When buck deer start acting weird, it is a good chance that the rutting season is in full swing.

According to some local hunters, the fall rutting season has been somewhat delayed or jumbled up due to the unseasonably warm weather in this area.

Weather might play some small part in the rutting season, but it will surely not delay it for too long.

One sure sign that the rutting season has begun is through the actions of the buck deer, and more than one person has asked me recently what was going on within the deer

population.

Further discussion determined that those people had recently witnessed a buck deer acting strange.

The inquiries came not from hunters but folks just driving their automobiles when they came in direct contact with a buck through a collision or observed one acting strangely while

driving.

Automobile and deer collisions occur throughout the year but increase significantly during the fall when deer are most active.

Many deer/automobile collisions in the fall involve does and fawns, but many will involve bucks during the rutting season.

Drivers are more likely to see or come in contact with a buck during the rutting season than at any other time of the year.

I have seen several dead bucks laying beside the highway recently, the result of a collision with an automobile. Some still had their antlers attached, but someone who comes along and observes the dead buck will often remove the buck’s antlers.

The observer cannot resist the temptations to remove the antlers for who knows what reason. Likely, some buck antlers obtained from an automobile collision are prominently displayed on someone’s wall at home with a complete but false story about how their buck was harvested in the normal hunting fashion.

Deer and car collisions increase during November and early December due to the rutting season.

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 span 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 three weeks.

The local area is now in the midst of the rut, and over the next two to three weeks, hunting will be excellent for buck deer.

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.

A hunter’s opportunity to harvest a nice buck increases tremendously during this time.

The seemingly very cautious buck loses his sense of caution and acts weirdly as he attempts to breed with receptive does.

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 is 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 that I wrote about a few weeks ago are not reliable indicators because the bucks will spend 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 or heat.

During the rut, some hunters rely on grunt calls while others use various commercial products that imitate the smell of a doe in heat.

Other hunters who have studied the deer, have hunted for years and know the deer’s habits will simply conceal themselves in an area frequented by does and just wait for the buck to show up.

Just about every hunter can relate a story about the weird actions of a buck that he/she has observed during the rutting period.

I have several myself and most include harvesting a buck simply because the buck had lost his sense of caution and did weird things.

Caution goes out the window and bucks do weird things during the rut.

A rank amateur can harvest a buck during the rut, but the true test of a hunter’s ability comes before and after the rut.

If you want an easier opportunity to harvest a buck during this hunting season, you need to be hunt during the rutting period that is occurring in our area now.

Good hunting and see you next week.

Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.