Deer & Deer Hunting

LOCK DOWN!

I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard this kind of description of a previous year’s whitetail rut:

“The rut didn’t happen last year like many were predicting. All the action I saw seemed to be early. During the first week of November, I saw all kinds of bucks cruising around. By the end of the first week, there was some chasing going on, then everything seemed to crash. From then on, I couldn’t buy a buck sighting. What happened to the rut last year?”

What this frustrated hunter was sharing with me in a recent e-mail exchange is typical of what can take place during the rut.

Too often, deer hunters envision the rut as a frenetic helter-skelter event that lasts for the better part of November in the North. In reality, the whitetail rut is a 30- to 40-day event, made up of three distinct phases: seeking, chasing and breeding.

THE RUT’S ANATOMY

The seeking and chasing phases are what get deer hunters excited. The action, in the form of rubbing, scraping, fighting and chasing, can be spectacular during these two periods. Unfortunately, when

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