A new whitetail rut is looming on the horizon, holding frustration for sure, but at the same time the seductive promise and challenge, dangling in front of us … a mature buck on its feet during the daytime. Are Rut watchers have been still seeing some chasing and breeding trickling in from day to day.
Deer hunters best be prepared for what is going to occur, a very late and abbreviated spike in rut activity prior and through Thanksgiving this upcoming season.
A second major peak will reach its crescendo around last week of November and carry into December , a traditional late rut in the wheelhouse of the gun season.
Of course this does not mean that the odd buck will not dig out a hot doe around November into December , but most of the breeding bucks will be hooked up with the doe of their choice then, in what is called “lock down,” with its legendary scarcity of movement.
And by mid-November, as firearms seasons begin, it will seem as if all the bucks had disappeared.
Those of us who have spent many seasons hunting through all the days of the rut easily recall those times of swiss cheese hot in one block of woods dead in the other, Either we are in the action, or more likely, sitting in stand-after-stand wondering where all the deer went. That’s when those thoughts of “you know … I could be doing something else,” creep into even the most passionate whitetail hunters mind.
