amount of light or weather??
 

The rut seems to be the topic of discussion everywhere. There are alot of disgruntled bowhunters in my area (central NY). The weather has been goofy warm and deer movement is next to nothing. I myself who am very patient (usually) am having a tough time staying motivated and focussed. Countless sits both morning and afternoon without even seeing a flipping squirell. I recentely saw a post someplace about weather not having anything to do with the rut. The rut is triggered mainly on the amount of daylight available. Is this true? Is there hope for a strange deer sighting in my near future? This person claims that the rut will kick in regardless of hot, cold, rain, wind etc...... The conditions may hinder movement a little, but not effect the status of the rut????

RE: amount of light or weather??
 

They have to partake in the rut. Sounds like you will have to move in closer to the bedding areas, but I would get the opinions of some vetern bowhunters first.

RE: amount of light or weather??
 

Hunting down south we have a lot of experience with warm weather unfortunately.The rut is triggered by photoperiodism or the amount of daylight.However,when deer are wearing their winter coats and it' s 80 degrees out they don' t move around alot during daylight hours.How would you like to run around with a coat on during warm weather?Since the does are not moving around you don' t see bucks on the move as much.Harvest data here confirms that deer kills and big buck kills are down when we have a warm winter.Hunting closer to bedding cover is a good idea.


CB

RE: amount of light or weather??
 

I think it is probably correct that rut is mainly triggered by length of daylight. However, this theory does not explain things like the extremely late rut in places like Alabama while the rut in Florida is much earlier. My own theory is that when temps are hot in an area where the rut should be starting, most of the rutting activity usually takes place at night.

RE: amount of light or weather??
 

The temps here have been in the 80' s (near 90 yesterday) for 4 or 5 days and the deer movement is nonexistent during the day. I took off from hunting yesterday afternoon and took the family to Skyline Drive where we commonly see hundreds of deer all over the place. Saw just a few does--and that was all after dark. Saw more bears than deer during the day. I slept in this morning and am contemplating whether or not to go this afternoon--80' s again. Rain is supposed to move in tonight or tomorrow for several days, but I' d just about prefer that to the heat.