Each year I wait to hear those words but the hunters like me are in RUT too. They are out buying equipment, ammo, arrows, broadheads, scent killers and soaps a sure sign the hunters are in full rut. On the deer side, the first does are coming or near coming into estrous.

The bucks are going bonkers in anticipation!

Years back I found a spot where a young buck was working a deer trail scraping his small antlers on small saplings. I placed a scrape with multiple scents and never saw any deer use that trail again.

Less is often better.

I could have made a mock scrape and put just one drop of scent in it. Trust me the deer can smell it!

One of the things that I sometimes forget to take into account is that the doe’s are on the look out for potential mates too and walk leaving her inter-digital gland scent saying who she is. She can be spooked out too and leave the area taking the buck with her.

You gotta find where the deer are my friends. I have been out scouting and found very little recent deer activity except in one spot where a very big buck track was seen on the edge of a clover field. Big tracks are very rare to belong to a doe.

I am guessing the doe’s are feeding there at night and the buck is on the lookout for an estrous doe. This is a place I have been before so I know.

WATCH THAT WIND!!!!!!

This is a place to study especially early morning and at dusk.  Got to get into the woods and intersect them without giving yourself away with too much human scent. Yea watch the wind and thermals on hillsides for morning updrafts and afternoon down drafts. If you are caught in a morning updraft thermal say at 7AM, that buck above is gonna smell you. Best to be in place always before light for a morning hunt. And in place by 2 pm or so for an afternoon hunt.

Still hunt when there are lots of other hunters! They bump deer!

Don’t over hunt a spot!

More….

© 2017