RUT MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

The annual whitetail rut is one of the most anticipated periods of the hunting season. From one generation to the next, year after year, hunters schedule time off from work and weeks in deer camp around its arrival and few aspects of a whitetail’s life cycle have been written about. It is often one of the main topics discussed at hunter breakfasts, club meetings and whenever and wherever hunters gather or happen to bump into one another.

Despite all this the rut is perhaps the most misunderstood period of a whitetail’s life. Hearsay, misconception and regional folklore typically overrides fact. Thanks to new advances in collaring technology and other behavioral techniques biologists and researchers are rethinking their thinking about this important period providing hunters a more accurate understanding of when the rut occurs, buck movement before, during and after, what brings it forth and basically what the rut period is really all about.

Here are just a few common myths and misconceptions that just might