RE: When is the rut?
I've kept fairly detailed records through the years. and the best I can tell, in our region-Southern tier of NY- the full blown rut occurs during/at the second new moon after the fall solistice. That's a rule of thumb that I have planned hunts around for more than 30 years. I fully believe { at the risk of sounding too sceintific } that the decreasing amount of daylight, as registered through/via the optic nerve to a DOES pituitary gland triggers the action. Whether the theories right or not-think placebo-the timing seems to correlate. It does fall within a week or so year to year.
What really gets stretched out is the length of the rut, at times, because of weather,breeding, pressure issues, etc. IMHO.