Paulk

The rut is current in Maryland. I hunt the Liberty watershed. Yesterday I had a hot doe surrounded by 4 bucks. The 8-pointer stayed within 15 yards of the doe. Occassionally he would charge the others.

DeBauche11

The rut isn't based on the moon phase. Animals particularly whitetail deer breed based on the photo period( the amount of day light per day) The moon phase will only affect what time of day most of the activity is going on.

Doubled 150

I've witnessed young deer chasing two weeks ago. The mature deer are absolutely up on their feet looking for does in my area which is southeast MO and southern IL. Myself and other hunters in my area have seen mature deer moving at all different times of the day and at times chasing does.

A friend of mine killed a 176" in MO at 12:30pm as he was up on his feet checking scrapes. Another friend had an encounter with a 165-175" in southern IL. He watched that buck make a scrape and a rub. The buck left but he was able to call him back and the buck made another scrape. Unfortunately it never presented a shot opportunity. I killed this buck Halloween morning at 10:30am. He was chasing a doe.

In the southeast MO and southern IL, mature bucks are moving and/or chasing. It's a great time to be in the woods right now, down here at least.

Good luck to you where you are at.

timbercruiser

I don't think the amount of daylight in a day has anything to do with it either. About 35 miles east of where I hunt the rut is in late Nov/early Dec. I don't think there would be a difference in the amount of daylight that close to each other.. I don't know what kicks off the rut, but it isn't daylight or the moon IMHO.

BUCKMARK

Here in Northern Illinois, the rut is coming fast. Last weekend we say a ton of scraps that where new, also saw some chasing and even a couple heavy sparring matches. This weekend will bw a good one to be out...

2 Lunger

Your absolutely wrong. There is tons of scientific data that backs up the shortened amount of daylight that triggers the whitetail rut. I have the hardest amount of time believing that 35 miles makes one bit of difference in the rutting action. Meaning if they are rutting 35 miles east of you they are rutting where your at.

These type of threads kill me every year. They guy that every started writing this moon phase crap in these magazines should be stoned to death. The only effect that the moon, pressure, or weather has on the rut is the amount of daylight activity you will see. The rest is based on change in daylight. In the 16 years of bowhunting whitetails, they have rutted the same days every year +/- a couple days in my area. That is fact.

eureka77

I think it's the amount of light and darkness as well. I know a deer is not a plant but you can get plants to bloom or bud by messing with the light anytime of year. a perfect 12 hours light to 12 hours uninterupted dark does the trick, you can have flowers in January if ya wanted.
This is what my mind can wrap around so it's what I believe.lol

2 Lunger

Sounds like someone might have a little indoor growing experience.

eureka77

Maybe, before the army got a hold of me.

timbercruiser

Well, 2 lunger maybe you can explain it. I've been deer hunting for close to 44 years so I think I know what a rut is. There is NO DOUBT that the bucks in the area I hunt rut in mid Jan on over as late as March and I know that bucks in the rest of the country rut earlier in the fall. I don't know what causes it, but seems the sun would shine about the same number of minutes in a day along the same latitude in roughly the same area doesn't it? I would almost bet that if you ask some of these experts that wrote all of that scientific data specific questions about it they would just say, well there are exceptions.......