Hunting The Whitetail Rut

Information on saddle hunting whitetails during the rut.

When does the whitetail rut kick off in your state?

Depending on your location, the whitetail deer rut will start at different times. For instance, in New York, whitetail start rutting at the end of October, where whitetail down in South Texas may not start rutting until late December.

How many stand locations should you have set for the rut?

This question has a lot of factors; how many days afield you spend, how much land you have access to, how many animals you plan to harvest, etc, etc. With that in mind, you should always try to have enough saddle hunting locations that you can hunt any day regardless of the weather. Having a location to be able to hunt any wind direction and a few ground blinds for bad weather days or when it’s too windy to safely climb a tree. That way you never have an excuse not to go hunting.

When during the rut do bucks visit scrapes?

Most visits to scrapes occur at night. Hunting directly over a scrape may not be the best idea, but it does indicate that you are in a good area. Focus your efforts elsewhere in this area.

Should I hunt all day during the rut?

The easy answer here is yes! Mature bucks will be on their feet all hours of the day and night during peak rut. All-day sits can be tough for the average person so I encourage hunters to spend as many hours in the field during the whitetail rut as possible. Get to your stand earlier in the afternoons and stay later in the mornings. Whatever you can do to spend more hours in the stand will have a direct correlation to seeing more bucks.

What triggers the whitetail rut to start?

The peak of breeding occurs at approximately the same time every year. The whitetail rut is not influenced by the moon phase, weather changes or planetary alignments. Photoperiod or amount of daylight is what triggers does to come into estrus, and the does are what dictates rutting activity.