#TheHuntingPages Rut Tracker enters Sweet November! See what phase the mature bucks are in! Stealth Cam Wildlife Research Center, inc.
Posted by Hunting on Friday, November 3, 2017
That special feeling is nearly upon whitetail country. You know the one we’re talking about, when the wind shifts to the north and the temperatures begin to drop to feel more like winter than Fall. As we inch our way closer to the rut remember to ‘drink no wine before its time”. Many of our rut trackers have been seeing soft indications of rutting activity like many 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 year old bucks actively seeking the first available does and having some daylight encounters, but we are still not close to calling rut-on yet. Increased sightings of younger bucks sparring and harassing does and crossing roads during daylight have been on the increase, but we have yet to see some true rut markers like mature bucks daytime movement or a dramatic increase in road killed deer. Only about ten to fifteen percent of the doe population is coming into estrous at this very moment so mature buck activity will be on the increase on a daily basis.
The savvy whitetail hunter is careful not to over hunt bedding or destination feeding areas that traditionally hold mature bucks they want to kill. If you find that the bucks are not emerging to feed until nightfall, set up your stand 100 yards back along the travel corridor; this way, you can intercept them earlier while they’re still within the cover of the woods. Cue in on doe bedding area fringes and there’s no better place to be during early to mid-November in the whitetail woods as every doe will come into estrous at some point—guaranteed. And bucks only have one thing on their minds during the rut and that is finding available does.
Many hunters are under the impression that big deer only feed at night. While deer are primarily nocturnal, they can’t go all day without feeding. Food in November is still the number one element in the movement patterns of whitetails.
