Blacktail Rut?

[CP]

When does it start?

[h20hunter]

I've seen bucks in the middle of the day as early as the 14th.

[bobcat]

About October 28th, in my experience.

[JakeLand]

About October 28th, in my experience.

give or take a day 

[Salmonstalker]

Took some video on my phone two nights ago, of a 2x3 with his nose up a doe's rear end. (Mount Vernon) It seems like the north sound/san juan island area always kicks off the first week of October.

[180-GRAIN]

10 deer in the yard last night. 5 were bucks. 2 were locking antlers and shoving each other around a bit. Setting up to be the same as last year around my place. Heavy rut action started the 24th of October. Had big bucks in the yard on does until around the 4th of November then the smaller bucks showed back up and harassed the does for another week or so.

[fishnfur]

Found new deer hair in old rubs a couple days ago while out elking.  No new rubs usually until late in the month down here. 

I put my cam back out in the yard a couple of hours ago.  We normally get a burst of nocturnal activity around Oct. 15th, just for a couple days, then it dies out till around the 10th of November.

[BoneCollector1]

I started to get day time pics of bucks last year around the 27th of October.

[3nails]

 Kid you not a buddy got a pic of this rutted up bad boy with 2 does last week. Look at his neck.  Buddy said he could have walked up and roped him.

[AKBowman]

Usually around the 23rd of October around where I hunt. Give or take a week. Last year the rut (or pre-rut) was going off the first day of the rifle season. Then not much of anything until November but most activity was end of first week of October through end of first weekend. Both years before were right near the 23rd.

The colder weather and early darkness with the clouds this year could kick things off way early.

[Turner89]

About October 28th, in my experience.

give or take a day 

x3

[fishnfur]

There was a guy, Dogzilla was his name I think, on one of the Oregon boards that used to say that the Oct. 26th was the first day the big bucks would move.   He insisted that that he 26th and one or two days following that would be the best days to be sitting on intersecting trails.  But Dogzilla also insisted that ALL does went into estrous at the same time, or within a 24 hour period, and he even went so far as to put a specific date to that.  Dogzilla was a very successful BT hunter, but this all sounded way over the top to me, considering there are BT doe estrous studies that show the latter is not the case.

Scott Haugen, in his book Trophy Blacktails - The Science of the Hunt, writes that the dates similar to those above correspond to the time that the big mature bucks first start showing an interest in breeding and make their first excursion in order to check out the locations of the doe herds (in Oregon).  Having seen photos and read reports on this WA forum over the past several years of big bucks moving at mid-day in mid-October, Haugen's remarks are clearly not consistent with local observations. 

I'll leave it to you all to consider the implications of the apparent variance BT buck behavior, and when it occurs, across the geographic range of the animal.  One thing seems certain, you never know what might be going on out in your woods once mid-October comes around.  There's only one way to find out for sure. 

Here's a good refresher article on buck behavior.  This one's on WT bucks (of course) since there are virtually no studies on BT bucks.  I believe that virtually all of the ten items apply to BT bucks though: 

https://www.qdma.com/10-things-know-mature-buck-movements/

Edit:  BTW - that's one hell of a nice BT 3nails!

[Mallardmasher]

I wish we could have the 1-10 nov to hunt the grey ghost.

[MrSmallington]

Taking off  November 16-19th... any chance I might get lucky making bleat calls? first timer here. 

[fishnfur]

Taking off  November 16-19th... any chance I might get lucky making bleat calls? first timer here.

Some guys swear by a doe bleat.  It only takes one time using a bleat can, then having a buck run in after you throw out a call to feel like you have a magic can in your possession.  Personally, I've never had any response at all to a bleat.  I use them quite frequently though as I still hunt, especially if I make some noise.  The idea is that you're pre-warning any other deer nearby that there is another deer (you) walking in the woods.  In theory, it keeps the other deer from going on full alert and possibly bolting when they hear you move.  They expect to see a deer after already having heard the deer in advance.  (I got that off the HowtoHunt.com Blacktail App.)  I really hate the bleat can though.  It rattles in my pocket and if I hit it with my gun stock, it really makes a bad noise.  Silence is golden.

It might be a bit early, but rattling antlers can get exciting pretty quick if you get some responses.  I'd recommend you use the "search this forum" function for rattling, or rattling blacktails and read up.  Also, check out numerous articles via Google and a few videos on Youtube.  Maybe a grunt tube used in conjunction with the antlers, especially later in the season would be appropriate.

Good luck!