How to Hunt the Whitetail Rut

With tried and tested whitetail rut hunting tactics from Jeff Sturgis—an innovator in whitetail hunting strategies for over 35 years—and first-of-its-kind, localized rut tracking tools like RutCast, you now have scientific and historical data, expert insight, and real-time weather forecasting at your fingertips to track every phase of the whitetail rut as they unfold right where you are.

The Rut Starts at the Same Time Every Year—Rut Activity is Weather-Dependent

It doesn’t matter what the weather is or what phase the moon is in, the rut starts at the same time every year. We have ultrasound data from thousands of doe over three decades, alongside many other studies conducted by biologists around the country, to prove it. But rut activity varies greatly depending on the weather. If it’s a 90-degree day in late October, deer are not going to be very active. If it drops thirty to forty degrees a few days later, deer are going to be very active. Once cooler temperatures hit, you find bucks cruising a lot more. In the upper-Midwest, for example, when the temperatures is under 50-degrees, trail cam activity noticeably picks up. >“The rut starts at the same time every year, but rut activity varies greatly depending on the weather.” Daylight rut activity is most affected by the weather. Deer are still being bred at the same time, it’s just that a lot of that activity will shift to nocturnal if the weather is warm. Even some seasoned deer hunters who are very conscious and aware of weather-based rut activity have a misconception that the rut doesn't happen at the same time every year, which puts them really behind.

For instance, even right now, some of the moon charts are saying that the rut should be really peaking around opening day of gun season in Wisconsin. But if you wait for that period of time, you’re going to be three weeks behind.  Wisconsin's opener is the Saturday before thanksgiving. By then you're in post rut phase and things are winding down. If you're counting on peak rut activity based on those moon charts, you're going to be sorely, sorely mistaken.

The Rut Rollercoaster—Mature Bucks and Increased Activity

Again, the rut takes place at the same time every year. However, in addition to weather, another factor that affects rut activity year-over-year is if you have either mature bucks or you have bucks in number in your hunting area. If you have older bucks around or a sizable number of bucks in general, they’re going to leave a lot more rubs and scrapes, because there’s a lot more competition. If you don’t have older bucks or a large number of bucks around, you're not going to see that rub and scrape activity and you're going to have to wait until peak rut. Based purely on a lack of rub and scrape activity, a lot of hunters get into the peak rut and think the rut has just begun. The truth is, there just weren’t any mature bucks or bucks in number around when the rut actually started in their hunting area weeks back.  >“Besides weather, where you’ll see the biggest difference in rut activity year-over-year is if you have older bucks around or you have bucks in number in your hunting area.”

That’s why it is so crucial to have a tool like RutCast, so that you can accurately track every phase of the whitetail rut as they unfold on a localized, geo-specific level.

Trail Cams, Mock Scrapes, Tree Stands, and Buck Cruising Areas

Hunting the Weather the Entire Rut

I cannot stress enough how important is it to have a tool like RutCast at your disposal that combines scientific and historical data, expert insight, and real time weather forecasting to track every phase of the whitetail rut as they unfold on a localized, geo-specific level. The worst thing you can do is take nine days off of work in a row and call that your “rutcation.” Most times, three or four of those days will be horrible weather—and you shouldn't even be in a stand because you're spooking things on the property, especially if you're limited to a small parcel—and three or four days are top notch. >“RutCast combines scientific and historical data, expert insight, and real time weather forecasting to track every phase of the whitetail rut as they unfold on a localized, geo-specific level.” You don’t want to lose three or four quality days that you could have taken another time. You're better off taking three weekends in a row and hitting the pre rut, peak rut, and post rut than you are putting all your eggs in one basket and burning out your land, your stand, your family, and your boss. Case in point, as I type this today in southwest Wisconsin, I’m looking at RutCast and can see this coming Friday is a great morning to be in the stand. I can plan my time off based on that info and expect a much better chance of success than taking a longer, less data-informed rutcation.

Look for Part 2 of this blog coming soon, including a breakdown of the pre rut, lockdown, peak rut, post rut, second rut, and third rut phases.  In the meantime, use these initial tips to track and hunt the whitetail rut in your area right now, keep an eye on your app, and shoot straight.