Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine

Whitetail rut is here

By Tommy Kirkland

The anticipation is high and the adrenaline is running. Finally, after months of waiting, the time has come to pursue whitetails. It’s the rut and while hunters take to the woods, the deer are in full swing – crazed with a world of fascinating behaviors to observe as you wait for the precise moment with your gun or bow……

As we all know, the peak times of the whitetails’ rut varies from region to region. Oddly enough, some states have an erratic patchwork of peak breeding for whitetails – county by county. For example, a state’s far southern county may have the rut in full swing while a northern county’s rut occurs later in the season. Of course each year regions may vary a little as to the rut’s peak breeding (majority of receptive breeding females). Even so, having the opportunity to hunt and observe this intense whitetail action is highly rewarding.
Yet before success can be achieved a little leg work is helpful. Know your hunting locales – especially from previous years. Rutting times are vital and learning where the females prefer to feed, bed, and raise their young will also increase your chances of bagging a whitetail. All this can be done by keeping notes of whitetail sightings, scouting deer sign, and communicating with others who frequent the area you hunt. Hunting clubs and outdoor publications can also increase your knowledge of whitetails – helping to pinpoint the times and locales of when bucks go crazy.

Despite the controversy that hunting the rut’s peak is not always the best time to harvest a whitetail, just being afield in your blind or concealed from a stand can provide you with the opportunity to see just how intense the event can be.
The rut can be brutal for male deer as their strength and endurance is tested in the pursuit of fleeing females. Once rival bucks begin to engage, then the skills of antler clashing and fighting become apparent.

A doe’s breeding receptivity, known as estrus, quickly attracts bucks of all ages and size. Yet, if the dominant buck has not yet established his breeding rights, then rest assured the action is on.

Usually the estrous doe will out-maneuver pursuing bucks. She runs, darts, and circles with evasive movements. This erratic activity leads up to a chase through fields and woodlands that can last for at least an hour – sometimes longer. Periodically she will take refuge, rejuvenate, and then engage the madness again – fully testing her respiratory endurance and the bucks as well. Only the toughest, most persistent bucks can keep up if she is in top physical condition.

Finally the chase subsides. Here competing bucks will display a host of aggressive gestures in an effort to intimidate one another. Yet if two bucks are of equal status, then all the ears folded back, grunt, snort, and wheeze vocalizations, and sidling movements end up in a brutal clash of hardened antlers.
Bam! Racks are clashing and furiously twisting. Heads and necks are shoving while rear legs and hooves pivot and dig up the ground as they attempt to achieve leverage and strength. The fight for dominance has begun.

Most combative bouts between rutting bucks are brief - lasting a couple of minutes or so; for the instinct to survive signals for one buck to break off to avoid death inflicted injuries. Yet, usually some type of injury takes place – be it a punctured eye from antler tines, cuts to the neck and chest areas or even broken antlers. On rare antler clashes between competing bucks, death can occur. If their racks become interlocked indefinitely, the animals will die or be attacked by predators. Coyotes have been known to investigate rattling techniques executed by hunters afield. Obviously some canines have learned the whitetail’s vulnerability during this time.

Once dominance has been established through these aggressive acts, the buck intensely tends his future mate; and in turn the two breed periodically within 24 to 48 hours. Whitetail mating is complete. Now the dominant breeder buck leaves the doe and moves on in his search for more receptive females.
As these breeding bucks roam for estrous does, their alert senses are not as heightened. Simply, they are preoccupied with locating females. This stupor makes them more likely to cross open fields, pasture lands, run exposed edges – putting them in your sights.

Rut activity can not only increase your odds of bagging a buck or doe, it can be quite enjoyable to observe. In time, observations afield will help you to determine if the deer you hunt have a pattern – year after year. Knowing these habits and being able to deal with changes will undoubtedly increase your whitetail hunting skills and bring home the venison!