The rut is something that we hunters passionately wait for throughout the year but especially once the various Southern states’ deer seasons begin. Regardless of where we will be afield, we will have to make some major decisions during this time. Here, then, are five strategies that may increase our chances for success this year.

ALLOW CURRENT CONDITIONS TO DICTATE HOW YOU HUNT
To the subhead above, I might rephrase it to read, “Allow current — and local — conditions to dictate how you hunt.” The problem here is ascertaining what stage of the reproductive period is actually taking place concerning your local whitetails. It’s not uncommon for sportsmen in the same county to be witnessing entirely different buck behavior.

For example, many of us, including this writer, have a network of friends who likewise pursue whitetails. During the course of a season, and especially as the rut nears or advances, we will contact these individuals — and they us — to share successes and commiserate concerning failures.

Several years ago over a period of two days, I contacted four of my buddies in order to receive their field reports. The results are as follows. Note that we were all hunting within a two-county area.

• Acquaintance — A told me that the rut was nearly over and had been winding down for the past few days. He had already tagged a nice buck that was chasing a doe.
• Buddy — B proclaimed that the rut had not yet begun, but it was about to. That day he had witnessed several bucks pursuing does. He was quite optimistic and expected to kill a good buck any day.
• Colleague — C admitted that he was confused about just what stage the rut was in. The “moon phase and weather,” he said, had caused his local deer to be “all messed up.” The whitetails had “just disappeared, who knows where.”
• Deer hunter — D flatly announced that the rut was long over. He had killed two fine bucks and would now try to tag a doe for the freezer.

And what news did I have for my compatriots? Over the course of those two days, I had observed only two whitetails: a scrawny 2-pointer that was bedded with a smallish doe. For all I knew, the duo could have been brother and sister that had remained together because their mother had died the year before.

My point is that all deer activity is local, just as is such highly relevant factors as buck-to-doe ratio, weather conditions and existing hunting pressure. Yes, I know that moon phases and photoperiods play a crucial role in the rut. However, knowing what is going on locally on your 40-, 400- or 4,000-acre tract is often more important than just about anything else.

In any given county in any given state — because of various local factors — the bucks may be in the pre-rut phase and chasing, actively mating, or in the final phases of the rut. The only way to know for sure is to go afield as often as and as long as you can day after day.

ADAPT TO THE DEER
The preceding strategy leads to this second one: That is, we should understand the importance of being able to adapt to the deer and change how we are hunting based on their behavior. For instance, let’s assume that the does on your local tract have not quite entered estrus. The bucks, however, have become filled with vinegar and are busily jousting with each other, laying down scrapes, and marking rub lines.

This would be a marvelous time to engage in some activities that could lure bucks to our stand sites. Rattling is a very viable tactic now and it probably has a greater chance of working than at any other time of the season. Conversely, say two weeks later when the bucks may very well be actively mating, our rattling will have little chance of paying off.

This same time during the pre-rut would also offer us a great opportunity to draw in a nice buck by creating scent trails. A buck that comes across the first doe-in-heat trail of the season could come charging to our stand. But, again, relying on doe-in-heat potions when the forest is full of the smell of estrous females is a gambit that is not nearly as likely to result in success.

My favorite strategy to implement throughout most of the rut (all in fact, except for the actual mating period) is to set up along rub lines. This past season, for example, four times I witnessed an excellent 8-pointer moving along a rub line. Three of those times were when I was afield with a compound, and the period was very early in the pre-rut.

On two of those occasions, I was able to draw back on the buck, but either the old boy would never stop within a shooting lane or his vital area would remain behind some tree. The last time I saw the 8-pointer was during the gun season when he was clearly on a mission and was steadily moving along the rub line. I grunted and bleated to him, but he never turned or even slowed his pace. In response to my calling, a 3-pointer did immediately show up at my stand, but I never saw the massive 8 again that season. I can only hope that he will make a reappearance this autumn. And chances are that if he does, it will be along that rub line.

However, on my property, that same rub line was void of buck or doe traffic during the actual rut. The area bucks had no time to revisit the line or freshen the scrapes along it, as they were too busy mating with does. Foolishly, I spent an additional two days sitting along the line until I realized that the bucks had moved on — and so should I.

Interestingly, as is often the case, at the start of the post-rut, some area bucks returned to the rub line after the mating period had ended. My clue to their return were several fresh rubs, as well as a massive tree that had been horned — perhaps an indication that “my” 8-pointer had survived his quick journey to wherever he had been. Once again, though, I was a little slow to recognize the change in venue, and I missed seeing the bruiser. Adapting to the movements of our local whitetails is a crucial part of developing a sound strategy.

WHERE TO CHOOSE A STAND LOCATION
The strategy decision that causes many of us the most indecision (and I am definitely including myself in the us category) is the mental anguish and somersaults involved with choosing a stand site. Once again, local factors will likely be the most important thing to consider.

My family and I live on a 29-acre tract, having bought the land in 1988. Since I can walk right out my back door and be in the woods, I have hunted this parcel more than any other properties that I either own or have access to. Over the years, I have killed 20 deer “behind the house,” including several 8-pointers. One of several constants about the lan
d is that the deer, year after year, have certain predictable travel patterns.

For example, every year at the start of the bow season, does and the occasional buck regularly meander through and feed in a mixed white and red oak hollow. The deer continue to use the hollow throughout the pre-rut period, only ceasing to do so in daytime after the leaves fall and the acorn supply has greatly decreased.

Before leaf fall, I set up along an old fencerow that leads through the heart of the hollow. And by doing so, I have killed a number of deer there with both bow and gun. However, once the leaves fall or the acorns disappear, I rarely view whitetails in the hollow. Years passed before I realized that the deer were still moving through my land, but they were doing so while traveling through a dense thicket that lies some 50 yards from the edge of the hollow.

Indeed, during the latter stages of the pre-rut and throughout the rut, the trail through that thicket receives intense deer movement. A buck that I shot during the rut last year, in fact, died just a few feet off that trail.

That trail continues to be a deer magnet all the way through the post-rut period until the end of the deer season as a whole. If I am buck hunting during any part of those two periods, it is that secluded pathway that offers me my greatest hope for success.

I strongly suspect that similar, predicable deer travel patterns exist on the land that you go afield on. In the pre-rut period, that hot trail might involve an overgrown fencerow between two wood lots or a line of oak trees that have yielded bountiful nut crops. During the rut, a prime tree line to hang a stand might be the one that runs along a creek bottom or extends to a bedding area. In the latter stages of the post-rut and recovery periods, the best site might be one that lies next to a late-season food source.

Again, hunters should think locally about the various foods available, possible travel paths throughout the various and long deer seasons, and the habits of the local deer herd members. Then and only then can we make logical decisions concerning where to position a stand.

KNOW WHERE THE DOES ARE
I have a good friend whose predominant big-buck strategy is to always know where the does are. During the early stages of the season and pre-rut, he doesn’t even bother to consider where the bucks are. When he has a chance to arrow a doe, he generally does so, feeling that is part of the overall goal of wisely managing the deer herd.

By the latter stages of the pre-rut and throughout the rut, this same acquaintance refuses to kill does and targets big bucks exclusively. However, he still is single-minded about knowing where and when the does are using the property he hunts on. His reasoning is that the bucks will now show up soon, and he wants to be near does when such is the case.

During the later stages of the rut and throughout the recovery period until the end of the season, this friend once again concentrates only on the does. His feeling then is that any late rutting buck will show up to harass the does still waiting to be bred or any fawns that have entered estrus. And if no bucks appear at all, he still has an opportunity to take one last doe for the freezer.

This past season, for instance, my friend’s “know where the does are” plan worked very well. During the early stages of the season, he opted to arrow a mature doe, thus helping to manage the herd on the landowner’s property and providing his family with venison. When the rut kicked in, the buddy still was concentrating on the whereabouts of does and was able to kill a fine 8-pointer that was trailing an estrous doe.

In the latter stages of the season, my friend saw far more deer than I did, although he did not have the opportunity to kill another broadbeam. He later decided to take another doe toward the end of the season. In short, some of the most successful big-buck hunters are doe hunters first.

KNOW YOUR LOCAL DEER FOODS
Today’s Southern deer hunter has more knowledge to glean from than any sportsmen in this region’s history. We know far more about the stages of the rut and the life cycles of whitetails, and we have access to more varied and sundry kinds of quality hunting weapons than our ancestors could have ever dreamed of.

Yet, if there is one aspect of deer hunting that our sporting predecessors might still have the edge on us is that they were better woodsmen than many of us are today. Certainly one of the most important aspects of woodsmanship is having a strong background in the various kinds of foods that our local deer consume.

For example, many if not most of us Southerners know that the white oak (Quercus alba) acorn is one of the most preferred deer foods — if not the most preferred — in our entire region.

How many of us are aware of the other members of the white oak family that grow in our local woods? And if we are aware of them, how many of us can distinguish the white oak family members’ acorns from the nuts of Quercus alba itself? The answer, quite probably, is that not many of us can. The deer can certainly distinguish among the foods available to them, however. They know what they like and will go to that food. Hunters who know the palatability and availability of those deer foods have an obvious advantage.

Additionally, I would wager that most Southern sportsmen are very much aware that whitetails will often turn to the acorns of red oak trees after they have consumed those of the various white oak species. How many of us can identify the red oak varieties that live in our home counties? And even more of a challenge would be for us to learn which red oak family members produce acorns that are most consumed by the deer in our home woods.

The Southern states also produce a dazzling variety of soft-mast foods.

This knowledge of hard- and soft-mast food items is crucial to our knowing what the deer, especially the does, will be eating during the various stages of the rut. If, for example, a hardwood hollow on the property you hunt is devoid of acorns, do you know where the deer in your area will congregate? Will the whitetails be venturing to local soft-mast food sources or will they be going to fields?

If the latter is the case, which fields are the most popular and where do the deer typically enter them? To be sure, these are hard questions, and to answer them we will have to spend a great deal of time learning about our local food sources. This also would be time well spent — just as I hope that considering these five strategies will be time well spent when the rut begins in our region.