The Whitetail Rut Timing (HINT NO ONE IS ACTUALLY PREDICTING IT)
The whitetail rut is probably my favorite time to hunt deer because its usually tons of action. Is there really a prediction or is it something that just happens the same time each year?
As you can see cold temps and bucks moving at the time of this post. Mouth open chasing a doe..
I have been deer hunting for 25 years. I have seen many many things over them years. When I started deer hunting at age 13 to about 20 I would always time my vacation around the moon phase. Back then that is all that was talked about. We would look months in advance to make these plans. Little did we pay attention to weather or anything else. After separating myself from negative people and people that refused to learn i gained the knowledge to actually know when the rut starts.
There is so many people on social media putting out videos talking about the whitetail rut and giving you there prediction and I tend to find it comical for many reasons. Most of them are not wrong but its technically not a prediction because the rut starts the same time every year in your state. They talk as in its there own idea that they came up with it. The rut has nothing to do with the moon as I have learned over the years.
Deer will access water more often due to more activity.
Generally in the north east the pre rut starts about October 20th give or take a few days. This happens the same time each year. Mother nature knows best when this happens. Deer need to be born at certain times of year so they have the best chance of survival. All through the north east and mid west the rut is going to happen from Halloween through the first and second week of November again this happens same time each year.
The colder the climate the sooner the rut starts. The warmer the climate the later the rut starts in a general sense. Some things to look for is scrape activity picks up and you will start seeing bucks more in the daylight. You will also see deer hitting water more since they are more active and there is less green food available. This will happen when leaves start changing colors, leaves start falling along with temps. The cooler the temps the more daylight activity you will see.
Who will experience the best action? Even though the rut starts the same time each year each property will produce a different experience. We said this 20 years ago you can have a full blown rut on one side of the road and nothing on the other. All depends where the hot does are and where the mature bucks are. That is why its important to manage your land for the best experience possible.
leaves starting to change colors a couple weeks ago and that was the same time we started to see scraping activity..
Some land is amazing all year long and some it takes the rut to bring it to life. So don’t be that guy on social media saying there is no rut this year deer aren’t moving and so on. Yes the rut is happening it may not on your land but its happening some place.
Quick story. About 12 years ago I hunted everyday the first 2 weeks of November and never saw a single deer. It was really warm and all the rut activity was at night. I decided to hunt because anything can happen. Well on the last evening on the last day I climbed into my stand. As I was pulling up my bow I heard something. I look up and it was a Buck chasing a doe in my direction. i hurried up and pulled my bow up. I drew back and grunted to him and at 15 yards I slammed a arrow in him. He ran across the field and he was a solid 140” buck.
Again all these people “predicting” the rut isn’t really predicting anything. It happens the same time each year in your area. Also be on the look out for all these rut predicting apps. They are just a money grab for people that don’t know any better thinking they found the silver bullet. Some will experience a better rut then others. Hunt cold fronts and be in the stand. Keep pressure low and be ready because anything can happen.
Good luck this season folks.
SEE YOU ON THE NEXT ONE…