This is the month when deer hunters start getting serious, whether they’re bowhunters who are currently hunting or gun hunters scouting areas for when that season opens November 20. This month kicks in the primary breeding season for deer (called the rut), and bucks will be busy seeking out receptive does, thereby often dropping their normally ultra-wariness while doing so, making them a bit more vulnerable.
Our whitetail rut starts in late October when the first does come into heat, peaks in November, then extends into December and sometimes even the first portion of January. Adult does may have three or more estrous cycles if they fail to breed on the first or second one, but most are bred by mid December.
There are as many opinions on how best to take advantage of the bucks’ breeding urges as there are choices of bows and rifle calibers. Some hunters feel that hunting along a buck’s scrape line is the most effective, while others prefer setting up along a rub line where the buck has rubbed his antlers on saplings and trees. Given the right circumstances and time spent, obviously both can produce a shot. The downside is the time that elapses between the buck’s visits to either of these locations. It might be hours or several days.
Although I’ve spent many hours waiting near a well-used buck scrape for the buck to put in an appearance, the number of times he showed up during legal hunting hours could be counted on one hand. More often, he arrived to freshen the scrape during the nighttime, and I’d arrive the next day to discover this. This holds especially true of bucks that live in heavily hunted areas and become night-oriented to avoid hunters.
Scrape and rub lines often can be utilized more effectively to determine a buck’s travelling pattern, from his primary bedding area to the normal routes he takes when freshening his scrapes and seeking does. In other words, they offer an excellent chance to decipher his daily (or nightly) routine during the rut. One buck may make dozens of scrapes, but then only visit a few of them, leaving the rest alone throughout the rut. But there’ll still be a travel pattern to or near most of them, beginning when he leaves his bedding area, be it at dawn or dusk, or sometime in between.
Four of the largest bucks I’ve taken—one with bow and three with gun—were shot as they left their primary bedding area to travel their normal routes, whether seeking does or to feed (normally the former). I was able to determine where these bedding areas were by scouting the general scrape lines they’d made and back-tracking toward what is usually a dense and secure cover area where the buck can lay up in during its “down time.” One buck was taken at dawn, but the other three were taken just prior to dusk, and were obviously night-travel oriented.
When trying to pattern a rutting buck caution must be taken to avoid alerting the buck that you’ve been travelling in his route pattern. That means wearing scent-free rubber boots and avoiding having your clothing brush against vegetation growing along the route. And never ever get overly close or directly upwind to what you feel is the buck’s bedding area. If he detects you there, he’ll relocate to another area, and all your scouting efforts will be for naught.
Next comes the tricky part – where and how close to set up to watch for the buck when he leaves the bedding area. As a general rule, a couple hundred yards and downwind from the rout is a safe bet. Make sure you get there quietly and with plenty of time to spare before the buck starts moving, and whenever possible, approach your setup from downwind and perpendicular to the route to avoid alerting the buck.
One of the more recent changes we’ve seen is bucks (and all deer in general) moving ever closer to settled areas such as suburbs and the fringes of residential cluster developments where their habitat is better, so not all the bedding areas will be in some remote forest or swamp area, like some hunters envision they might be. Bucks will also tend to take up territories near where the highest densities of does are, and in today’s environment, that’s usually fairly close to developed areas, even in Chenango County.
While this can be frustrating for gun hunters, since these areas are usually unsafe for gun hunting, it can be a bonus for bowhunters, if they gain permission to hunt there. As our upstate demographics have changed, hunting access to private lands has become increasingly challenging, and leasing land to hunt on is becoming more commonplace. Steadily increasing land and school taxes have forced many landowners to reassess the use value of their property.
Obviously not every deer hunter – regardless of the tool and season it’s used – hunts exclusively for bucks, as any deer taken fairly should be considered a successful hunt, but since the hunter is just as apt to see a doe as an antlered buck travelling along routes from their bedding area, it’s always nice to know beforehand that you may enjoy a choice of harvesting either.
It’s too bad that some hunters wait until opening day to determine where they’ll hunt or set up a watch, and then wonder why they don’t see deer, and especially an antlered buck. Sure, a little luck helps, but every hunter can increase their odds by spending a few hours scouting and learning the deer travel routes and bedding area patterns. One thing’s for certain in deer hunting: there are two varieties of luck, good and bad. Personally, I like to minimize the latter.