Hunting the Rut

There have been numerous books, articles, seminars, etc. about the rut.  When it occurs, why it occurs when it does, and when the best time to hunt certain locations.  I have to say I probably have read 80% of the material on the topic.  The one report that has held fairly accurate to myself and my experiences in Wisconsin and Minnesota have been the rut predictions provided by the journalist of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine.

This year they predicted the peak seeking phase will occur 2-3 days before the rutting moon which was November 2nd.  If you read the posts on Talk Hunting.com or even read the outdoor section of newspapers in the Midwest, everybody started talking about the rut kicking in around the end of October.  What most people don't consider is the multiple "phases" a rut has.

There is the "seeking" phase where the bucks start getting more active, utilizing scrapes and rubs and are filmed on people trail cameras closer to daylight or during daylight, where before they were mostly nocturnal.  The next phase is the "chasing" phase where the does start coming into estrous and bucks (sometimes multiple) are actively chasing these does until the does chose their suitor.  This is the most common phase of the rut for most hunters as this is when they will see bucks and does running all over the place and it gets quite exciting.  The final phase is the "breeding" or tending phase of the rut.  This can be a "where did all the bucks go?" time among many hunters.  Does and bucks tend to be less mobile.  This is typically a short period of time in which the buck will breed the doe.  Then the buck is off and looking for the next estrous doe.

Well what does this mean to me?  Is that what you are asking right now?  Well for me personally in Minnesota it means the most exciting phase of the rut is starting this weekend November 7th which happens to be the firearm opener in Minnesota.  The chasing phase should continue at peak levels for the next 4 days and then start to decline.  This will be my first time I have hunted the peak rut period with a firearm versus my bow.  Unfortunately, I will only get out on Saturday and if I am not successful with a decent buck, then the DNR has my donation for the year.  But that donation will be well worth it, and supporting what I love.

Well the next question some people have asked me is..."didn't you hunt most of the peak seeking phase last week/weekend?"  The answer is yes I did put in many hours in the stand (blogs about the evenings to come in the next few days).  However, the weather (one of the key rut suppressors) did not cooperate.  It was windy (17-35 mph), and rainy (most of the time), and of course the full rutting moon did not help either.  This kept the deer less active during the day time and more active at night.  I did see some young deer, but I did not see the mature deer I was hoping to see moving around.  But that is why they call it hunting not harvesting.  Nothing is a guarantee.  However, if you consider the ability and opportunity to spend time in the outdoors a success, you will never be unsuccessful.

If you have failed to get out of the concrete forest to enjoy this wonderful time of year, don't fret as 3-4 weeks after a does first comes into estrous they will come into estrous again IF they have not been successfully breed.  Which means you will see another "mini" rut during the last days of November (WI Firearm season) and early December.  This rut will not be nearly as explosive as fewer does will need to be breed and much human pressure in the woods will have occurred, causing more nocturnal activity.

I hope this information was beneficial to you, and I wish everyone the best of luck chasing after their bucks.  I hope you enjoyed the bucks I caught on film in the days leading up to my "successful" trips to the woods last weekend.  These are the bucks I will hopefully be looking at in the upcoming days/weeks/months.