Trending
It's a crazy time of year for Western New York sportsmen. This weekend opens the regular duck and goose season as well as fall turkey season. With rain forecasted salmon should be running Lake Erie tributaries, pheasant season is alive and well, and fall fishing on Chautauqua Lake means muskies, smallie and walleyes are hitting hard. For whitetail hunters the rut has begun.
The rut is a magical time for deer hunters. The early part of the archery season has seen crazy warm temperatures but that is all about to change. When the temperature starts to dip below 45 degrees, deer get up and move earlier in the day, and when the temperatures stay cool and it's end of October, business is about to pick up.
Timing of the rut is a science in and of itself. Some use the full moon, some go by the second full moon after the autumn equinox, some folks say use a combination of full moon and number of days after said moon while others choose first heavy frost/temperature as a gauge. There are many more theories.
Over the years I go off the second full moon after the fall equinox. From what we have seen so far this season, I feel the rut will start early this year, between Nov. 4-7.
With all that being said, let's break the rut down into stages: the pre-rut/seeking stage, chasing stage, actual breeding and post rut.
What I like to call the pre-rut/seeking stage is when the "breeding" bucks are starting to make their mock or territorial scrapes. This generally starts five to seven days before on the onset of the rut, this year Oct. 26-28. Remember the words breeding bucks, these are mature bucks doing 90 percent of the breeding. Younger bucks will start chasing and opening up scrapes weeks before the actual rut starts. In areas where there is a heavy young buck concentration, they are still running with other bucks. The mature bucks will break off from the bachelor groups first. During this time, the doe isn't even thinking about breeding yet. Also during this time, does are still traveling with fawns. Another sure sign of the rut beginning is when mature does chase their yearlings off and travel alone.
During the seeking stage, calling can be very successful. In fact we believe that calling during this time works better than any other time of season. For does, blind calling works best in the morning and mid-afternoon. Use fawn bleat and/or regular bleat to bring does around your location. This can, at times, help get a buck that is following her into range. For bucks, a social buck call can and will get bucks up and moving earlier than they might be normally.
When using scents, we have discovered that straight young buck or doe urine works well. During the latter part of the seeking stage, doe-in-rut urine can begin to be introduced into your strategies.
The chasing stage is when the bucks are beginning to follow the does. During this stage, most of the does aren't ready to stand yet. Toward the end of the chasing stage, some does will start to stand, but not hold for the bucks. During the chasing and beginning of breeding stages is when we hunt scrapes. One thing that has provided great success is to find active scrapes that are in travel corridors. I love such locations. My next preference is scrapes near feeding areas for afternoon hunts and scrapes by bedding areas for morning hunts.
Once in the chasing stage, it's best to use breeding doe bellow call. During this time, it's the only doe call I use. For bucks, I still use the regular social grunt, with what I call SS grunt. The SS grunt call is basically a shorter version of the social grunt, but not as short as a tending grunt.
This is the time you should be freshening up scrape religiously. If I walk by a scrape -- even if I am not hunting it, I freshen it up. This is when I am laying down a scent line to my stand location. Buck-in-rut and doe-in-rut kind of scents work best during the chasing stage.
Then the breeding stage happens. This is when does start to stand for the bucks. They generally have chased yearlings off and spend a lot of time on their feet, close to food. Scrape hunting can still be done at this time, but shouldn't be the only place to hunt. Traditionally, mature bucks at this time are already staying close their does, waiting for them to stand.
During this stage, we are basically at the whim of doe. Bucks will be traveling with does, and it's best to set up close to food sources. Does will be feeding throughout the day because the bucks will be keeping them on their feet moving about.
Post-rut is when most of the does are done breeding, but younger ones might just be getting ready and generally kicks in 28 days after breeding stage ends.
Understanding the rut will help you be a better deer hunter and can be a lifelong challenge. The neat thing about the rut is it changes each season. Each hunter has their own way of approaching the rut. For some of us we attempt new tricks, some will work most will not. Learning from our mistakes will make you a better hunter.
Good luck in the tree stand this weekend. And remember these two words of advice: hunt scrapes.