bigmills20

It is purescience. Photoperiodism is the main factor controllingwhen a doe comes into estrus, that is why scent manufacturers control the amount of light to make does come in and out of estrus many timesa year to produce scent. The rut is most prevelent when the greatest amount of does come into estrus at the same time. There are many things thateffect the breeding activity we may see, temperature, population, hunting pressure, ratioetc. QDMhas no effect on wether or not deer breed, if there is'nt a dominant buck to push a subordinant out of the way then the subordinant buck will breed the doe. Bucks can breed anytime. Just because a buck is 1 1/2 years old does not mean his genes are inferior its just not obvious to us yet because he is younger and not fully developed he may end up a 160 class 10 pointer some day. I killed3 very large bucks during six day firearm season one in 94, 97, and 02all were chasing does and those years seemed to have very little rut activity earlier in Nov. Last year I saw a 160 class buck chasing does and fighting off smaller bucks during the Tues. ofearly muzzleloader season. If I were to pick when to be in the woods I would say generally say around Nov 10th to the 20th but you never know when the rut gods will smile upon you and put the many pieces of the puzzle together. But I would always go with science.