I hate the rut.

WTNUT

5 year old buck +
The rut is akin to wanting to believe your wife really does not want anything for your anniversary when she says “don’t get me anything for our anniversary”. You want to believe it is the best time of the year to get that buck you saw in the beans this summer. In reality, she wants a gift for your anniversary, and God only knows where that buck from the beans is during the rut.

After you have learned that “don’t get me anything for our anniversary” does NOT mean she does not want a gift, the rut is like trying to predict what she wants for a gift. Does she want a sweater? Does she want jewelry? Does she want something practical? Is that big buck up high or down in the bottoms? Is that buck on my farm or the neighbors? Is that buck in a thicket with a doe? Who the hell knows!

The rut is like that one time you really, I say REALLY out did yourself and ended up in bed with a girl that was three times as hot as the ones in your league. The anticipation leading up to the big event was overwhelming. When it was over all you could think was “I know I did not do her any good and this is never going to happen again”. How much good can be done in 3 seconds. It is the same way with the rut. The anticipation kills you because you know the bucks will be everywhere chasing does and I mean EVERYWHERE. In reality, It trickles in trickles out and before you blink your eye you are saying “did I miss it, surely it isn’t over”.

Yes, it is over an no you did not do her any good.

Next year, I am hunting October 20-27 very hard because I know that every year my mature bucks are up on their feet in daylight eating and putting on weight for the chase. They are predictable. They are somewhat in a pattern. Next year, if by chance I don’t get a great buck during that time period, I am going to start hunting again November 21 to December 1. Why? Because those bucks are going to be back on food by then. Or, most of them will be by then.

What am I going to do from October 28 to November 20? I am going to book a trip to the Caribbean and stay the Hell out of the woods. Yea, that will work. Who am I kidding? It will be just like that really bad girlfriend you could not get away from in college. She was bad for you. You were bad for her. You each broke up with the other a dozen times and you got back together a 24 times.

Next year, I am going to buy that bad girlfriend an anniversary present for our 28th anniversary on October 19, 2019. She isn’t going to like it, and is going to take it back. We are not going to the Caribbean, and I am going to be in a tree during the freaking chase phase of the rut!!!!! And, when I get down out of the tree and get something to eat and warm up a bit, I am going to complain to my support group about the rut .......... that would be you folks :). Have a good evening.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
One thing I love about my Florida southern neck of the woods... crazy long seasons... archery starts in Sep for us and gun goes from early Nov through mid January. I see fair amount of chasing in early Nov through early Dec but can also hunt feeding patterns leading up to and after rut. Negative on the crazy long seasons is it makes for 4 month worry about bucks you are giving passes being taken by others.
 
Last edited:
Some words of experience right there. :)

Don't leave September off the list. An afternoon (I won't mess with AM) with a serious temp drop can put that summer buck right back in the beans. My best bucks have all been September bucks. No shivering involved!
 
Yep ………… The rut pooped on me this year too WTNUT. Last year was better - but my arrow hit a limb and dove into the ground - ( nice 8 pt. heard laughing as he walked away. ) I've observed it's either feast or famine with the rut - here anyway. Woods are on fire or the crickets are chirping.

I should - if I were smart - do what I keep telling myself I should be doing each year. Hunt hard the period just before the peak of the rut, when bucks are cruising & smelling the ground for about 23 hours a day. But the peak is like that $15 shiny lure that you just have to have to catch that big lunker fish. I keep placing my bets on the last week of our archery season here - typically Nov. 7th to the 14th or so. When will I get smart ?? ( I can hear that buck laughing all over again !! ) :emoji_angry:
 
Can't say I feel the same. I do not hold any mature bucks on my small 30 spring through early fall...lots of does and yearling bucks and maybe a few 2.5 YO. But once early to mid November rolls around I start picking up all kinds of nice bucks on camera and I start seeing them during daylight. Yes, their movements are unpredictable. But for me just being on a stand this time of year provides me the best chance of seeing a nice buck. With fresh snow on the ground it is obvious from observing their tracks that we are smack dab in the peak rut.
 
I didn’t hunt this morning. But, true to form, I saw a 145 inch 8 point pretty much in the parking lot of the diner I am in right now. I doe had to be bedded in some weeds and he was standing guard. I am thinking I would not have ever killed him, because it might be dangerous to hang an stand from the gas pumps he is 60 yards away from.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Most years I see and hear a good amount of chasing, grunting, and cruising. The other 3 bow hunters in camp didn't see or hear any good activity either. This year, I think peak rutting was just late in our area. I normally love to be in tree stands from Halloween on to the end of our archery season. It's usually our best chance at seeing good bucks in daylight hours. Timing was just a bit off for us this year, as it relates to our archery season.
 
Most years I see and hear a good amount of chasing, grunting, and cruising. The other 3 bow hunters in camp didn't see or hear any good activity either. This year, I think peak rutting was just late in our area. I normally love to be in tree stands from Halloween on to the end of our archery season. It's usually our best chance at seeing good bucks in daylight hours. Timing was just a bit off for us this year, as it relates to our archery season.

See in this situation, you recognized she does want an anniversary present. You know she seems to always enjoy small personal gifts that remind her of friends and family. HOWEVER, this year she wanted a big honking diamond and you were left heigh and dry. I hate the chase phase of the rut!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Modified my original post that was just made in jest... will share funny video in different thread.
 
I love it, made me chuckle out loud. Yep, we started hunting hard a week late. My buddy saw our giant on Nov 7 locked down with a doe. He watched him all day and he wouldn't leave that doe. Got within 90 yards but would only stand between the doe and our decoy. On any "normal" year he would have made a beeline for the decoy on Nov 7th. and we would still be celebrating. We should have been hunting hard the week prior. I just got through telling him that Halloween to Nov. 7 was what we would be hitting hard next year as they are always cruising looking for that first hot doe somewhere in that time frame. They usually aren't locked down until Nov 10-12 here, it was just a few days earlier this year. Another rut down the tubes.
 
I agree with September and my daughter did kill an old buck we were after during sept ML season.I just hate to miss the rut but here i sit,the mature ones are locked down and the 2 that were mature local bucks are dead so I am stuck waiting for a stranger to show up
 
Lock down...even the little bucks get lucky now.
Got my son set up this AM headed for coffee and ran into these two. 80 yards off the road. I stopped got out waved my hands and yelled at them about the dangers of road hunters.

They flipped me the bird and completly ignored me..:)
 
The one thing the rut does is level the playing field for your neighbors. They have just as good of a chance of shooting the buck that has been hanging out on your property for the past 11 months. The more neighbors you have bordering you the less of a chance you have to harvest your "hit lister".

If I had the hunting property all to myself I'd plant beans in the spring, overseed with greens mid august, and shoot my top buck the first night on stand in early December.

There are no fool proof plans but I'd have more confidence scoring on a trophy on an unpressured property in December than I would hunting all day every day of "the rut".
 
The one thing the rut does is level the playing field for your neighbors. They have just as good of a chance of shooting the buck that has been hanging out on your property for the past 11 months. The more neighbors you have bordering you the less of a chance you have to harvest your "hit lister".


This is true in terms of leveling the playing field. But, I continue to see more and more land owners working together to protect younger bucks. Some say well Neighbor Tom dropped the ball this year and shot a 3.5 year old. Yes, that will happen, but if you save 75% of them due to an agreement on harvest standards you are well ahead of the game.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Well, here in the eastern side of the Midwest, our bucks are now like that last minute New Years Eve Christmas shopping for the wife after having been married for 20 years. Yes, you are out there on your feet shopping more than normal and if you run into a great deal that will be one you take. But, if you don’t run into a great deal and have to rely on presents you already have for her all will be good. It isn’t like you haven’t had some fun the last 20 years and that buck has had a couple weeks of fun and if it ends he is okay with it. But, if he gets a doe that is ready to stand he is not going to pass her because it is a long time until November.

Our bucks moving more than normal, but certainly not rut crazy anymore. In reality people have been staying at the farm house/ cabin nearly all fall. So we have a good idea of when they were rut crazy and this year they were a grand total of two days.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
From a camp member's cams, it appears our peak rut was just after our archery season ended. He had numerous good bucks on cams in daylight hours and several of them went right past my #1 bow stand at camp. And a beauty of a bobcat too.

The weatherman says rain the first day or 2 of our rifle season, so many bucks will still be walking when the bulk of hunters go back to work. My guess is that we'll have lots of good mature bucks ( 2.5 to maybe 4.5 - this is Pa. after all ) that make it through this season. We have 2 weeks to close the deal. We'll see what shakes out.
 
I was fortunate enough to put myself in 3 prime opportunities this year so far with a bow on mature bucks. I was also unfortunate to not capitalize on any of them. Oct 25, Nov 6, Nov 10. I was able to take a mature 10 with a scrubby rack with the rifle on the 17th.

What I can tell you.... not all days of the rut are equal and it’s imperative that you try to understand what phase the deer are in. I believe mature bucks ARE breeding does already at the end of oct, which is why they are visible. I think that’s why so many people get their biggest bucks on camera during that time.

If your able to determine which phase the bucks are in, you can taylor your hunting to it.

Pre-rut, Chase phase, cruising phase, Lockdown, they all present the hunter with different types of opportunities.

Stick with it. Rut hunting changes in a matter of seconds.
 
Top