks start pestering does (usually late Oct - I figure the bigger bucks will start doing it about a week alter). This is often the most exciting time to be in the woods as deer are seen at all times of the day. I plan o sitting all day during this time. I might move to various stands based on wind or other events, but I am in the woods as much as I can be. The hard part is that the doe is in control and can take a buck anywhere and everywhere. This is when deer/car collisions reach a peak in most areas. Bucks are very unpredictable here with one exception - WATER HOLES during hot days. Thick winter coats, increased testosterone, chasing and high temps equals a large need for water. I have shot some dandy bucks between 9:00-2:00 over isolated water spots on such days.

Nov 12-18 - Peak Rutting - this is where all bets are off. Bucks can be anywhere at anytime - find the ripe doe and bingo you are in the game. I find that does have breeding areas that they isolate themselves to and this is what I think most people experience as lockdown. The bucks follow these hot does to these secluded spots to bred for 1 - 1.5 days at a time. If there are several hot does the bucks congregate around them. This is why some guys will report not seeing anything and then another guy two hills over sees 5 or 6 bucks throughout the day chasing a doe. Here is the money - It is my experience that the does tend to return to the same breeding spot every year unless something changes. So, if you find one of these and the doe comes in lets say Nov 11 - next year guess where I am hunting come Nov 11th if I have seen good bucks in the general area? My theory is that does generally come into their cycle on the same day every year. That is why I think some authors say that bucks do the same thing each year on the same day. I don't think that is driven by the buck as much as it is by the doe. lots of animals return to the same area each year to breed. These spots are not easy to find and often lack sign - but IF you can find one - by seeing a buck bred a doe or seeing a lot of bucks pursuing an isolated doe, mark your calendar and your GPS - you have a foolproof game plan for next year for that three days! Calling doesn't seem to work as well for me here as I think the older bucks could care less about fighting unless it is an intruder - by now pecking order is established and to me the real fights happens when a newcomer comes on the scene and there is a dispute in whose boss.

Nov 19-rest of year until Jan. This pattern will repeat (cruising, chasing breeding) until all the does are bred. The Rut can seem like a mysterious thing, and no telling what can happen - but I personally believe it is far more predictable then most think. I personally think the sun (and the length of day) has far more of an impact then the moon. Weather, fires, drought, food crop rotations and pressure can all effect how it will go down but it will go down and from my experience it is more a matter of what time of day and where, rather then what day.

I could be crazy but 20 years of journaling my hunts has taught me that to pay attention to these times and phases and to hunt accordingly. Having said all that I am new to Beast Hunting (hunting specific beds for a specific buck) so others might have more info on using that approach during all phases. For me, I was able to use Dan's techniques this year during the pre rut phase to take two target bucks and that is the time frame I fell it works best for where and how I hunt. Like I said above - I honestly feel that Sept/early Oct can be the easiest time to kill a big buck as they are the most predictable they will ever be. Once that "odor" gets in the air they can be hard to "pattern".......... but the DOEs are NOT :)


I like this post. I also believe the rut has a different meaning/interpretation to many hunters.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:50 am

I agree Stan, good post Dave. Timely bump.

So I know what a lot of hunters call "the rut" is basically a few days with a lot of cruising/chasing, followed by a week or more where most does come into estrus so therefore the biggest bucks in the area are less visible because they are busy. After that, there are another few days with quite a bit of cruising/chasing. The reality is - "peak rut" in 90% of the country doesn't have big bucks on their feet nearly as much as a person sees on TV because mathematically there are just as many or more does in estrus as there are big bucks available to breed them. Sure they are more likely to make a mistake at this time of the year than any other, but they have no need to cruise for days and miles to find a hot doe. This starts much earlier than some would realize - for instance around here, when I see 2 and 3 year old bucks cruising I know most of the more mature bucks are probably already with early does in estrus.

That second flurry of activity often has less small bucks running around, but more big bucks looking for the last hot doe. I really like that last flurry of rutting activity. The big boys are wore down and have a thirst on for "just one more." Unfortunately many states have gun season around this time period so that second flurry gets suppressed by the orange army. All told this period as defined above is 2-3 weeks long that's it.

All these phases blend together too. Prerut-chasing-cruising-lockdown-second flurry. I can tell you the deer don't know what phase it is supposed to be!

I think a lot of hunters can improve their odds just by fitting their tactics to what they are seeing day by day. We all have fallen into the trap of hunting according to some article or video done by some expert.

For instance - last year I was having a rough time sitting in bottlenecks on known buck cruising routes in early November. Very little cruising activity for whatever reason. No big buck activity during the day. So I hunted a buck bedding area on November 12th - a crazy time to do that right? I had a nice 3 year old buck come out textbook past me. He wasn't a shooter but reminded me if something isn't working - try something different.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:52 pm

My original post is generalizations... the rut cycles repeat often throughout the season.... but peak activity for each phase is pretty consistent to the dates i posted from what I've seen.

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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Tue Oct 18, 2016 3:55 pm

I am little more simple minded than some you guys :D

I hunt primarily doe beds. Where I hunt in KS, 3-7 you can catch a 4-5yr buck on his feet. And 14-20 is the next best time. Its where a little patience goes a long way. The period in between those dates bigger bucks usually are with does. If I don't catch them just before they hook up...going to take a doe bringing him to a food source to kill him. Killed them doing that 2. Big bucks plodding behind a doe coming to a food source at night. Some of this is public land, some of it is private. In KS, it comes and goes with the WIHA ground. Definitely does not see the pressure some areas do. The 2 most mature bucks I saw coming through the funnel last year were on the 7th and the 16th.

It also really helps getting passed EHD so there are some of them running around. 2012-2014 were pretty rough for mature deer on our ground. Each year, it gets progressively better.

Here in Maine? The 3rd week of the season is your best bet. The period when the majority of the does are bred. But here, most times, you would not even know there is a rut going on. If I had not been to the midwest, I never would have experienced ANY of it.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby headgear » Wed Oct 19, 2016 12:43 am

mainebowhunter wrote:Here in Maine? The 3rd week of the season is your best bet. The period when the majority of the does are bred. But here, most times, you would not even know there is a rut going on. If I had not been to the midwest, I never would have experienced ANY of it.


:lol: I hear you maine, hard to find the rut in northern MN but it does happen from time to time. I've actually seen the most rutting activity in bedding areas, kind of a win win for beast hunters. I am still bed hunting when pretty much everyone else on the site is using full blown rut tactics, have to stick with what works up here.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby dan » Tue Oct 25, 2016 11:25 am

bump
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby Swampthing » Fri Oct 28, 2016 2:43 pm

Bump

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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby swampyak » Sun Oct 08, 2017 3:50 am

msailor wrote:I have always assumed that some bucks bedding habits change during rut. I don't have a ton of evidence to support this but I have found some old buck beds in places where the buck presumably waits for the first receptive doe to come to him; a bed on the fringe of a doe bedding area or in a funnel. I have always attributed this to older, wiser deer because it just seems like a smarter thing to do rather than trudging from one doe bedding area to the next making himself susceptable. Similar behavior to how an old wiley tom heads to his strutting ground and waits for the hens to show up. Anybody have any anecdotal info to add to this?


I've found a few beds in locations like this. When I've found them I've thought to myself this is smart. Let the ladies come to you. Generally there has been a bed a little ways off both sides for multiple winds. They have their privacy but can smell who is coming by and if they are in the mood for a little romance
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby Jphunter » Sun Oct 08, 2017 4:25 am

A lot of the bedding areas that I hunt are fairly large and the deer don't have a specific bed but more of a general area.

I try to look for pinch points within the actual bedding area.. Not between bedding areas, but in them.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby Killtree » Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:04 pm

The way only thing I do different that I have not seen mentioned is when lockdown hits I still hunt Doe bedding areas.
If I don't see anything I hurry through the open woods to the next one and repeat.
I have had a lot of success doing this.
I have snuck up on a lot of bucks and does while they were preoccupied with each other.
I actually shot a buck right off a does back about 3 years ago.
I have snuck up on several lone does in bedding areas and sat down and watched them and never had a buck show up.
Every time I was ever successful the buck was already with the Doe when I snuck up on them.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby NYBackcountry » Thu Jan 25, 2018 3:43 am

DaveT1963 wrote:
SHoff10 wrote:I have a few questions in regards to rut hunting in Farm country. Let me start off by saying that I have read almost every Farmland thread on here. I have all three of Dan's movies, but I still have a hard time finding bedding in Farm country. Most of the areas we hunt seem to border the "good" properties that have a majority of the bedding. What I mean is that our properties are probably 95% ag and 5% draws and woodlots. The majority of these properties are all extremely flat as well. I have an example of this posted below.

Image

I know that the majority of people love hunting the downwind side of doe bedding, but what if there isn't doe bedding on the property that you hunt? What if you go in blind? I have marked two spots on this map showing where I would think to set up. Does this look accurate to others? Most of the properties we hunt during the rut are just fencerows, draws, funnels (bedding on the connecting properties). I know that these fencerows are good funnels, but I am trying to find mature bucks. Will they used these EXTREMELY small chunks of timber to bed in farm country if all of the corn is cut?

Dan always says that he usually hunts buck beds in the am. Switches stands during mid day and then ends up hunting buck beds at night. What if you are hunting a new property and do not know where the bucks are bedding? Just take an educated guess based on wind and terrain?


for this map - I personally would look at that point to the east off the wood lot to the northwest/central region. Not sure if I am explaining it right. But if you look at the woods on the left side and follow them north you will see a point that goes east into the cut bean filed. Have you checked that for buck bedding? Also, further south there are two great double funnels (inside corner and water way) one on west and one on east



Real late to the party....

This is an amazing thread, Dave would you be able to elaborate on the "two great double funnels" you mentioned? I am having trouble identifying them, and I think it would help me in the future to understand how your identifying these.
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Re: Hunting the rut more effectively

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:44 am

I cannot see the pic any longer but what I remember there was an inside corner (natural funnel created by a point of trees coming off the main wood line) that pinched down on a creek (second funnel). Those type of spots are fantastic to set up on provided the air currents aren't too fickle causing a lot of swirling. Most guys easily identify inside corners on fields - but they often exist in different terrains such as oak/pine edges, ridges that branch in several directions, swamp/dry land, CRP/hardwoods, etc... Any time an other feature (inside corner, ridge, saddle, etc., pushes up against a water way there is a double funnel there.

hope that answers your question but best I can do without the pic jogging my memory.


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