Rut

[Huskie]

With the firearms season starting a little later this year, how strong will the rutting activity be going on by then? Not sure if this stretch of cooler weather will have an impact on it at all, what are the determining factors?

[MUSKY18]

Its starting to fire up rapidly!! Rubs, scrabs, bucks battling....its time to hit the woods!

[lungdeflator]

I think it will still coincide with rifle season (unfortunately). If you believe the moon thing, second weekend should be fun. I agree with musky though, the action is heating up right now, great time to bowhunt!

[harvey lee]

Anybody who archery hunts, now is the time.

[erikwells]

I hunt a small wooded area with an alfalfa field on the high side and a slough on the other low side. I had been rather disappointed so far this season being the deer have wanted to be on the other side of the road being there was sweet corn and squash over there. I did some scouting this weekend and I did not see as much sign in the sweet corn / squash field. I have permission to hunt the food plot area however there is little cover there. Will the deer transition to the woods (acorns)and move out of the sweet corn or should I find a way to conceal myself and hunt the corn? Sorry for the dumb questions but thats where my knowledge level is at having not deer hunted in 20 years. p.s. I am archery hunting. Thanks in advance for any advice, Erik.

[sticknstring]

Not a dumb question! This stuff isn't easy to figure out most times! If there is minimal sign in the corn (surprising), then they must be bedding in the slough. Or is there a 3rd option on neighboring land? If there are acorns left, they should be a big draw. As well as the alfalfa. Plenty of food around, but if you're not seeing deer, they may bedding far enough away to allow darkness to fall before they reach you. I'd try a sit closer to the swamp for an evening sit this week. It's cold and they should be moving early. If nothing, try a sit near the sweet corn field. If that fails, let the area cool for a week and try it again. As the rest of crops start coming out, deer will filter in for that alfalfa. Keep trying!

[InTheNorthwoods]

This question comes up every year, and every year people have their "old wives tales" or "yarns to spin" about the "RUT" in their areas. Bottom line is this, the "rut" is a long process/period, and every year, you can expect peak breeding (the stage of the "rut" commonly associated with "THE RUT") to occur about the time of Minnesota's firearms deer season. With that said, MANY factors will dictate what individuals in specific areas will observe for "rut" behavior (be it chasing, scraping, breeding, etc.). IMO, rutting behavior is "strong" throughout that period really; It is just observed - or manifested by deer - in different ways depending on different scenarios/conditions/etc.

The bottom line is that November is the time to be in the woods for deer in the Midwest. Any day could be THE day one place, and not so much a mile or two away (much less elsewhere in the State).

[maros91]

I've read so many articles on when peak rut times are it's making my head spin. I'm not a believer in the "rutting moon". I've read about 15 articles and most of them concentrate around the same few dates. Weather and hunting pressure can push the dates back a few days.

[Fever]

Yeah, this topic comes up every year. I think the thing to realize is that out of the entire population of Deer in an area through the latter part of October through the month of November you have to picture a bell shaped curve.

I like to think that, depending on doe populations and age structure, that a few does will enter estrus in the 1st week of Nov, then days pass, more and more enter this faze. As the % of does enter their estrus cycles, more and more daytime buck activity is witnessed. Also during this week there are many more deer car collisions as deer movement as a whole is increasing as bucks begin to pressure does that are either in or nearing their cycle. This is what I call prime time to be in the woods and sit all day as it is the "seek / chase" phase. I expect to see plenty of buck activity on opening weekend as the moon will be in it's 1st quarter phase (which should slightly hold back big time night activity). As the full moon comes, I expect the rut to be in full swing, but a lot of activity being nocturnal. I like to try to be in the woods during the seeking and chasing phase if possible - but try to avoid full moon hunting. The lock down phase I think will begin right around or after the mid Nov.full moon and this would mark the apex of the bell shaped curve. The Lock down faze is tough to hunt though as most mature bucks are literally locked on a doe and will be much less visible, and they don't care at all about scents, calls, or rattling when they have the real thing. Hunters typically see "satellite" inferior bucks around this time as their mature targeted buck is likely bedded down in a near by bedding area with his lady(s).

There is also a 2nd rut (which could be thought of as another smaller bell shaped curve) that involves the younger does and any remaining does that are late to the party in terms of their estrus cycle. This typically (in Mn) takes place around the 2nd week in Dec. This 2nd rut can either be crazy good for buck activity or insanely slow depending on the buck to doe ratio of your deer population as well as the level of hunting pressure / success.

Sometimes too, it helps to think backwards. Meaning, white tailed deer gestation. Typically it is just under 7 months and fawns of the year almost have to be born around Late May to mid June. Northern latitude Does early to estrus risk a late spring, and Does late to estrus risk delayed development of their fawns due to a shortened growing season. So - based on that bit of info - the rut in the north land is confined to the above pictured graph.

[archerystud]

Hunting pressure and food can geatly affect your rut. In S MN after opening morning the deer get chased so hard they become quite nocturnal from being chased. They are still breeding its just at night.

If all the crops are out around your woods but a 200 acre corn field exists a mile away then you probably won't see much of a rut since your resident does will be a mile away.

Everybody's situation is different. I'll be in the woods no matter what since I can't get one on my couch.

[Bear55]

Good chart Fever, it is exactly the way we should be looking at the rut, a big ol marathon and anything can happen at just about any time. More than once I have seen a buck grunting up a storm after a doe in late Oct, it doesn't mean that the rut is ON, it just means that the rut is in progress and I was lucky enough to have a hot doe or soon to be hot doe in my area.

[Finlander]

Bucks are males! Males are you know what anytime! Females are you know what when they say it's there time! Get out there as much as you can as the bucks are ready now!

[zepman]

Rattled (tickled) in some nice deer this past weekend for my son...couldn't get a shot at any of them though. Sitting in a ground blind and they came in and left thru heavy cover. One was easily 150+.

They're definately getting ready....

[Musky Buck]

After opening day in the areas I hunt since it's so pressured it really messes up the rut so it really takes place at night and daylight deer sightings really dwindle. However, during the mid-week there's always a day that is magic, wish I could predict it but always a day where people really score on some nice deer, you start asking around and it's right on cue, so put in your time and each day could be the ticket, just sit tight and stay alert. Our worry is it's already Oct. 24th and we have yet to t-cam a shootable buck something better than a yearling, but this time frame Oct. 22-Nov.2nd is generally when we do get our best t-cam shots of the year as they get traveling around, maybe they need to get out of the irrigated corn ! Wanted to yell in there are you guys in there ?

[muskiemanAD]

We had 3 new bucks show up on camera a couple dandies and in daylight too......

[bigbucks]

rubs & scrapes are starting to appear

[erikwells]

You guys got me so pumped up to get into my stand that I'm going to sneak

out of work early this afternoon to get to New London for an evening sit. You guys are good for my soul and bad for my career. I'll have a report Monday.

[muskiemanAD]

Daytime pics of Big Bucks.....Enough said!!

[Iceboy]

Things are heating up! The question for me is whether I should take next week or the following week off? It's starting to look like next week but the forecast is looking a bit rainy right now - not a huge deal, but if I could wait a week and get into some crisp, dry sunny days that would be great! Decisions decisions...

Good luck all!

dan

[harvey lee]

I had 2 bucks, 8pt and a 12pt walk by 1.5 hours before dark yesterday in broad daylight at home in Mn, just not a good shot but within 15 yards. My Son is in ND at this time and he said he had a very nice 10pt buck come by at 9:45 this morning, saw a few others also. The better bucks are starting to show themselves during the daylight hours so a few are starting to get the urge.

I believe we are still 2-3 weeks off the run, run and chase phase where they are going most of the day. But there are signs some are getting the urge as some nicer bucks are starting to show up at shootable times.

[harvey lee]

Hit the stand today at 3:50. By 4:30 I had 2 bucks and 4 does by my stand or close to it. One doe was a clean 15 yards away so it is now hanging.

It was action packed for 40 minutes with 6 deer coming by.

Was not going to shoot a doe but it gave me a great shot so off the arrow went. Deer went maybe 30 yards and piled up.

Now, North Dakota to fill that tag.

[Wanderer]

Good job Tom! And good luck in ND!

[Jmnhunter]

not sure what part of the state some of the rut reports are coming in from, but i was up north of park rapids this past weekend and acitivity was pretty much non-existent, couple of random rubs, but no scrapes whatsover

[BLACKJACK]

I always try to take the first week of November off for bowhunting, seems like it works, the bucks are moving, several times I've observed a group of bucks chasing a doe during that time. But I've also seen that on Thanksgiving day - twice. Spend as much time as you can in the stand between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

[MahtowaDave]

If my time is limited, I start hunting hard on Halloween and go from there. If not, I add more of October. October is magic, deer or not, but if my money were on a certain

time period, start at Halloween and go til you can't go anymore! I see the chase starting a lot around that time. Personally I'm not a big fan of hunting the actual breeding period, it is all of the periods leading up to that that get me fired up, because I just see more deer then.