If you are like us here at GrowingDeer.tv we have entered late season hunting with a buck tag still in our pocket. As any hunter knows that buck tag will burn a hole straight through your favorite pair of pants. Luckily, late season hunting is a great time to punch that tag! What can you do to ensure that buck tag is filled before seasons end?
The rut ends at the end of November here in the Ozark Mountains so we shift our focus to hunting food sources on ridge tops where we get steady winds. A problem we face with hunting ridge tops during late season is a lack of cover.
Adam in a Muddy treestand after brushing in for cover.
By this time of year most of the leaves have fallen from the trees leaving our Muddy treestands bare and leaving us vulnerable to being skylined. To solve this problem, Adam and I cut small oak saplings that hold their leaves late into the year, and used them to create cover around the stand. Cedar branches are a viable option as well. With just a hand saw and a few zip ties our favorite stand locations are ready for late season hunting.
Doe fawns are a buck hunter’s best friend this time of year. If quality food sources have allowed this year’s doe fawns to reach 70 pounds they will become receptive. This is what people refer to as the second rut. Mature does that are receptive hide from bucks, but doe fawns generally don’t change their pattern. They go from the cover to the food and back to the cover again, hopefully with a mature buck right behind!
The GrowingDeer Team will be hunting food sources heavily this week, hoping for a receptive doe fawn to bring the big boy right into our kill zone! Good luck and stay warm!
Post rut hunting can be very productive. Similar to the pre rut, it comes down to predicting when the deer are going to move and being in your stand when they do.
Grant took the Trashman during the late season after a very cold front.
There is a large cold front pushing through the Midwest. Ice is accumulating as I write this. These conditions have our eyes lit up here at GrowingDeer.tv!
Some might say we are crazy for wanting to hunt the storm and its blustery conditions. If a hunter can chum up enough intestinal fortitude to get out and tough the weather immediately before and directly following a large winter storm, you might just find yourself gripping a big buck’s antlers.
Deer frequently have increased daytime deer activity just before and after abnormal weather. Many times before a large winter front I have observed deer moving to food in an almost frantic fashion. As a hunter, I would hate to miss that! Once the storm hits I usually stay in the warmth of my house as the deer are likely doing the same – seeking cover. Keep a watchful eye and when the first calm hours after the storm comes, head back to the woods and capitalize on the deer getting on their feet and moving to food.
A winter storm can be a great tool to use for bagging your next hit list buck. Remember to hunt on either end of the storm. That’s what the GrowingDeer Team will be doing this week, and just maybe we can have a repeat of last year’s late season harvest of a hit list buck we called “Trashman” (watch GDTV 163 here). Good hunting and stay warm!
We’ve made our way through Missouri rifle season and are closing out the month of November. We’re putting up our Winchester boxes and grabbing our Prime bows and heading back to the field in hopes of finding that hit list buck! It’s time now to draw up a game plan for the late season or “post gun season.”
Weekly readers of our blog recall Brian writing about our hunting strategies for the last few days of rifle season. During those final days of rifle season, we saw more and more does with fawns and even some large groups of does and fawns. Along with observing their movement patterns and preparing our game plan for our upcoming hunts we’ll focus on one thing, food plots. As Brian mentioned, the does and fawns will be going to the plots to feed while the bucks will be following hoping to find a hot doe. Chances are most of the does will already be bred but there is one variable that’s still in play: the “second rut.” This is the time frame when doe fawns have reached approximately 70 pounds and enter puberty making them receptive for breeding.
Determining the time frame when this occurs depends heavily on the food sources available. A doe fawn that lives in agriculture country where there are plenty of crops to eat will come into estrus sooner than would a doe fawn in heavily populated forests. In our area typically the “second rut” will occur around the middle to late December. However, based on the size of some of the fawns on The Proving Grounds this year it looks like it could be really soon!
That one reason alone is exactly why we’ll be monitoring our Reconyx cameras over the next few weeks and finding those food plots with the most activity. First we’ll look to find the does and fawns frequently visiting the food plot and then we’ll wait for a hit list buck to show his face. This is exactly what Grant and I did last December when we had our encounter with Trashman (watch episode 163 here).
After we identify the food plot does and fawns are frequently visiting we will wait for a hit list buck to show his face.
That’s our game plan! Be sure to check out upcoming episodes of GrowingDeer.tv to see if it all comes together!
Rifle season has been open in Missouri for six days and we have been hunting hard. It appeared from hunts early during the week that most bucks were tending does and not moving much. Hence hunting thick cover was the best option. However, there are a few things that indicate deer movement will be picking up over the final days of rifle season.
Our observations lead us to believe that does are leaving bucks and pairing back up with their fawns. This means that the majority of does have now been tended by bucks, the bucks will be on the move looking for those last few does that have yet to become receptive.
Buck chasing a doe during daylight hours at The Proving Grounds.
The whitetail gestation period is 200 days long. This means all does that conceived during the first two weeks of November, the heaviest part of the rut, will have their fawns in middle to late May. Every year there are some newborn fawns that we see as late as the second week of June. Back dating 200 days from when we observed those mid-June fawns confirms that some does are bred through the last week of November. There’s still time to use rut hunting strategies. In fact, bucks will likely be moving more during the next week or two as fewer does will be receptive and there will be more competition for those does.
The last few does that become receptive will have several bucks after them so we suggest forming your hunting strategies this week around where the does will be. There is a large cold front pushing into the Midwest so they will be hitting the food sources in the evenings. The GrowingDeer.tv Team will be hunting a combination of cover in the mornings, and Eagle Seed Broadside food plots in the afternoons in hopes those last few receptive does pass through with a hit list buck not far behind.
It’s that time of year again, the season that every whitetail hunter has laid in bed and dreamed about for the last twelve months. It’s the rut! Hunters wait all year for this magic time of chasing whitetails, but how do we confirm it’s really here?
I spent the day yesterday checking Reconyx trail cameras in preparation for hunting the rifle season this weekend. While out I made a few key observations about the stage of the rut.
I noticed that not a single scrape that we have been monitoring showed any signs of recent use. Falling leaves had covered them. This indicated that the majority of the does are now receptive and bucks no longer need to check scrapes to determine the status of deer in the area. Receptive does are emitting enough scent that the bucks know the status of does and spend their time seeking and tending receptive does versus checking scrapes.
Secondly, I observed three different sets of fawns without a mature doe nearby. When does begin to be harassed by bucks they often leave their fawns for 24-48 hours and seek thick cover in hopes of avoiding aggressive bucks.
A successful hunt is one of the advantages of knowing the stage of the rut.
These and more signs all indicate it’s currently the lockdown phase of the rut in the Ozark Mountains. If that’s the case where you hunt, I suggest finding some thick cover in hopes of catching that big buck searching for a receptive doe. That’s where the GrowingDeer.tv Team will be hunting! Hopefully things turn out like the rifle opener two years ago (watch GDTV #104 here) when Grant and Adam had success out of a Redneck Blind using this strategy.
I’ve heard from hunters throughout most of the whitetail’s range this week and most of them are asking “When will the rut start?”
The rut doesn’t simply “start.” There will be a few does that become receptive then more and more will become receptive. Almost all bucks sense the coming surge of does becoming receptive, probably through pheromones deposited by does at scrapes and simply throughout does daily activities.
Bucks become aggressive toward other bucks and tend to spend a bit more time checking areas where does are or have been before most does are receptive. However, this heightened buck activity can occur mostly during the hours of darkness.
This is because fear/survival is still the primary motivation for mature bucks. It’s not until bucks are pursuing a receptive doe or several does in the area are receptive and bucks are aggressively seeking a receptive doe (the area is full of the pheromones produced by receptive does) that bucks become less cautious and tend to alter the time and locations of their activity patterns that makes them more visible than other times throughout the year.
Heightened buck activity can occur mostly during the hours of darkness because fear/survival is still their primary motivation.
This change of focusing primarily on survival and moving primarily at night to aggressively seeking does throughout the day can occur within a few days. This is especially true if the adult sex ratio is close to being balanced (1 adult buck to 1 adult doe).
Usually the tighter the adult sex ratio (even to the point of being skewed toward bucks) the earlier during the year increased daytime activity of bucks will occur and the more intense the rutting action. This simply appears to be due to increased competition for does.
I’ve hunted herds with an adult sex ratio skewed toward does (true for most whitetail herds due to over harvest of immature bucks and lack of doe harvest) and herds that were managed for a balanced or even skewed toward bucks adult sex ratio. There’s no comparison of the pre rut and rut action experienced by hunters between the two differently managed herds.
Hunters that have worked to achieve a balanced adult sex ratio (they’ve passed immature bucks and harvested ample does) are rewarded with the opportunity to experience intense rutting action and herds that respond well to calls, decoys, etc.
This hunting season don’t simply wish you could experience hunts like you watch on hunting shows. Consider the adult sex ratio where you hunt and if it’s skewed toward does, do your part and bring home some tenderloin from a doe and pass those immature bucks that seem to always offer a shot. You’ll be amazed at how good the hunting can be anywhere in the whitetails’ range if the herd is managed properly.
There are lots of scrapes being worked at my place this week! The same is true throughout most of the whitetail’s range. Kable, a GrowingDeer.tv Pro Staff member that hunts in Southern Indiana, shared these Reconyx images. This three year old buck aggressively worked this scrape October 28th at the property where Kable hunts.
Scrapes are a great indicator of the stage of the rut and provide information I use when selecting stand locations.
Scrapes are like the old phone booths in that they serve as communication posts for the deer herd. They are not territorial markers. Deer use scrapes to communicate who’s in the neighborhood along with their status and/or to check the status of other deer in the area.
Deer use scrapes the most just before most does become receptive to bucks. Once that occurs, bucks aren’t worried about status and does don’t need to go to a scrape as they are producing enough scent to communicate their status wherever they are.
So, once you see scrapes being actively used, you know the pre-rut is rolling and bucks will likely be more active during daylight hours unless the daytime temperatures are way above normal. That stage will last about two weeks and then most of the scrapes won’t be visited as much. In fact, you’ll notice leaves covering most of the scrapes. That’s because enough of the does are receptive that bucks leave the scrapes to find those very attractive does.
So, how can deer hunters use this information to hunt more effectively? I use this information to select stand locations. If most of the scrapes are being kept open and especially if I have trail camera images of a mature buck using a scrape, I’ll hunt near that scrape. If most scrapes have been open and actively used for more than a week or so, I’ll switch to hunting travel corridors or close to bedding areas where I expect bucks to be cruising in search of receptive does.
Remember, scrapes are much more than potential hunting locations. They are a great indicator of the stage of the rut. If most scrapes were active a week ago that tells me just as much about where I should be hunting as when most scrapes are active. The next time you are in the woods, pay attention to the condition of the scrapes and use that information the next time you select the stand location.
With the oncoming of the rut drawing closer every day the GrowingDeer Team has been out hunting hard since the middle of October. We’ve found ourselves perched 20 plus feet up a tree in hopes of an encounter with a hit list buck out trolling trying to find that first hot doe of the year!
A nice 3 year old buck Grant and Adam had an encounter with recently.
Almost every hunter has their game plan on how they’re going to capture that hit list buck, and like most, we know that it’s going to bust wide open soon! Until then, we need to have a plan to be successful. Over the last couple weeks we’ve observed younger bucks following does, we’ve seen them sparring, and we’ve seen them scraping, but we haven’t seen anything that’s made us believe they’re getting over-heated doing their pre-rut ritual. Through all our observations, encounters, and Reconyx data we know food sources are still the main attraction. The food sources include a ridge littered with acorns from white oaks and in areas without many acorns we’re watching food plots. In those feeding areas where the deer have been most active we’ve noticed that is where the scrapes and rubs are being most frequented. We learned this the hard way, perched in a Muddy stand before daylight and not seeing a deer until 10:30.
We’re now trying to find that magical place where the wind is steady, there are still acorns falling and the deer are active during daylight. If we can find the food source that the females are using the bucks will be along shortly! That’s our plan! Be sure to keep up with GrowingDeer.tv every week to see if the plan works!
