Still-hunting and shooting from a ground blind are effective ways to get a rutting blacktail. But tree stands offer more advantages. Photo by Cathy Nogara.

For deer hunters, the rut is a very brief time of year when the scales are actually tipped in our favor.

With their hormones raging out of control and defenses lowered, trophy blacktail bucks filter out of the woods in search of does in heat.

They leave their secure, well-established home ranges with only one thing on their minds -- to find and mate with as many does as they can, as often as possible. They forget all their well-disciplined survival skills and concentrate only on breeding. Their necks swell to intimidating sizes, and they get extremely aggressive with other bucks.

At this time of year, those wise old bucks let their guard down and become easy targets for any hunter who’s done his homework and is prepared to take full advantage of the situation.

RUT STAGES
The rut is comprised of three stages -- the pre-rut, the peak rut and the post-rut. The pre-rut period is definitely the most active and productive for sighting bucks because they are constantly chasing does. As a few does fall into heat, the intensity level heightens and the scrape and rub activities increase to a fevered pitch.

During this period, you should definitely be in the woods, working fresh scrapes and rubs for those big bucks. Hunters will usually have a short time span of approximately five to 10 days to kill a dominant buck before the majority of does come into heat.

When the rut peaks out after a number of does have been successfully bred, the activity level slows down considerably, as dominant bucks begin retreating to their home ranges and disappear once again.

During the post-rut, the activity level generally resumes, but at a much lower level of intensity. The less dominant bucks are looking for strays.

LATE-SEASON RUT STAND
Last year was a banner year for blacktail hunters who paid attention to the signs and headed to the mountains during the rut. In many locations, all a hunter had to do was find a group of does, and he could almost bet that at least one buck was not far behind.

Being a bowhunter and realizing that the pre-rut was in full swing, I quickly grabbed my hunting gear and headed for the woods. I made my way to a spot that I’d scouted previously and knew was home to a large number of does.

Prior to the season opener, I set up a tree stand there in the hopes that it would produce results once the does began going into heat. I didn’t hunt that stand during the early season because I didn’t want to disturb the area until the pre-rut began. I called it my late-season rut stand.

A week before the climate change, I placed my Bushnell digital trail camera next to a well-worn game trail no more than 20 yards from my stand. When I arrived at my spot, I slipped on a pair of rubber boots to prevent my human scent from touching the ground and carefully sneaked in to retrieve the memory stick.

Walking toward my stand, I noticed a fresh rub line and some new scrapes made within the last week by a buck obviously in his pre-rut stage.

The photos showed me six different bucks chasing does on that particular trail. One buck was an exceptionally tall and wide, heavy-beamed forkhorn with deep palmated forks and gnarly-looking eye guards.

I could tell that he was much older than the others and was definitely the dominant buck of the group. Towering over a number of very nice 3-pointers, he immediately earned the No. 1 spot on my hit list.

The game was definitely on!

The following morning, I climbed into my tree stand well before the first rays of daylight and prepared for my opportunity at this great buck.

I patiently sat throughout the morning hours, watching a number of bucks pass beneath my tree stand. The big boy that I had set my sights on didn’t show up.

But luck was with me. He appeared about 30 minutes before dark and walked directly down the trail toward my tree stand like he owned the place, stopping broadside as he tested the wind just 18 yards from me.