RE: Rut Theory
 

I would have to say that when there are lots of acorns here, you don' t hardly see a deer (doe or buck) during daylight hours. They don' t have to go far for food, so the move mostly at night. Guess I have never seen more rutting activity when food is abundant here. May be the difference in areas. I hunt in Texas.

Cold fronts and cold weather has been the only common denominator to predict seeing more rutting in my experience.

Good discussion

RE: Rut Theory
 

thanks for all the info

RE: Rut Theory
 

I can not agree with the food supply theory having too much of an impact as in most parts of their habitat there is an abundance of food in the weeks preceding the rut. I have noticed however that hunting pressure can drive the nocturnal right thru the rut. I have also noticed that with warmer than average novembers the past several years the best movement has been early morning before the sun heats things up............dabow

RE: Rut Theory
 

Interesting thoughts, however where I hunt food is never an issue. Not to mention bucks lose a lot of body weight from making miles and food is not a prime consideration to bucks life during this small period of time. yes does feed normally and where you have does bucks will be during rut...however if the does don' t move nor do the bucks. The rut happens, however seeing the rut activty in deer sightings here is largely based on the daytime temperature. If it is warm out during the day sightings are low. however tracks, rubs and scrapes remain, so the signs of the rut are all around...the difference is daytime vs nighttime activities. Last fall the first 2 days of our deer hunt movement was minimal, however rubs were everywhere, come the 3rd day we had cool temperatures(both night and day) and activity levels increased. The next 2 days we had snow nightly and during the day with cool temps which produced increase in activity and dropping bucks all over the place. The saturday it warmed up and they went silent. I truly believe the rut is all or nothing and the single most important factor is daytime temperature. However a way to combat the rut blues during these warmer then usual times is hunting not near food but near beds. In fact even when it is cool I hunt transition areas or bedding areas over food. When hunting areas such as this you' ll find you can use tech. such as calling or rattling to lure lurking bucks out for a boo. Even using this form of setup the activity/sightings is reduced if the weather is warm.