Nov
18
Hunting the Peak of the Rut: The DEFINITIVE How-To, Where-To, When-To
Technically, or physiologically, a whitetail buck is “in rut” from the instant his antler velvet is shed until he sheds his antlers in late winter/early spring.
“O. K., then; enough already on the technical stuff, get on to the meat and ‘taters: when is the PEAK?”
We can’t go there yet. The primary controlling factor of the rut in bucks, and more importantly, the estrus in does is a process known as “photoperiodism”. Put as simply as possible, this is the angle of the sun’s rays striking the deer’s retina, causing the pineal gland to trigger testosterone release in bucks, and estrogen release in does. As the sun sinks further into the south, after the Autumnal Equinox, the reduced light, and increased ( or is that “decreased?) angle of the solar rays begins to trigger the rut/estrus phenomenon. Whatever. The shorter days of Fall and early Winter cause the hormone release in both sexes.
There are, though, other “mitigating factors”. (“NOW: he’s gone off on the disclaimers”) Keerect!
Mitigating Factors
Climate Temperature-may be mean average temp, protracted warm or cold spell-relative number of bright days to cloudy, rain, wind.
Genetics Here in Mississippi, and many areas of the South, deer from other areas, even far northern deer, were brought in for stocking in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. These introduced outsiders’ offspring, though long ago interbred into the then few native deer, retain much of their genes. The imigrant, stocked-in northern deer may have come into estrus/rut as early as late October. What is the net effect on present day deer? I have no idea, and neither does anyone else!
Nutrition Pretty well self-explanatory, but nutritional quality or quality food availability can vary from property to adjacent property.
Sex Ratio It is speculated that a low buck-to-doe ratio, within a given “herd” (more on this “herd” thing later) makes for delayed onset of the rut/estrus. Fewer bucks around to breed, the fewer does get bred in any given estrus cycle. An unbred doe will continue to cycle into estrus for some undetermined period, every 28 days or so, until late winter/early spring, making a long, protracted cycling in of several months. Hence: no real “peak” of rut/estrus.
Hunting Pressure. Heavily, regularly, or often hunted deer tend to reduce their activity. Often this results in the deer going completely nocturnal. They are still there, still cycling into rut/estrus, just not moving around much until after dark.
Moon Phase. This may have been listed as a “controlling factor”, rather than a “mitigating” one. Whether or not the onset of estrus/rut is CONTROLLED by the moon’s phases, or just COINCIDENTAL to them, is still somewhat controversial. Pretty good data, though, exists that north of the 37th degree of latitude (roughly north of the Kentucky-Tennessee border) the peak of estrus/rut occurs on/near/just after (?) the second full moon following the Autumnal Equinox. South of there, my experience here in Central and North Mississippi-and a bit in deep South Mississippi-indicates this peak occurring on/near/just after the THIRD full moon after the Equinox. This Full Moon usually happens the first week in December. This year, it goes full on December 2nd. “South of the 37th parallell” is a BIIIGGG area. Mississippi is a long-north to south area, too. Biloxi, on the coast, sits at 30.25 degrees, and Olive Branch, near the Tennessee border is on 35.3 degrees. One degree of latitude is 68.833 miles. “Experts” say that one degree latitude difference can affect rut/estrus onset by a week to ten days!
Herd Age & Physical Condition. What defines a deer “herd”? Let’s go with the deer population within a given area. What is a “given area”? It may be several hundred acres to several thousand acres. Natural and man-made boundaries (rivers, lakes, relative forest and mast bearing tree density/availability, a major highway, high fences, agricultural usage, CRP areas) can “make” a herd boundary. A “herd’s” age depends on hunting pressure, at what age deer are taken off a given area (older does come in earlier than younger and yearling does). We’re back to the sex ratio, too. In one area, under a strict DMAP (Deer Management Assistance Program) or, say, QDMA (Quality Deer Management Association) guidelines, or a landowner or lease holder that ascribes to “let the big old does and the genetically superior bucks walk”, and takes out smaller does and bucks deemed to have little trophy potential (“whew! that’s some long sentence”), and an adjacent property that just shoots deer with no regard for herd management, –well, a herd is so nebulous, so undefinable, that only YOU know what the limits of your “herd” may be.
Confusing? Yeah, me too!
Consensus of most biologists and knowledgeable deer managers say that from about 10 days before the designated full moon to about 2 weeks after SHOULD be the “peak of the rut/estrus”. But, this same consensus allows that “mitigating factors” can affect this timing by as much as twenty days!
So, here it is, FINALLY! The how, when and where to hunt the peak of the rut-in THIS area. Get out, and stay in the woods “from first light till last dark” from about the week before Thanksgiving (tomorrow!), until the week after New Year’s.
My advice? Find the does. Then, stay away from them until the time-frame recommended. Don’t spook ‘em, hunt in or around ‘em. When the “time is right” (?), get near the area, and watch the does. A doe “smells good” to a buck beginning about a week before her actual estrus cycle, when she will accept buck-a short, 24 to 36 hour period. After, she continues to smell “hot” for another week or so, and still attracts wooing bucks.
SOOOOOO: find the does. Watch’em. Get out and stay out as much as possible from now till early 2010. You (and I) will hunt the Peak of the Rut; GUARANTEED!
More information on the Mississipppi Deer Management Assistance
Program (DMAP) can be found at www.mdwfp.com/deer
November 24th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Ron, where in the world did you get all this data on the sex life of a deer?
November 24th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I read voraciously…Leonard Lee Rue, and a lotta other deer biologists…and fifty years-plus of stump-sitting, deer watching, and equating/comparing personal experience with other’s knowledge and experience…that’s the SHORT version…!