Rut vs bedding

[Moose]

I was always taught that the rut is the best time to kill a buck mature buck. Does that still hold true if your hunting beds all season? This will be my first full year of beast style hunting and didnt know if i needed to change tactics during rut or always just hunt bedding?

[greenhorndave]

I was always taught that the rut is the best time to kill a buck mature buck. Does that still hold true if your hunting beds all season? This will be my first full year of beast style hunting and didnt know if i needed to change tactics during rut or always just hunt bedding?

Dan had a good video on YouTube on that very topic maybe a month or so ago. I’ll let some of the more experienced Beasts chime in, but the little I’ve experienced showed me that you might get cruisers and bucks being doe-drunk, but bedding is still a super-solid approach. I had a good rut opportunity last season that I wasn’t able to capitalize on, but it was bedding based and he was on his feet earlier because of it. Probably a good hour before dark instead of 10-15 minutes.

[Moose]

Thanks. I will have to see if i can find it on youtube.

[Boogieman1]

Personally for me depends on what u have to work with. I’m a rut junkie but my spots are small and don’t really offer any real chance outside of the rut cause they don’t harbor any good bucks.

Don’t think anyone will tell ya the rut doesn’t swing the odds of a buck moving in daylight in your favor. But you gotta know your stuff and be in the game. If you have a lot of acreage at your disposal then u got good odds of moving with em and giving it your best shot, then off to the next. And moving with the change. If u don’t have the acreage then find out when it’s best and give it your all then. JMO

[elk yinzer]

In the rut find the does the big bucks feel comfortable chasing down. That's not any old doe but the ones that live where the old bucks feel safe. Usually pretty close to where they live.

[bigredneck61088]

All Depends on the spot, everywhere is different on how you’d hunt it based on bedding, food, pressure, and time of year. Bucks use different places for different purposes

I have a few private spots that don’t hold bucks year round, so leave the local does alone til the plan is right to hunt those doe beds for rut

I also have spots that vacate of deer because of cover once the green goes down and/or crops come out

[headgear]

I have found that a lot of the best rut activity takes place inside the bedding areas so it can be a win/win. I saw more mature bucks grunting and chasing inside the larger bedding areas my first few years beast hunting than I did the 15 before that. It just puts you in the game any time of the year.

[dan]

Thanks. I will have to see if i can find it on youtube.

I think this is the video he was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3urOtDAHxmY&t=41s

[Moose]

Thanks dan!

[PK_]

If you are already killing mature bucks during the rut then you don’t need to re-invent the wheel.

If you aren’t killing mature bucks during the rut, then you need to figure out why.

Generally speaking... The rut is the best time to kill any mature buck. Early and late season are the best times to pattern and kill a particular mature buck.

[raisins]

In areas large enough to hold mature bucks but small enough/close enough to road to get pressured, I think your best odds are to pattern a buck and then try to kill him the first week of the season before other hunters scare him away.

This seems to hold for your typical 500 to 2,000 acre wildlife management areas. The larger national forests are better and can be hunted longer, but in my neck of the woods have lower deer densities because they are the higher elevation and more rugged land that no one wanted to build houses on (humans and deer aren't that dissimilar regarding preferred habitat).

[<DK>]

If you are already killing mature bucks during the rut then you don’t need to re-invent the wheel.

If you aren’t killing mature bucks during the rut, then you need to figure out why.

Generally speaking... The rut is the best time to kill any mature buck. Early and late season are the best times to pattern and kill a particular mature buck.

Chick Boom

[<DK>]

My favorite time is Sept-Oct

[DaveT1963]

Contrary to popular belief, mature bucks bed during the rut

[Twenty Up]

Everybody has their own style and each property presents different opportunities at various stages of the season.

I hunt some properties that are dynamite during our ruts, yes we have a staggered trickle rut down here. Other properties you couldn’t buy a buck in November, but it’s dynamite in September..

Plus every hunter looks at the sign, topography, foliage etc a little differently. Personally I hate the rut, I’ve either had 7 bucks running around me with no chance of a shot, or had not seen anything because the buck I was chasing could be anywhere in a 1 mile radius.

To each their own, their is no “best” here.. Depends on what you enjoy and gets you out there IMO