5 Tips to Simplify the Rut

Unfortunately, almost as quick as the newfound hope arrives, the grind begins, and you find yourself on the back half of the rut, running low on sleep and ideas. You know that time on stand will prevail and you need to keep after it. This is when it pays to keep things simple and stay the course.

I’d be willing to guess that we’ve all been late for a morning hunt simply due to the fact that we can’t decide which stand to sit, a decision complicated by a lack of buck sightings and wavering confidence. This is where simplifying the decision process can create efficiencies and get your butt in the right stand when it matters.

In the offseason, hopefully, you’ve done your homework and have multiple hunt locations for every possible wind direction. The problem is, it becomes tough to decipher all those pins on the map and which ones are conducive to which wind direction. The solution is simple, list all of your hunt locations A-Z. Then list which wind direction is best for that stand location.

When the weatherman calls for a certain wind direction, you now know exactly what your options are by quickly glimpsing at your chart. Your dozens of spots have now been thinned down to one or two. Pick the spot that sparks the most excitement and go.

We’ve all read the stories about killing big bucks in the middle of the day. The problem is, the stories don’t tend to include how mentally taxing it is to commit to an all-day sit. I love an all-day sit as much as the next guy, but after two or three consecutive all-day sits that are as uneventful as you could possibly imagine, it’s tough to commit yourself to another long day.

It becomes much more tempting to catch the noon football game, catch a mid-day nap, or restock your snack supply. Further complicating the situation, if your hunt plan involves getting in the truck and relocating stand locations mid-day, I don’t know about you, but the odds of me cashing in on the mid-day hours become incredibly unlikely.

The plan for an all-day hunt quickly turns into a morning and evening-only kind of deal. For me, the solution is packing a lunch and picking a spot that is conducive to mid-day action, even if it means the spot isn’t my best morning or evening stand.

For the guys and gals out there toughing it out on public land or heavily pressured private, the days of sitting field edges and other hunter magnets are over. By the time the rut rolls around, these deer have been hunted for a month or two, educating them about hunter patterns and pushing them towards sanctuaries and seclusion.

On public land, sanctuaries are usually formed by topography or heavy cover, places where hunters are generally uninterested in going. Simultaneously, the does are being harassed by bucks daily, and the lockdown will soon ensue. Each of these factors makes deer prefer areas of seclusion, which is right where you should be as well.

Here’s the most basic and simplistic rut-hunting advice out there, hunt funnels and pinch points during the rut. As lame as that sounds, its importance can’t be understated. When bucks are on the move, sometimes all it takes is identifying the best funnel in the woods, even if the spot is almost void of deer sign, and plant yourself there for a few days.

If you’re there on a peak travel day, and you’ve truly located the best funnel in the woods, bucks will come through. It’s simply a matter of picking the right day. My best rut stands are terribly boring spots in the early and late seasons. If I see a doe or two, I consider it an above-average sit. But in these spots, the terrain funnels the deer through a finite area. During the rut, I typically only see a deer or two per day, they just happen to be mature bucks. Simple but effective.

If trail cameras have taught me anything, it’s that you can just about set your calendars for the peak mature buck travel days. Year after year, random mature bucks that I’ve never gotten pictures of before will show up on camera in surprisingly predictable patterns. This usually correlates with the days leading up to the peak estrus date.

When peak breeding is about to kick off, bucks will be scouring the country, almost as if they’re scouting for does. My favorite Midwest whitetail stomping grounds see this happen annually around November 11^th, whereas my favorite western whitetail grounds see this happen around November 20^th. This is where you can really use historical trail camera data to help you select what days are best suited for going all in.

Hunting the rut is almost as simple as playing the odds. Every strategy you deploy, think of it as an odds multiplier. Individually, none of these tips will guarantee you a crack at the buck of a lifetime, but by stacking the odds multipliers together, things will eventually happen in your favor. Who knows what this November may bring.