By Scott Bestul

If you ever need proof that the rut proceeds in haphazard fashion—with dramatic regional variations—consider this: Three hunting buddies just returned from a trip to southern Iowa/northern Missouri. The mature bucks there were lollygagging around, their desire for females barely competing with their interest in acorns. Buck activity was decent enough that they tagged three mature animals, but the conclusion was clear: the rut in that area was days away from cranking.

Meanwhile, my Wisconsin and Illinois contacts report borderline craziness, with spectacular chasing and even the occasional fight breaking out. One friend emailed yesterday feeling panicky, knowing the frenetic pace would soon result in the lockdown phase, when most mature bucks are breeding does and moving little.
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By Mike Bleech

Northeast Rut Reporter Mike Bleech has been hunting whitetails in his native Pennsylvania and throughout the Northeast for more than four decades. A Vietnam veteran and full-time freelance outdoor writer, Bleech has had more than 5000 of his articles published. States covered: ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA OH, MD, DE.

Nov. 3--Overall Activity Status: Deer have been quite active. Forms of activity have varied over the past few days from feeding, to false rut, to does in heat.

Fighting: This is not the time for fight. It is the time for love, or something similar. What looks like it might be a fight will usually just be a bluff, since the bucks already know who is boss.

Rub Making: Both rubs and scrapes just crept up on us, in quantity. It is shaping up to be a normal late Hunters’ Moon fall. Things seem to be confusing, but only because we might be expecting too much.
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By Rich Landers

Rut Reporter Rich Landers, a native Montanan and life-long hunter, is the outdoors editor for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. He has written several books about the western outdoors and has hunted whitetails all his life. States covered: WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO.

Nov. 4: Rutting activity of one sort or another has been reported throughout the West where whitetails occur, but unusually warm weather seems to have subdued the action, or at least kept it under the veil of darkness. PATIENCE is the word from the best hunters I've contacted. The deer can't cheat their biological clocks too much, and the calendar doesn't lie.

My trail-cam photo of the whitetail here hints at what's going on. Yes, it's a doe, but she's just five feet from a fresh scrape I found the previous day. I fixed my camera on it -- no food or bait involved -- and found a doe responding to it very quickly. There's love in the air!

Following is a rut update from all the Western whitetail states.

Colorado: Whitetail rutting activity is light, says Mike Bondurant of La Garita Outfitters based in Golden. "Oddly enough, we did notice some pre-rut activity with our muley's in eastern Colorado-- very wierd but true."
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By Scott Bestul

Nov. 2: Those of you who’ve read our annual “Best Days to Hunt the Rut” feature from the November issue of the magazine are well aware that yesterday was the second of the seven best days we selected for hunting this year’s rut.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must report that my sum total of deer encounters that day was far from impressive. One decent buck early in the morning (following a doe with only mild interest), and one forkhorn two hours later constituted my day’s buck count. In the last minutes of my evening sit, I heard an animal of heavy foot and obvious trophy proportions approaching my stand. I grabbed my bow expectantly….only to spot a shuffling opossum. I passed on the marsupial and will have to find antlers another day.
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By David Draper

Rut Reporter David Draper grew up hunting deer and small game throughout this region and presently lives on a family farm in Nebraska. Draper, former communications specialist for Cabela’s and an authority on the Great Plains, subsists on a diet of duck breast and venison. States covered: ND, SD, NE and KS.

Nov. 2: Denton Rich of Mule Creek Outfitters (620-770-1257) checked in this week with a report from Greensburg, Kansas: "The weather has been fairly warm in southwestern Kansas with no precipitation. It’s pretty dry in this region at this point. We are under a frost advisory for tonight and it will be the first frost of the year. Leaves are falling from the trees heavily now.
"The deer have started to switch to fall feeding patterns, are using the wheat fields and corn fields. All the corn is picked and the irrigated wheat is in and up enough for the deer to graze.
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By Rich Landers

Rut Reporter Rich Landers, a native Montanan and life-long hunter, is the outdoors editor for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. He has written several books about the western outdoors and has hunted whitetails all his life. States covered: WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO.

Nov. 2: I started looking for days off later this week after talking to a hunter who also happens to be a researcher involved in one of Montana's most ambitious white-tailed deer studies.

"Rattling is quite effective in the two weeks prior to the peak of the rut," said Gary Dusek, a retired Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife biologist. He noted that his research pegged Nov. 21 as the average peak for conceptions in northwestern Montana.

"You're a lot less likely to pull away a buck that's tending a doe," he said. [ Read Full Post ]