How do you hunt the rut?

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dan
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How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:20 am

We don't talk a whole lot about rut hunting tactics on here. But its certainly the time frame when most buck go down, and the most tags get filled. There are certainly a lot of rut specific tactics that are used successfully.
What works the best for you?
which tactics have gotten your oldest bucks?
What areas are you targeting?
What types of scouting are you doing?


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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:27 am

For me, hunting near home, or in areas I have scouted previously, I still take my best bucks, or see the biggest/perceived oldest, hunting beds... However, I have more action just outside of doe bedding areas, or in funnels connecting bedding, or along ridges connecting bedding...
I do like to do my road trips during the rut, and often on trips I am not in scouted areas and I am guessing on bedding or hunting funnels, connecting ridges, etc...
One thing that stands out is trusting what you saw on a map / topo... Sometimes I get to an area and there is not much fresh buck sign, but sitting there anyway often pays off.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:40 am

Food plots during the rut seem to work for us really well. I think its because does use the plots so much bucks know this and mark the plot with scrapes and rubs. During the rut they will check the scrapes before dark which I know isnt that common for them to come out in the open in light. My dad got a 3.5 and 4.5 year old buck hunting scrapes on the edge of food plots in October. The 4.5 year old was on October 10th and 3.5 on October 26th. Same stand two years in a row.

In hill country I like to hunt right above deep cuts. You can have many trails meet at the tops of these cuts due to the deer not wanting to go down into it they can just go above it all.

Hunting ridgetops that are in between two doe bedding areas as well that are on different points.

Also hunting thin strips of woods that connect two larer pieces of woods which is a funnel is where I have SEEN the most bucks and largest bucks. Simple travel corridor. I like hunting these midday.

I have a feeling some people are going to say rattling, grunting and scents. Im starting to lose my enthusiasm about these. It seems more important to just be in the spots they are most likely to travel. Ive scared away or didnt budge a buck because of rattling and/or scents and even grunting. It seems like they do work but you need many ingredients to be just right for it to work. Hunting the areas listed above seems like a better alternative.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby dan » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:56 am

Food plots during the rut seem to work for us really well. I think its because does use the plots so much bucks know this and mark the plot with scrapes and rubs. During the rut they will check the scrapes before dark which I know isnt that common for them to come out in the open in light. My dad got a 3.5 and 4.5 year old buck hunting scrapes on the edge of food plots in October. The 4.5 year old was on October 10th and 3.5 on October 26th. Same stand two years in a row.


One thing that has worked well for me is to locate a "paralell trail" 50 to 100 yards from the field edge crossing the doe trails entering the food plot/crop field the does feed in. Just before dark smart bucks will walk this trail and check each doe trail for hot doe scent entering the feeding area. Its the same type of trail that skirts doe bedding areas in the same mannor. The trail can be pretty slight cause its only used during rut. But there will often be a rub or scrape on the doe trail where the buck trail crosses it.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:09 pm

Interesting that you said that Dan because while scouting this spring I found a light trail with hip high rubs about 50 yards away from food plot edge that runs parallel to the edge of field that is right on the drop off of a ridge. I want to put up a stand there soon. Its thick brush as well. I assuming this is one of those spots you are talking about. My dads stand is about 50 yards up hill from this trail being on the ridgetop.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby rudy78 » Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:08 pm

I like to hunt pinches & near bedding areas (either buck or doe).
As far as tactics the biggest thing I do is keep an open mind & be willing to try crazy things & stay persistent. By crazy things I mean being willing to try spots that seem like they would never work that others overlook or won't go throuh the work to get to.
I think keeping spots fresh & watching entry & exit are the biggest things that help. Don't hunt spots if the wind is not right wait til it is & go kill him.
I do most of my scouting in offseason or on Internet because I'm looking for terrain stuff more then anything else. Most of my stands are hung in spring or at least picked out, then in the fall I peak at them to see how they look if they are obscure places, if they look good I go for it.

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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby Wrinkleneck » Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:51 pm

I really like shining right as it first gets dark during the time the little bucks(days leading into the rut ) are pushing does. Lots of times I will spot a Big boy standing off to the side somewhere in the area watching whats going on. When I do come spot this in my area I have a real good idea where the big boy is probably bedding. You have to act fast, cause during the rut and days leading up to the rut things can and do change in a hurry. I try to shine as early as I can get out of the woods, take the bow home grabs the kids and spot light hitting the areas I can hunt first.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby Brad » Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:56 pm

I have changed how I hunt the rut and it seems to be working so far. I used to set up on scrapes and rubs and saw the occasional buck (saw two monsters one morning by a primary scrap), but now I hunt the terrain. Hunting sign seemed to be strictly hit or miss for me, it seemed like I always either had zero action, or I had tons of action, but it might be limited to one day every couple of years. With hunting terrain features (funnels, saddles, creek crossings, top of drainages in hill country (as previously mentioned) seems very predictable, you can take an ariel map that you have never hunted, combine it with a topo to see the elevation and then sneak in there and set up in a terrain funnel and odds are you will see bucks at some point during the day. Another thing I have seen over the years is if you can find a field that doe's feed in and it has thick brush along the edge, if you set up on the backside of it you can see bucks in the daylight. Some of the biggest deer I have seen during the rut have been from 11-2. I really enjoy hunting the rut because of all the action and you get to see deer doing stuff that most non-hunters will never see.

I want to start hunting more towards the funnels by the doe bedding area's as well, I killed my buck last year with a bow by hunting near a doe bedding area. My only problem is I struggle to find doe bedding area's (buck beds too for that matter but I am getting better). I tend to see most does in the thickest nastiest stuff I can find, so I think this year I will go in and try to set up down wind of those spots and give it a whirl, thats the part I like about the rut, you can have luck pretty much anywhere if you put in the hours. I also want to try more still hunting during the rut, the whitetail adrenaline guys have great success on the ground doing this.

I am far from an expert, but I am getting on bucks more and more during the rut and a lot of times they do what I anticipated they would.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:09 pm

Brad Lamont wrote:Another thing I have seen over the years is if you can find a field that doe's feed in and it has thick brush along the edge, if you set up on the backside of it you can see bucks in the daylight.


Hey Brad could you explain this to me a little bit more in detail?
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby KLEMZ » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:13 pm

My rut hunting experience is 20+ yrs bowhunting northern Wisconsin. Low deer population, no agriculture, national forest.
For the most action I would say hunting the edge of a big swamp and catching cruizers skirting the edge near some other terrain pinch is a good bet.

However, all the real brutes I have seen were locked down with does. They were with the doe in the does bedding area. (not some mysterious lair the buck saves for tending does).

In this big woods environment, not all doe bedding areas are equal. There are some that seem to be used nearly all the time. some are more sporadic. Identifying which doe bedding areas are the primary ones is a bit tricky. Besides years of observation, another way to help figure out the best doe areas is trail cameras.

When I spring scout, I will leave a camera at the entrance to the doe bed area. I may not pick it up until fall, or possibly in the summer when we vacation in the area. I am looking for lots of fawn pictures. I think the area the fawns are raised in is typically the primary doe bedding area. This may not hold true in farm country, but in the northwoods it works.

I don't have any experience hunting mature buck beds up north during the rut. But I'm working on that.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby G3s » Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:55 am

I spend the majority of my rut hunting in 2 places, SE Minnesota and I focus mostly on food sources to find the does as it is a short hunt. I spend my time here at home hunting river bottoms and I look for features that push the deer to cross the rivers in a particular spot, weather that is slower moving water, shallower water, or a host of other features that seem to make the deer cross on spot over another. I would say honestly my single most successful tactic is to never leave the stand during daylight, I hunt from sun up to sundown.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby Southern Man » Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:00 am

Most of my hunting is done in the rut, just before and after. I like the last two weeks of October, but the first week of November is the best. I hunt doe bedding areas and pinch points close to them. I don't see lots of mature bucks runnin all over the place as some seem to do but if an older one decides to move I belive this is where he'll be. The second week of November brings rifle season and that concentrates the does together, which kind of makes it better.

I hunt farm country and the deer don't move far, no need to. Sometime the bedding is less than 200 yards from where they'll feed all night. Does bed in the morning, rise and feed close to their beddin sometime between mid morning & mid day and bed again for the afternoon. As the does rise in the evening, they'll feed close to bedding, usually on acorns and browse before meandering off to the fields to arrive just about or after dark. These feeding areas close to their bedding are killer spots. I don't see the bucks bedded with the does but they're close by and will frequent these feeding areas in the woods.

I don't rattle, call or use scents anymore, haven't in years. I try to slip in and be quiet. I like to hunt all day. Seems like the deer are more at ease in the morning than the evening. If I'm there all day, I haven't made any disturbance coming in and don't run the risk of bumpin somethin in the woods. There are alot of deer here, and it's easy to spook them if you're not careful.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby phade » Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:12 am

Smart seat time really applies here...meaning my but needs to be in the seat whole days.

Funnels and trails between bedding or bedding and feeding. These trails are usually right on the edge of thick areas. I need to pay attention to crops coming down if they haven't already. The does will move to fresh cut corn fields to feed and I can usually find success getting in between them if I know about it beforehand.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby blackwolf » Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:23 am

All my rut hunting is done in N.Minn and N.Wis in big woods. I hunt typical pinch point funnels in areas of good sign, usually near water, marsh etc. In the big woods the spots change year to year so hope to be on a hot area by Oct29,sometimes takes a couple days of quick spot-check scouting to find them. Even in low deer areas, find the right spot and action can be intense as all the bucks seem to concentrate on the few hot areas.
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Re: How do you hunt the rut?

Unread postby headgear » Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:40 am

I have my northern MN rut plan nailed down pretty well, everything is open to change by my hunting stays pretty consistant over the years. The bigwoods bucks peak movement dates in my area is Nov 8-12 so before that time I focus on the bucks beds or an occasional doe bedding area just to see if there is any action. Those days can vary a day or two here or there so I try to keep tabs on the action.

When prime time approaches I spend the first few days hunting funnels that connect big chunks of land together, big chunks mean square miles up there, the more remote the better. I also hunt the doe bedding this time of year, sometimes hunting a funnel all morning and mid-day and then sneaking in to a thick doe bedding area for the last 3 or so hours before dark. This method has worked well for us over the years as most of our mature buck action is late morning to mid-day and again right at dark.

Just after this prime time I throw my hands up in the air and pray for a mature buck to show up, usually around the 14-15th they are in lock down and we rarely see a deer let alone a mature buck. We have bagged a couple bucks after lock down but it has been very rare. In the future I might use this time to do a little scouting or see if we can't make a few small pushes to get them moving. I also wonder if there might be some safe remote locations that the deer use during lock down that might be worth hunting. More boot leather is needed.


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