By Rich Landers

Whitetails grow big in the riverbottoms below the peaks and in the northwest woods. West region 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

Overall Activity Status: Oct. 1: Groups of bucks are grooming while does are keeping their normal distance, said Hal Meenach, a wildlife manager in eastern Washington. Unusually hot weather throughout the West may have contributed to coaxing bucks into a nocturnal mode during the first week of October, but look for a change now that weather has returned to normal, especially in the mountains where frosty nights have returned.

Hard-horned bachelor groups are evident in the Panhandle region of northern Idaho, said Jeff Strauss of Sandpoint.

But mature buck sightings have been rare in the warm weather, said Keith Miller of Montana Whitetails.

Fighting: Light sparing and bucks pushing each other around was reported as early as the third week in September in northeastern Washington by... [ Read Full Post ]