Regional Rut Update: See How To Find Late-Season Deer Success

This is the final installment of the six-part 2025 Game & Fish Regional Rut Update, a series of exclusive weekly rut reports from the field by deer contributors Doug Howlett (East), Brandon Butler (Midwest), Josh Honeycutt (South) and Jace Bauserman (West). This week's report includes:

• In the East, Howlett reports that rut activity is at a standstill, and hunters should focus their efforts on food sources. 
• In the South, Honeycutt says the rut is all but over in most locations, but cold weather can still present opportunities. There's good news for the southern counties of the Gulf states, as the rut has yet to arrive.
• In the Midwest, Butler says the show is over, and that bucks are focused on eating and recovering from the rigors of the rut. 
• In the West, Bauserman reports the whitetail rut is over, but the mule deer rut is in full swing. 

EAST REPORT

Post-Rut Blues

• The rut in the East is over, so hunters should set up on food sources and travel corridors back to bedding.

After a month of wild action, the rut across the East is grinding to a halt. That beautiful flurry of chasing, cruising and daylight movement we’ve all enjoyed is all but over. That doesn’t mean deer activity has vanished; it just means the action of the autumn woods we all dream about is entering a new phase and hunters’ minds must focus on what we would call “late-season” strategies.

As I mentioned last week, exceptions do always exist, and this year they’ve shown up everywhere. My own trail cameras and time in the stand have revealed the occasional buck still on his feet in daylight, nosing around for that last receptive doe. Hunters from up and down the region have reported the same: scattered daylight appearances, a few bucks pushing does and the occasional flurry of chasing despite heavy gun-season pressure. Virginia Tech baseball commit Graydon Ambrose was hunting at a travel ball teammate’s family land just the other day when he spotted not one, but two big bucks in the middle of the day, still roaming in search of does and some smaller bucks actively chasing.

But we you can’t count on that action, and it’s only going to continue to drop off precipitously into this next week. Hunters who still have a tag to fill need to shift their mindset, and this time of year, success comes down to two things: food and weather.

Food is king right now. Winter is tightening its grip across the East, and deer are worn down from the rut. They need calories and need them fast. Late-season food sources such as cut corn, beans, brassicas, acorns and any remaining green browse will attract deer. Target the first hour of daylight and the last, as that is when most movement will occur unless a deer is kicked up by other hunters or other activity in the woods.

The second key is to watch the weather. Big fronts, especially where days of heavy rain or snow are coming in, can spark explosive movement. Deer often move hard on the leading edge of a front or immediately after one passes. If you can be on stand in the daylight hours as the mercury plummets and precipitation approaches, that’s definitely the time to be there. As soon as the worst of the storm eases, be the first hunter in the woods as well.

Farther up north, hunter Michael Wheeler and guide John LaMarca are buzzing about this week’s forecast that promises more fresh snow. Tracking conditions fire up a different kind of excitement for northern deer hunters, the kind that lets hunters cut a fresh buck track and follow it through the timber. Being from southeastern Virginia, I don’t get many chances to experience that style of hunting myself, but Wheeler swears by it as one of the most thrilling ways to hunt whitetails.

You’ll hear a lot of talk about the “second rut” this time of year, with predictions of renewed rut behavior occurring an exact month after the peak. That would put that in mid-December for most states. Personally, I don’t put a lot of weight on it. In areas with skewed buck-to-doe ratios and low hunting pressure, you may witness some brief behavior from a buck trailing a late-cycling doe. But across most of the heavily pressured East region, any second-rut action tends to be subtle at best and rarely something you can plan a hunt around.

A lot of hunters who burned hard through the rut are maybe a little tired, and the holidays pull our attention in every direction but toward the woods. But the deer are still there, hitting food and offering opportunities for anyone willing to stay after it. If you still need to fill some tags, you need to be there, too.

TAGGED OUT

Windham County Warrior

Connecticut hunter drops a monster after passing on a smaller buck.

• Hunter: Jesse Paquette
• Date: Nov. 20, 2025
• Location: Windham County, Conn.
• Method: Rifle
• Stats: 187 inches

For Jesse Paquette, Nov. 20, the day after Connecticut’s private-land firearms opener, will be a date he won’t ever forget. Hunting Windham County with his trusty Marlin .30-30, Paquette, after some drama, dropped the biggest buck of his life, a heavy 12-pointer that dressed 225 pounds and green-scored a rough 187 inches.

Paquette reports the morning started slow, with a small buck slipping past his stand at 6:15 a.m. But Paquette held back on the trigger and stayed patient. Not long after, the big deer appeared, working straight into the wind across an open field 130 yards out—a poke for the lever action and Paquette, the hunter admits.

“I knew it was a longer shot than I typically have to make,” said Paquette. “Here in Connecticut, most of your shots are fairly close. But I also knew I was probably never going to see this deer again, so this was my only chance.”

So, he settled in and took the shot, firing twice as the deer dashed off. Paquette was confident he had hit the deer, but to be safe, he waited an hour and a half before going to track it, a wait that must’ve seemed like forever. To make matters worse, when he finally got to where the deer had been standing when he shot, he didn’t see any blood.

He worked the ground in the direction the buck had run when the unthinkable happened. The buck jumped up ahead of the hunter and dashed into more cover before he could shoot. Paquette went to where the buck had been lying. There was blood—a good amount of it. But the buck had gotten to its feet, so with daylight and time on his side, Paquette backed out of the area and gave it another four hours before returning.

When he did, he headed on the buck’s trail from where he had seen it jump up. He found a single drop of blood and some disturbed leaves where the deer must’ve stumbled, and then he spotted the buck. But it wasn’t dead. It was lying on the ground, looking at him. Paquette aimed and fired through the brush but missed, quickly levering another round. The buck struggled to its feet as Paquette unleashed a second shot that struck home and brought the tracking job to an end.

Paquette, who hit the buck in the shoulders with both of his first shots, had only seen the monster once before, and trail intel from other hunters in the area suggested he was a wanderer, traveling 5 to 10 miles through the county in the previous weeks. After years of success with the .30-30, Paquette jokes it may be time to upgrade to a .30-06 or .270 next season, but it’s hard to argue with a rifle that just anchored a 225-pound Connecticut trophy of a lifetime.

SOUTH REPORT

It's All Over Except the Crying

• Most states are in post-rut patterns with bucks returning to feed-to-bed routines.

I’m checking in with our sixth and final South Regional Rut Update of the year. In some areas, things are starting to taper off. In others, the rut is still on the horizon. To maximize odds of success, it’s crucial to know what deer are doing right now near you.

Starting in southwestern Georgia, Michael Lee with Backwoods Life is in the thick of it. According to his in-the-field sightings, the rut is wide open. A lot of bucks are chasing does and tending estrus does as well.

“We just started hunting and have already seen a lot of bucks,” said Lee. “With this rain coming, it should turn things on after it pushes through.”

Soon after sending me his report, I received this text: “Just killed a big one. They are running does hard. Seen eight or nine bucks on does.”

Josh Raley of Whitetail Partners Georgia, who’s in a different part of western Georgia, isn’t seeing that same level of activity, though. It goes to show just how localized and different the rut can be in the South.

“Things have really cooled off,” said Raley. “After a brief uptick in scrape activity last week, rutting behavior has fallen off a cliff. Younger bucks are grouping back up, and overall deer movement has shifted heavily toward food sources. Mature bucks are still running solo, but it’s clear they’ve moved back into a food-first mindset.

“Bed-to-feed patterns are reemerging, and I haven’t seen any meaningful midday activity in the past week,” Raley continued. “Our bumper acorn crop is finally drying up, which has pushed deer back into food plots and toward feeders for some of the best concentrated movement we’ve seen since early season.”

According to Raley, there’s still a chance to see a buck after an estrus doe. However, for the remainder of deer season, odds are much higher with focusing on feed patterns.

Michael Pitts, who is also in Georgia, isn’t seeing as much action, either. Where he’s at, most of the rutting is over. “I am seeing a lot of mature bucks by themselves and not even interested in chasing,” said Pitts. “Acorns are still the food of choice. Happy hunting!”

Shifting further eastward, Whitetail Properties Land Specialist Clay Mervar is still seeing quite a bit of rut activity in his area. He’s encountering a fair bit of chasing in the north-central region of the state. Deer are moving a lot in daylight.

“In my opinion, our prime time for seeking and chasing is usually the week leading up to Thanksgiving,” said Mervar. “So, we are on the tail end of that. However, cameras have been on fire over the past few days with the cold weather we’ve had. And colder weather will continue throughout this upcoming week. Most of the deer are returning to food sources. If you have secluded green fields, that’s where a lot of the action will be. They have been very active in our oats and clover food plots. Some good deer will die this week with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s.”

All Things Hunting’s Kyle Barefield is in Oklahoma. According to him, a few bucks are still locked down breeding does. It’s slowing down, though. According to him, a few bucks are still locked down breeding does. It’s slowing down, though.

“As fast as it cranked up, it is cranking down,” said Barefield. “Buck movement is slowing, and they are going back to feed. Most bucks are battle-worn and looking post-rut run-down already. A hunter in camp killed a mature buck this week on a feeding pattern.”

Just to the south, Will Cooper with HuntStand is in Texas. His trail cams show that the rut is waning quickly there. That said, cold weather finally arrived, which should improve overall deer movement.

Lastly, Outdoor television host Phillip Vanderpool is in Arkansas says the recent cold snap has deer moving. That said, deer are back on scrapes. He also notes that a few does haven’t been bred yet, and bucks are trying to find them.

“I would concentrate on the food sources,” said Vanderpool. “The bucks are really worn down from running so hard. Also, bucks will be hitting food sources looking for the last hot doe. It really should be good with these weather conditions. Focus on acorn flats, specifically the red oak, post oak, live oak and others.”

While much of the South region has already experienced the rut, some portions haven’t yet. Rest assured, aside from sporadic second-rut action, it’s mostly over or will be within a week or so in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

In contrast, according to historical rut timeline data compiled by state wildlife agencies, parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas will still see some peak-rut activity in the coming weeks or months.

• Alabama: The state of Alabama doesn’t even really start rutting until late November or early December, and that’s limited to small sections in the northwestern and east-central counties. Location-dependent, the rut won’t occur for most until late December, January or even early February.
• Arkansas: Some counties closer to the Mississippi River, such as Ashley, Arkansas, Chicot, Crittenden, Desha, Lee, Phillips and Woodruff, see great rut activity the first two weeks of December.
• Florida: The rut is over in the northern half and southern half of the Peninsula, as well as the eastern third of the Panhandle. That said, about a 100-mile radius around Winterhaven (central Peninsula), and the western two-thirds of the Panhandle, will see peak rut sometime between December and late February, depending upon location.
• Georgia: The vast majority of the rut is over. That said, for a small region in the southwestern corner, specifically parts of Decatur, Early, Grady, Miller, Seminole and other counties, the rut extends into mid-December.
• Louisiana: Another state with crazy rut differentiations, Louisiana first started seeing rut activity in late September in Cameron, Iberia and Vermilion parishes. The rut will continue to take place somewhere in the state until late February, when it will finally taper off in select parishes in the southeastern corner of the state.
• Mississippi: Mississippi is another state with a later rut. It doesn’t kick off until the first or second week of December, and that’s limited to a few counties in the northwestern portion of the state. That said, as you move southeastward, the rut gets later and later, finally ending around the first week of February in the southeastern corner of the state.
• Texas: While about half of Texas is past the rut, the other half of the state (southwestern and southern counties) will see peak-rut activity between now and the end of December.

All things considered, if you’re still hunting in or close to any of those areas, be ready. The action will soon heat up.

TAGGED OUT

Permission Granted

Tennessee hunter grunts in buck to within 50 yards.

• Hunter: Shane Profitt
• Date: Nov 24, 2025
• Location: Tennessee
• Method: Rifle
• Stats: 127 2/8 inches

Tennessee deer hunter Shane Profitt shot a great whitetail during his first morning sit at a new place he got permission to hunt.

“I went the evening before, and right before dark, saw two bucks chasing a doe,” said Profitt. “One of them was a good one. So, the next morning, I got in 20 minutes before shooting time and passed on a small buck early.

“About 7:55 a.m., I hit a grunt call, and at 8:10 a.m., I heard a deer grunting to my right,” said Profitt. “It was him. I stopped the buck broadside at 50 yards in hardwoods and shot him.” Despite being beyond the rut, he still enjoyed plenty of great whitetail activity, including hearing vocalizations.

MIDWEST REPORT

The Show is Over

• Forecasted cold weather will leave the remaining bucks for only the hardiest of hunters. 

The 2025 whitetail rut has wound down across the Midwest. Increasingly rare reports of a buck standing guard over a bedded doe, or a younger buck charging in nose to the ground and breaking a group of does feeding in the open are still coming in, but the consensus is that the show is over.

Up in Minnesota, DNR fisheries biologist and avid deer hunter, Scott Mackenthun said, “Signs of the rut have really tapered off up here. There are some bucks still showing up with swollen necks on camera and the occasional daytime sighting of a buck on a doe, but with the cold and snow, it seems like all the deer, bucks and does are more interested in food than breeding.”

Mackenthun’s report was reiterated to me numerous times this week as I checked in with contacts across the Midwest. Only a couple of weeks ago, many of us were complaining about the heat and swatting mosquitoes in our blinds. Now, much of the region is blanketed with snow, and temperatures are pushing low enough to keep many hunters out of the field.

Longtime central Illinois outdoors columnist, Jeff Lampe, has been around long enough to remember 50 years of rut activity, and he said this year was a weird one.

“Well, during the first segment of our gun season, Nov. 21–23, it was so hot that many hunters didn’t go,” said Lampe. “Those who did reported minimal rut activity. Now, with our second gun season set for Dec. 4–7, it’s too cold for most hunters to go out if they don’t have a heated blind.”

Lampe suggests finding a place to hunt that still has standing corn or beans. He said he has two acres of standing beans, and the deer are in them thick every evening.

Up in South Dakota, avid deer hunter Tony Reiss believes most does are bred by now. He’s concentrating his efforts on corn and soybean fields.

“The does are appearing in larger groups again in fields early in the evening because of the cold, and they’re not being harassed by bucks like they were a couple of weeks ago,” said Reiss. “Some are certainly coming into late estrous, and if you catch a lone doe on the move, hold on, because there could be a parade of bucks coming.”

Reiss hunts the far east side of the state, where ag fields are common. He says right now the best way to kill a big buck is in the evening as they are coming to food sources. He thinks they are returning to more of a pattern, so if you spot one entering a field one evening, there’s a good chance he’ll do it again the next night.

In west-central Michigan, outfitter Kevin Morlock said, “We are firmly in the late season now. The chasing has stopped. The bucks that are left are looking for food. This is the time of year when the sweat equity of planting food plots in August and September is cashed in. If you have food on your property now, you should have deer, too.”

Morlock, who is an Iditarod veteran, says he embraces the snow. He says it’s like a map the deer are inadvertently providing. If you spend a little time scouting the area you plan to hunt, the tracks and trails in the snow are going to be very telling as to where you should hunt.

“Paddle Don” Cranfill of north-central Indiana is still on the hunt for a buck he seems to have aptly named Ghost. He has recent pictures of him, so he believes Ghost is still around to haunt him. Although Cranfill isn’t seeing much daylight activity, he still has a trick up his sleeve.

“He’s the dominant buck in the area,” said Cranfill. “I’ve had him on camera so many times this year, but he’s always been one move ahead. There are still a few does coming into a second cycle, so I plan to get him during muzzleloader season (Dec. 6–12) by rattling with a decoy. I think if he hears rattling, he should think other bucks are fighting over a hot doe that he can come in and steal. When he sees the immature buck decoy, hopefully, he’ll enter the field and come within 200 yards. He’s haunted me long enough.”

For many across the Midwest, the 2025 rut was an up-and-down experience. There were near-record high temperatures that had gun hunters in blinds wearing shorts, and cold snaps that put deer on their feet. Harvests were down in most states, but not by a lot, and most are easily explainable due to the weather.

TAGGED OUT

Hunting Every Day Pays

With a fading rut, Missouri hunter finds herself in the right spot at the right time.  

• Hunter: Tabor Oman
• Date: Nov. 25, 2025
• Location: Lawrence County, SD
• Method: Rifle
• Stats: 120 inches

With a Wyoming tag already filled, Tabor Oman set his sights on the Black Hills of South Dakota. For those unfamiliar with the topography of the region, the Black Hills are a mountain range with Black Elk Peak towering to 7,244 feet. Bucks in the timber are a lot harder to find than out on the prairie. Oman took on the challenge with a lever gun topped with open sights.

With bad weather outside, Oman took his time making his way to the Black Hills on the morning of Nov. 25. He didn’t have high expectations, so he was relaxed, maybe a little too relaxed. Oman was headed back to a spot he’d explored a week ago and had gotten into a bunch of deer, but nothing he wanted to shoot. When he arrived there, he realized his hunting rifle and binoculars were still at home.

“All I had was the .30-.30 in my pickup, so I just decided to go with it,” said Oman. “I got to my spot and jumped into the thick stuff. I made about a one-mile loop but didn't see any bucks.” He drove down the road a little way to where things open up some. Oman was seriously contemplating going home for his scoped hunting rifle but decided instead to walk a two-track where he’d done some hunting the week before.

“I pulled in, and there were tracks everywhere,” Oman continued. “I wasn’t feeling very confident, but I only made it 400 yards up the road to where another road merged. I stopped there to begin calling, but before I did, I looked over and saw a set of tines sticking up in the brush. He saw me just as I saw him. He got up, and the old .30-30 put him back down. I let him have it with the first shot. I shot a second time and put him down. A hunt can change that fast.”

WEST REPORT

The Whitetail Rut is Over, but Mule Deer are Rutting All Across the West

• White-tailed bucks are starting to think more about food than girls, but the mule deer rut is running full tilt.

While the mule deer rut is rocking in the West, the whitetail breeding party is dwindling. With only one target buck on my Colorado hit list, I finally earned a second encounter with my shooter buck on Nov. 28. Browning trail cam photos, combined with hands-on recon, told me the buck was accessing the inside corner of a cut-grain field.

I watched the buck and seven does through my spotter on the evening of Nov. 27. The buck showed zero interest in the girls, and his early arrival on the food told me he was looking to start packing on the calories after a hard rut.

My good buddy and Colorado resident Danny Farris saw much of the same last week. Farris spent his tree time in a patch of timber that connects prime bedding to a grain field.

"After my encounter last week where my target buck ignored my decoy setup, I figured it was time to start focusing on food," said Farris. "The nice thing about being in proximity to food and bedding is bucks can still troll for does, but they're super close to food. These bucks expend so much energy during the rut. They will be looking to pack on the pounds. Look to green fields like winter wheat, and grain crops will also be popular."

The morning after watching my brute pound corn, I sat up along a small drainage ditch that funnels deer between the corn and bedding. At 7:21 a.m., the buck appeared, slowly making his way back to bed. The shot distance was 22 yards, but when I tried to stop the buck with a slight 'mrrp,' he bolted like he'd been shot at. I've shot many bucks in my life, and I've never had a deer react like that. Typically, I prefer to let deer stop on their own, but I didn't have that luxury. The deer was on one of three trails coming through the area, and this particular trail is littered with trees and brush.

"I'm still seeing bucks nose a few does around, and I saw a bruiser chasing a fawn early last week," said Montana's Yahsti Perkinskiller. "Food should be the focus now. Deer are pounding green food sources, but with colder weather forecasted, they will start looking for high-carb food sources."

My buddy, Steve Fernandez, got on a nice buck this past week hunting a rut funnel between bedding and a standing corn field.

"We were getting lots of pictures of the buck coming out on the corn," said Fernandez. "However, the morning I had the close call with him, he was pushing a fawn hard through a rut funnel. I feel like over 90 percent of the does in my area of Colorado have cycled, but if a doe pops, or a fawn cycles late, every buck in the area will be on it."

My good buddy and well-known Colorado outfitter Jay Waring told me that the mule deer in southeast Colorado are rutting hard.

"Bucks are up on their feet most of the day," said Waring. "Most of the bigger bucks are pushing does into open areas where they can see challengers coming. We're having success accessing high points where we can see a lot of ground. Once we glass up a good buck, we make a move."

Perkinskiller noted that while many mature bucks have does, he's seeing a lot of nice mule deer bucks cruising between doe groups trying to steal a doe.

"A buck with a doe group can be hard to kill," said Perkinskiller. "However, if you find a mature buck wandering between doe groups, you can use the terrain to move in close."

Those like me with a whitetail tag in their pocket should focus on food in the coming weeks. Green fields and grain fields will be popular.

Bucks and does prefer green food sources directly after the rut. Bucks can lose more than 25 percent of their body weight during the rut, and green fields provide easy-to-digest, high-calorie food. Popular winter food crops like wheat, turnips, field peas and oats are excellent areas to focus on.

As winter progresses and Mother Nature brings colder temperatures, bucks and does will turn their focus to higher-carbohydrate food sources like corn and maze. Focus on dense timber or brushy areas near food. Bucks will want to travel less during the late season. Their goal is to recover and pack the pounds back on. If you find excellent bedding cover near a grain field, hang a scouting camera or post up and watch the bedding area and the food source with high-power optics. Pay close attention to where bucks enter and exit a food source. Your best chance to kill them will be on your very first sit.

"Mule deer should continue to rut hard through the first 10 days of December," Waring told me. "My favorite day to hunt rutting mule deer is Dec. 8. If you miss the rut window, mule deer, like whitetail, will turn their attention to food. If you're near agriculture, focus on crop fields. If ag isn't an option, mule deer will key on available grasses and sage, as well as the twigs and buds of trees like willow, aspen and pinyon pine."

TAGGED OUT

Daily Grind

Utah bowhunter looking for a freezer deer takes down the biggest buck of his life.

• Hunter: Danny Farris
• Date: Nov. 27, 2025
• Location: Colorado
• Method: Bow
• Stats: 143 inches

My good buddy Danny Farris, A.K.A. "Last Day Farris" regularly kills target deer by remaining consistent. I've hunted with Farris for years, and one of his best attributes as a hunter is his ability to stay positive and keep going.

If Farris has a day to hunt, he hunts. He doesn't overthink it; he goes and gets in a tree, a blind or posts up on the ground with a decoy setup.

"I hunted almost every single day in Colorado during October," said Farris. "Coming off an Iowa hunt and with a December bighorn sheep tag in my pocket, I didn't have much time in November to hunt for the two bucks that were on my radar. I knew the bucks were done with the girls in my area. I had a buck last week ignore my decoy setup entirely, and the does he was traveling with were closer to me than he was to them."

Based on what Farris observed, he focused on intercepting a buck as it moved between food and bedding.

"It's not the late season yet," Farris continued. "Bucks will still travel a way to food sources, and while they travel, they can sniff around for estrous does. I like hunting rut funnels that connect bedding with food during that latter half of November and the first eight or so days of December."

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