Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Understanding The Whitetail Rut
The breeding period, or “rut” as most hunters call it, is one of the most misunderstood aspects about hunting whitetail deer. With ignorance comes a wide variety of old wives ‘ tales.
The falsehoods about rutting whitetails are many. The bucks are dumb. The does deliberately lead bucks past hunters. Bucks tending a doe always grunt like a pig. There are many such thoughts among hunters, and most of them are not true.
One glaring error is about when the rut begins, and most people feel it is caused by a cold spell. The rut is determined by dwindling minutes of daylight. It triggers glandular secretions that boost testosterone levels in bucks and estrogen levels in does. Cold weather has nothing to do with it.
As a rule, rutting dates depend somewhat on the area, human presence in the woods, weather and shorter days, make the rut begin in late October. There are three distinct phases.
The pre-rut can be the best time to hunt, and it usually kicks off somewhere between Oct. 20-25, and this is the time period when bucks are visiting scrapes, raking trees, urinating in scrapes under overhanging branches, and it is a time when deer move often to follow rub lines, scrape lines and their presence is highly visible.
Some older does are bred during the pre-rut, and this portion of the rut lasts for seven to 10 days.
The peak of the rut is easily defined. When bucks stop coming to scrapes, and when a once active scrape is no longer used, the rut has begun. The time period in Michigan usually runs from October 28 through Nov 10-15, and much of the actual rutting activity will take place at night although it’s not uncommon to watch a buck catch and breed a doe. That usually occurs between Nov. 10-14 is the best for me.
Some bucks grunt with every step they take while tending an estrus doe, and other bucks do not. It, and the pre-rut, is when the deer are most active. Ambushing a buck is a bit easier during the pre-rut than the rut, but I’ve found that once the rut is in full swing, calling and rattling do not work as well as it did during the pre-rut.
Mid-day hunting is a perfect time to hunt during the pre-rut and rut, and often deer will move reasonably well during the 10 a.m. to 2 [.m. period. If anything, the bucks during the rut will be found in some of the thickest cover or out in the middle of open fields.
Weather sometimes plays an important role in the rut. A temperature or weather change, especially to colder and snowier weather, can trigger hot deer movement just as a front moves in.
The post-rut seems to drag on for a month or two, and it is more a time of opportunity for mature bucks. Deer, like people, do not mature at the same time. A two week period will cover most of the rut, and after mid- to late-November, young does will come into estrus at different times.
It’s very difficult to plan a hunt around the post-rut, but cold snaps often trigger younger does to accept a buck, and much of the breeding will be done in heavy cover. Much of that is due to the deer having survived the Nov. 15-30 firearm deer season, and the animals are still spooky. They often stay holed up in heavy cover until just before dark.
Hunters will find that most of the breeding activity will take place before dark as a lone buck pursues a solitary young doe. Once hunters see that bucks are settling back into their bachelor groups and travel in small groups of three, four or five bucks, it is a good indication that the rut has ended. Of course, an occasional young doe may still come into estrus in January or February, and an antlered buck will breed her.
This latter situation accounts for some of those tiny fawns in October. Their mother was bred late, and she dropped her fawns late. The rut is far more complex than I’ve made it sound here, and books could be written on the various ramifications of the whitetail rut.
In a nutshell, it offers hunters most of what they need to know to become successful. Of course, a little bit of luck and some good planning can help.—The Whitetail Wizard