Rutting season is in full swing

By Bobby Peoples

Twice in the last two weeks, I have encountered a buck deer chasing a doe and I was not in the woods sitting in a deer stand. Both actually occurred while in my automobile. One incident occurred during the day and the other occurred at night.

My wife was driving during the nighttime incident and luckily she avoided hitting either of the deer. The doe went across the road just in front of the car and the big buck in hot pursuit someway missed the back of the car. If you ever wonder why deer and car collisions increase during November and early December, the deer rutting season is occurring.

Webster’s dictionary defines the rut as the periodic sexual excitement, or heat, of certain mammals (including deer), applying especially to males during a period of time that occurs usually once a year. The deer rut may last over a period of two months but the peak of the rut is a period of time when a large number of does come into estrous or become ready to breed and that may only last one to two weeks.

The rut causes a big change in the buck’s behavior. During the rut’s peak, the bucks will travel all hours of the day in search of does ready to breed. Hunters would do well to be hunting during this period since your opportunity to harvest a nice buck increases tremendously during this time. The seemingly very cautious buck kind of loses his sense of caution or “loses his head” as he attempts to breed.

There are all sorts of theories about the impact of weather and moon phases on the rut but once the rut begins that buck could care less if the moon is full, if rain is falling, if the sun is shining or if it’s day or night. The buck has one thing and only one thing on his mind and that is breeding a receptive doe.

Once breeding begins, scrapes and tree rub routes made by bucks are not reliable indicators because the bucks will be spending more time just following does or searching for does on doe trails. Daytime buck activity will be very high as long as does remain in estrus.

During this period, the use of grunt calls can be effective. Deer communicate through a whole range of vocal sounds and the grunt is just one of those vocalizations. The grunt, which sounds similar to a hog grunting is used at different times by deer for different reasons but during the breeding season, the buck grunts to show dominance to other bucks and is used by bucks that are pursuing an estrus doe.

During the rut’s peak, it is used exclusively to show dominance and to attract does and a hunters use of a grunt call might improve his/her chances of harvesting a buck. Many hunters overuse their grunt call. When a buck is either traveling with a doe or pursuing an estrus doe, their grunt generally consist of a single short grunt, several (two to four) grunts or a long drawn out grunt. Most of the grunts I have personally heard when bucks were following does were a series of two to three deep grunts but they will definitely vary.

Some hunters have indicated to me that the peak of this year’s rut has passed while others are saying the peak will occur this week. The peak of the rut will only last from seven to 14 days but two weeks before and two weeks after the peak provide good hunting.

If you want an opportunity to harvest a quality buck during this hunting season, you definitely need to be hunting from now through the first week of December while the rut continues. Successfully harvesting a buck after the rut becomes much more difficult. Good hunting and see you next week.