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- Find the Does. Your next move might not require a move at all if you have scouted well. During the breeding or lockdown phase, bucks relentlessly search for estrus females.
- Hunt the Downwind Sides. Keep in mind that during the breeding phase, bucks become highly efficient. Instead of boldly walking across a field, they might skirt the downwind edges or inside corners to scent-confirm any estrus females.
- Find a Love Nest. You do have another option and whether you make it your main play or a backup, consider looking for a buck love nest. Once bucks find a doe, do they want to parade it through a crowd of potential suitors, or spend more time alone?
- Find a Drifter. By scouting and setting up stands or blinds near highly visited food plots, agricultural fields or the routes in between, you stand a high chance of meeting up with a home territory buck.
Nov 23, 2023 · Every other deer, buck or doe, would take a trail 20 to 40 yards off of the top of the ridge as they moved parallel to the top. And once their path came to the main intersection they would always cut the corner, again, off of the top, versus walking the main ridge top. In addition to this, nearly all of the deer would walk on the downwind side ...
People also ask
Are rutted Bucks impossible to pattern?
Do Buck Hunt ruts?
Are ruts good for deer?
Are treestands safe for deer hunting in Wisconsin?
- Myth #1: The Peak Rut Is The Best Time to Take A Buck.
- Myth #2: Rutting Bucks Are Impossible to Pattern.
- Myth #3: When The Action Is Over, The Rut Is over.
- Myth #4: You Might as Well Stay Home During The Post-Rut.
- Myth #5: The Primary Rut Lasts About A month.
It’s easy to have a Pavlovian response to the words “peak rut.” We can’t help it. Decades of magazine articles and deer-camp conversations have created a conditioned reaction that makes us take our vacations during the height of the whitetail breeding season. Instead, we should be taking off a little earlier. Bucks are actually most mobile and vuln...
Deer hunters rarely complain about the rut, but when they do, this is usually their gripe. It happens because once does begin coming into estrus, bucks do indeed leave their home areas, abandon their rub lines and scrapes, and begin traipsing over the countryside in search of ready mates. But bucks don’t wander haphazardly. Rather, they move quite ...
Just about every serious whitetail hunter has spent days watching deerless woods in mid-November and thought, The rut must be over. More likely, it is at its apex. Today’s expert hunters refer to this peak-rut lull as the “lockdown,” and it’s one of the most difficult times to fill your tag. When a buck senses that a doe is coming into estrus, he c...
Not if you want to tag a trophy. Although it’s almost certain that you’ll see fewer bucks immediately after peak breeding than you would during the seeking-and-chasing phase, research on Texas’ King Ranch by noted whitetail biologist Mickey Hellickson revealed an excellent reason to keep hunting—and to bring a set of rattling horns with you. “We ra...
This is Nature’s plan, as whitetail does have a roughly 28-day estrous cycle. But when doe numbers get out of control, which is a problem in many areas, the rut can last far longer than that. Biologist Grant Woods studied a property in New York’s Adirondacks where hunters had harvested almost no does for years. “The rut there lasted nearly four mon...
Nov 6, 2020 · MADISON, Wis. – As Wisconsin heads into what is known in the hunting community as "peak rut," or the primary breeding season for deer, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would like to remind those participating in deer hunting season to practice safety when using treestands. According to surveys, 25% of bowhunters have ...
Apr 5, 2022 · Average gestation from our data, covering almost 50 years, is 198 days. So, a doe conceiving on Nov. 15, 2021, will fawn around June 1, 2022. The tighter the fawning period, the less impact of predators, so we try to manage deer herds to have a short, concise conception curve, which in turn produces a short, concise fawning period.
- Dr. James C. Kroll
Oct 18, 2022 · Head to deer camp on Friday the first and get ready to sit in a tree for ten hours a day for the next nine days. Bucks will be running rampant. The first does are starting to come into estrus. Be sure to get in early—well before shooting time—and sit all day if you can.
Dec 7, 2020 · Lindsay Thomas of the National Deer Association is an expert at sizing up bucks on the hoof. I asked him to give us some tips for the December post-rut. “Judging the age of a buck after the rut can be difficult for the same reason it’s tough prior to the rut,” he says, “because not all of the important aging characteristics are in place. “We don’t recommend estimating the age of ...
