How do you hunt the rut?

[rizzo999]

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What works the best for you?
Depends on the property. A 10 acre swampy area surrounded by crops is a haven for huge bucks throughout the summer and the beginning of fall. Once the crops are picked this property is a deadzone until March so I avoid that property. SW Wisconsin bluff/hill country I hunt I focus on those parallel trails that are 50-100 yds into the woods from the field line. Finally, on heavily public land I hunt the other hunters. I talk to them to see where they are going and nicely explain that I don't want to be in their way OR I observe where they are setting up. I then try to set-up in an area/funnel that will (hopefully) redirect the bucks to me. I find more often than not most of these hunters are not hunting the terrain or wind correctly, but instead hunting where they saw a deer (or more) in years past.


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which tactics have gotten your oldest bucks?
Luck! My oldest buck was harvested on public land coming out of a river on the bank on Nov 10th at 10:20 AM on a 78 degree day. Oh, forgot to tell you that I spotted the buck from a bridge as I was driving back to the campground to pack up camp for the drive home after the evening's hunt!!! I parked in the nearest parking lot and walked back to the river where he was just swimming upstream towards me. I climbed down and went no farther than 75 yards from the bridge and took him as he was trying to climb up the steep embankment.


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What areas are you targeting?
Mostly between known doe bedding areas. The bestto me seems to be if you can locate a funnel between doe bedding areas.

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What types of scouting are you doing?
Any time that I am in the woods!! I am only in the woods a couple of times other than hunting though. Shed hunting season and hanging of trail cams around mid-July. I don't check those cameras until the season opener...mostly because the property that I place trail cams is 2.5 hours away. The swampy area I mentioned above is close so I do check that camera a couple of times, but only when it is raining or unseasonably warm or the mosquitos will carry you away to the next county.

[dan]

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[dan]

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[oldrank]

My hottest rut spots r what I have always called escape trails. Because I hunt heavy pressured public I always count on people pushing deer from the outside edges of the public. My stand sites are in between bedding areas and the way the land is layed out all the travel points come together in these spot. They usually start off slow because of fall cover then start to get hot around the end of October and heat up as the season goes on. Opening day is always my hottest day as other hunters start wandering through the woods and push deer to me. I have 3 spots that I hunt this way. One is my favorite stand and produces every year. The bucks get caught in the open woods chasing does n have to get to safety once the shooting starts.

2 of my oldest bucks and my largest doe. All were killed opening day of Michigan gun and all were on public and pushed to me by hunters arriving late.

[OH nontypical]

1) Like you said we sit "just outside of doe bedding areas, or in funnels connecting bedding, or along ridges connecting bedding".. we hunt the does and inside field edges allot on the private I hunt. Bucks seem to cruise downwind where they can not be seen around fields but where they can scent check does feeding. I see/ kill my best bucks in funnels between known doe bedding areas mid morning and early afternoon but any of these types of sits have produced for me in the rut.

2) On public or a new piece of ground during the rut I put my stand on my back and just go in and find funnels or hot travel corridors and sit. I try to to get to a spot where the wind is just good enough for me but almost good enough so that the deer will feel comfortable moving. Have shot a few doing this, follows the first time in is usually best rule I would say??

3) I keep a journal and try to look for the exact same situation in a particular spot that has produced an encounter or kill before. We preset stands to hunt those situations when they occur. Example: a saddle or funnel stand that has shown me good mature buck movement on a sw wind in the first week of November in the afternoon. We have three guys hunting the same 128 acre farm during the rut and we have learned these spots over the last 8 years since my friend purchased the property.

4) Park myself in a good pinch or funnel all day.........it can produce but I am finding this to be way to boring and difficult for me as I get older, especially in cold weather.

Buck i shot in an afternoon funnel i watched for two years from a distant before moving in on Nov 10th 2010.

[JoeRE]

Good information here. I don't have a lot of experience bow hunting beyond the late pre-rut really....this year was the first year I hunted through the stages of the rut in a number of years because the pre-rut is generally when I fill my tags.

It was a wake up call, because as I got into November I realized all my effort and scouting for several years now were focused on killing a buck in October - I didn't feel really prepared anymore.

[dan]

Good time to bump this thread...

[GBTG]

Oct 25 I like to scout really hard to find an area tore up with MULTIPLE fresh rubs and fresh scrapes back in the woods.
The buck is bedded nearby and has this area tore up from entering and exiting his bedding area. This pattern is good till about Nov. 2 or so when bucks relocate to the hot doe. Have a great rut!

[Terry]

Funnels are hard to find in my area. I focus on parallel trails and hard transition lines. I hunt a lot more mornings too.

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[Lockdown]

I am big on funnels too. Its hard core farm country here. I like river bends that stretch out to the edge of a field necking them down. Anything traveling on that side of the river either has to cross it or come past you. I've grunted quite a few in from stand locations like that.

The buck in my profile pic was taken from a small grove off the ground with my decoy out in front of me. I used to carry a digital camera I'll share a couple pics its kind of a cool story about aggressively hunting a rutting buck.


2011 bow buck... 190 lbs dressed... broke his main beam off the night before.


I stood between those trees to the left of the decoy with leafy wear on


Pretty insane encounter. I saw him the two days prior and moved in on him. The day I killed him I actually saw him running in the landowners mowed yard at 3:00 searching for does. He paused and I grabbed my digital cam and got a pic of him. Shot him 2 hours later. All bristled up in front of my decoy at about 15 yards.

I've had a lot of success in tiny groves that are next to prime land. I also like hunting cornfield edges where they hit the small grove. If you can find standing corn during rut in farm country, its money.

[dan]

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[Justin85]

Would you venture to say now is a good time to venture to islands out in the marsh?

Didn't find much sign as far as beds go out there in the winter, but found a few with runs and old scrapes.

Once again, I've severely underestimated the will power of how deep people will get.

Trying to imagine why that would be night time sign that far away from main land, but who knows?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Bucky]

I hunt high in ridges and focus on terrain in relation to doe bedding groups... I don't even need to see trails (I rarely see a mature buck use a "doe" trail)... they use terrain to check doe trails efficiently as possible

Low I focus on water - creeks, rivers, ponds and terrain pinches and parrallel trails in relation to doe bedding groups

When I hunted public more I focused on pressure and getting as far away from it as possible

[Justin85]

I hunt high in ridges and focus on terrain in relation to doe bedding groups... I don't even need to see trails (I rarely see a mature buck use a "doe" trail)... they use terrain to check doe trails efficiently as possible

Low I focus on water - creeks, rivers, ponds and terrain pinches and parrallel trails in relation to doe bedding groups

When I hunted public more I focused on pressure and getting as far away from it as possible

Yep it's public. Marsh and hardwoods. Low public. Lots of pressure.

Not a lot of large pieces of land that seem like they'd have deer "pushed off of" lots of fingers and such that don't seem to hold many deer for any length of time. Seems like that sort of travel from high spot to high spot across the marsh. There one day, gone the next.

After hunting private for 12-13years. Public land is frustrating but addictive as anything I've ever done. Love the "constant variables" that keep you plotting your next move.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

If the islands had rut sign, yea, now would be a good time to start...