The Rut (and other questions)

Without seeing many bucks at all (lots of does and fawns) and just a couple small basket racks, how is one to know if the rut is yet to happen, if it already occurred or if the rut is currently going? This year has been weird for weather. Started out typical, then December-like weather, then June-like weather and now we’re getting more back to normal/average.

Also, there was lots of shooting in the area we hunt on Saturday. Hardly any Sunday. My guess is many deer got shot and what was left over decided to get the heck outta dodge. Will deer move many miles over the course of the hunting season? Is there hope other deer will move into the area or is it pretty much over until next year? We hunt a long river bottom area that is heavily wooded with adjacent crop land (all harvested this year).

In NW MN they seem to be in the chasing phase. Bucks will definetly be on the move while searching but maybe not miles. During bow season my #1 buck was on one side of the property. I shot it opening morning about a mile away on the other side of the property.

I think it is normal to have lots of shooting opening day and not as much on Sunday. Bucks will hold cover with people everywhere. It’s not that they were all killed. They will have to keep moving again as the rut continues. The biggest thing is being in your stand. I’d recommend all day sits right now. If you are seeing does, bucks will be around.
DT

Agree with DT. East Central MN, the bucks are still in the pre-rut chasing phase. I could see the does are agitated whenever a small buck would come into a field and face them, they would square off getting ready for him to come over for the ol’ sniff-n-chase.

You’re always going to have a few big bucks that hunters get the drop on opening morning. Good for the guys that got it done!

In the pre-rut what I see happening is the big bucks get the message fast and head for heavy cover as soon as the hunters show up and then they just lay there. Having warm weather means they don’t even need to move to feed, they just lay around in the sun. They’d be laying on a couch eating cheetos and drinking beer if they had a couch, cheetos, and beer…

I’ll have all kinds of pics of bucks in the middle of this week heading for the fields to feed. Mostly at night, of course.

I had a really nice buck in my back yard keeping a doe on lockdown and this was last week, so the main rut isn’t too far off. I’m going to guess this weather change and waning moon phase will get things moving in the daylight again this week.

Grouse

Dang those are good reads! Thanks for replying! Although I’ve deer hunted for 35 years, I’m your average weekend guy that doesn’t know or follow (or study) deer as much as i should. So feedback such as this is helpful…and inspiring!

There are soooo many hunters in the area I hunt. I counted 16 trucks just in the western 1-mile radius of where we hunt. It’s a bunch of 10 – 20 acre parcels of woods along the river, so it’s a complete gauntlet for the deer.

Hopefully more deer will show themselves in the coming days!

Rutting big time near Cannon Falls. A couple lost their lives chasing “skirts”. lol Saturday not active but Sunday am they were very active. we went 4 for 4 in a 45 minute window.

Kasson area it’s nuts to the wall baby. Unreal to watch how even a 3-4 year old buck loses all his wits over a hot doe.

NE of Mille Lacs, does have left their fawns, bucks are head down and sniffing or chasing tail when they catch up with a hot doe.

Weekender wrote:

There are soooo many hunters in the area I hunt. I counted 16 trucks just in the western 1-mile radius of where we hunt. It’s a bunch of 10 – 20 acre parcels of woods along the river, so it’s a complete gauntlet for the deer.

I’m in a high-pressure area as well and have been for over 30 years.
The thing about smaller parcels in the pre rut is that what usually happens is on opening day you’ve got guys running all over them, spreading scent in all directions, making noise, smoking cigs, driving ATVs, etc. It takes about 4 minutes for every deer in the known world to know something is going on.

So yes, bucks get shot usually because Party A kicked them out of bed on the way to the stand, and while attempting his getaway the buck walks right into Party B and becomes sausage.

But that only lasts so long. The bucks that do get away find a deep hole to crawl into and now they know something’s going on. So basically, a lot of guys hunting doesn’t equal all the bucks getting shot. In my experience, the best hunting will be late in the week after all the craziness of opening weekend dies down.

Grouse

Kurt Turner wrote:

Kasson area it’s nuts to the wall baby. Unreal to watch how even a 3-4 year old buck loses all his wits over a hot doe.

Interesting to hear you guys a’way down south in the tropics are in the rut before us up in the frozen north. It’s almost always the other way around and in fact in some years I’ve thought the rut was already almost over before season started.

As I said, I had a buck clearly locking down a doe in my yard here in the Cities burbs, so it’s certainly game on in some places.

In Central MN we had a number of bucks chasing does. Its fun to watch a doe hurry across a field knowing a buck will be coming shortly.

When I’m not hanging from a tree the wifey & I burn a lot of fuel at sunset. Where the corn is picked it’s full rut around here.

Was on a zoom work call this past Friday. Decided to sit on deck with crazy nice weather. What happens? 160” 10 comes 65 yards off deck & takes a nap on my trail. 15 minutes later a doe comes & you know what happens next. Couple hunting coworkers tried to get me to take a crack with crossbow but that clearly overstepped my redneck limits.

Cruising Friday afternoon near bucknuckles & nice, swollen neck 8 comes out of ditch chasing. Close call. Later that night oldest boy takes a nice 8 in his grill near Nodine.

I’m in wi, but really doesn’t matter. Some will argue my logic but works for me. Easy way to know stage of rut for our region is compare moon phase to oct 20ish. Typically, if you have a new moon just prior and full moon near or just after, it’s rut time. Following a new moon, some does will begin to cycle estrogen and you’ll start seeing smaller bucks sparring, and a few small scrapes starting. However, you’ll still see the larger bucks running together. (Early /pre-rut). When the full moon passes, it’s on. On the back side of the full moon more does go into heat and the big bucks are on the move – day and night. Aggressive behavior takes over and their territory is covered regularly. Most does will be bred in 40ish days of the full moon. Those does that are missed will come into a late heat and are often bred in the 40 to 60 days following that full moon. That is why you hear or read about bucks chasing does near Christmas.

With the pressure your describing, there range can increase. They’ll seek safe areas where they feel safe and don’t smell humans. However, they are mostly thinking with the wrong head and make mistakes. In a later active rut like we have this year, I shoot more big bucks between 10 and 2 than any other time of the day. Two reasons. 1 most guys don’t sit all day. By 10, they get up walk, leave, tend to a deer they shot….and usually around 130, guys are walking back out to sit. 2. They are almost always chasing a doe when I shout them.

Hope that helps

I have found this to be true, if you’re not seeing much, move. If your 200 yards off it ,might as well be a mile. This bowhunting.

I think this is pretty accurate, but maybe a few days to a week off. Halloween has been the busiest chase phase day with the office deer every year for the last 5.

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For me the heat and wind really put deer down this weekend with very little movement unless pushed. A normal opening day I’d hear perhaps 200 shots all around me. Saturday I heard 13 shots. Maybe half that on Sunday and all in the evening. I hunted this afternoon ahead of the rain and at 330 the strong south wind just stopped, then a crazy NW wind ramped up and it rained like crazy. The sky was so black I decided to head down off the hill. Half way down the wind quit and the rain turned to drizzle so up I go again. As I turned a corner around a thicket at the bottom of the stand’s ladder I see a 6 point taking a drink from the small pond about 30 feet away. In one side out the other after clipping off the top of the heart. 20 feet of flight and tippy over. One down.

I have a picture on the IPhone, but that sucker and I are not good company when it comes to posting pictures on these fishing sites. Facebook, yes. Fishing sites? Nada.

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Wow. Thank you all for the replies! I’ve marked this thread as a favorite!

Tomorrow they’re talking 3-6″ of snow with some wind, but sun and light winds on Wednesday. Lucky for me, I got Wednesday off! Looking forward to getting out.

Weekender, just another tip about all day sits. People commonly make the comment that deer lay or bed all day in heat, rain, heavy snow….

Deer can not urine or poop laying down. They get up every hour-ish and walk a little, pee,poop, then lay back down. If your near bedding areas, keep your eyes open

A lot of good info. I hunt west of little falls and try to sit majority of day. I shot a 9 pointer at 3 saturday chasing a doe. In the 3 years prior, all of my deer have been shot between 0930 and 1300. It pays to sit all day if you can.

Nice deer Tom!!

If anyone ever needs to know what’s happening in rural areas, ask your mailman. They see it all.

If they are hunters, they watch what’s happening, and know when to take off. Sometimes they use up their vacation prematurely.

riverruns wrote:

Nice deer Tom!!

If anyone ever needs to know what’s happening in rural areas, ask your mailman. They see it all.

If they are hunters, they watch what’s happening, and know when to take off. Sometimes they use up their vacation prematurely.

Hey wait! I’m a mailman!

Randy Wieland wrote:

Weekender, just another tip about all day sits. People commonly make the comment that deer lay or bed all day in heat, rain, heavy snow….

Deer can not urine or poop laying down. They get up every hour-ish and walk a little, pee,poop, then lay back down. If your near bedding areas, keep your eyes open

We only have a small 20ac piece of woods,but it does have a 1ac grass patch in the middle. Sometimes there’s a doe or doe & fawn lying in it, but never seen a buck bedded down.

It’s a small piece of land, but it has a lot to it. High ground adjacent to row crops, a 75ft drop to low ground with a waterway, grass patch, lots of maple trees, and like mentioned a steep bank drop to the river. It’s just that we are sandwiched between a bunch of other property owners/hunters on basically all sides.

Weekender wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Randy Wieland wrote:</div>
Weekender, just another tip about all day sits. People commonly make the comment that deer lay or bed all day in heat, rain, heavy snow….

Deer can not urine or poop laying down. They get up every hour-ish and walk a little, pee,poop, then lay back down. If your near bedding areas, keep your eyes open

We only have a small 20ac piece of woods,but it does have a 1ac grass patch in the middle. Sometimes there’s a doe or doe & fawn lying in it, but never seen a buck bedded down.

It’s a small piece of land, but it has a lot to it. High ground adjacent to row crops, a 75ft drop to low ground with a waterway, grass patch, lots of maple trees, and like mentioned a steep bank drop to the river. It’s just that we are sandwiched between a bunch of other property owners/hunters on basically all sides.

Sounds similar to one of my favorite fields. No creek bed, but neighbors bounce deer back and forth. Definitely one of those spots that you need to camp on all day.

Randy, if I remember right, you hunt in SW Wisconsin by RC, right? I’m only 45 minutes from there, but haven’t been in stand yet. Seeing a ton of bucks on my trail cams on only 10 acres….even a few daytime walkers. Hoping to be on stand all day Saturday. Might be my only early season bow hunt all year

To your point about all day sits, I can only think of a few times since I was 12 that I went in for lunch opening weekend. One year I was getting blasted by a NW wind so I headed down to another guy’s spot in a sheltered pocket during lunch because I knew he went in. When he came back out, he jumped a nice buck right to me and I shot it. I was only 13 or 14 at the time, so it cemented the idea of all day sits in my brain pretty well…at least until the hunts became so miserable because of CWD.

On my land here, I don’t have much, if any bedding activity. But I see a lot of deer from my living room window. 2 years ago, I shot a buck opening day and my dad got a buck and doe the following day, all from the same stand. All of them came from an adjacent property that has several hunters on it.

riverruns wrote:

Nice deer Tom!!

With the 4 point rule nixed during the covid I took him for sausage. I may slip a few chops off the meat pile though. I’m cutting back on sausage this year and if this is the only deer I get it’ll be perfect.

If one looks at the picture carefully and draws a line from the corner of the eye to the nose, there’s a tiny whitish spot very near the eye. That’s actually a tear in the hide, probably from sparring. On that same imaginary line about mid-way there’s another spot that can be seen and I think its a bullet hole as it is perfectly round and goes into the head for quite a ways with a solid , but loose, object inside that I can move. Its been there a bit because it seems like its draining. I haven’t done too much probing because I don’t want to spread anything before the meat is collected. I’ve bagged the head before hanging him so that spot isn’t a factor while handling the critter, but I’ll be doing a bit of digging after I have the meat in totes. It may turn out to be an antler poke with an antler tip in there but that hole looks pretty close to a 9mm.