Blacktail Rut Thread - Post updates here

[fishngamereaper]

Cold spell got some deer moving but buck's are just cruising a little right now... mostly young and dumb. The rut is controlled by the does and it doesn't change more than a couple days in general.  They'll go nocturnal again this weekend with the moon phase and opening season crowds.

I wouldn't expect full on stupid for another 10-12 days. 

[trophyhunt]

My co-worker went to ocean shores about 5 weeks ago, watched a doe give birth!!  That doe was bred around feb, crazy late breeding for her.

[JakeLand]

Nope not rutting, this morning had 4 Does work down into a cut from the timber and a 3 point fed right by them without even glancing at them , then at around 1:00 pm I snuck up on a brute of a forky ( biggest I’ve ever seen) and was bedded a couple feet away from a decent 3x3 no swelling and no stank and very few rubs around

[fishnfur]

Hmmm.... That's a super nice buck  but in my mind, that looks more like a killer Blacktail rather than a small version of a solid Muley.  He's not massively wide (just a bit outside the ears) but does have relatively long tines that might suggest Muley as well.  It looks a lot like those BT bucks that come from the Eugene, OR area . The location of this particular buck would complete the story.  Those eyeguards are awesome either way.

I think he was being facetious. Saying it was a large BT.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Geeze, you're right.  The size of the buck had my mind spinning.

[fishnfur]

My co-worker went to ocean shores about 5 weeks ago, watched a doe give birth!!  That doe was bred around feb, crazy late breeding for her.

So I'm thinking, that doe won't be hitting estrus anytime soon.   
Normally, a fawn born that late has a very low chance of surviving the winter.  Even in the relatively temperate coastal winter climate, cold rains and no food will kill the late-born fawns well before spring comes around.

[PolarBear]

Cold spell got some deer moving but buck's are just cruising a little right now... mostly young and dumb. The rut is controlled by the does and it doesn't change more than a couple days in general.  They'll go nocturnal again this weekend with the moon phase and opening season crowds.

I wouldn't expect full on stupid for another 10-12 days. 

We get “early rut” threads every year but in all reality the true rut happens about the same time every year and it’s not the first 2 weeks of season.

[fishnfur]

Rutting - no.  Chasing and searching - at least occasionally.

My only backyard cam currently out caught a small forkie chasing a doe in the early morning hours of the 12th.  It is pretty well accepted that young bucks will chase way before the doe are ready for action - their behavior is normal for that portion of the buck's maturation process as it ages.  On the other hand, there is often something happening that gives the bigger bucks a sudden urge to get out and start sniffing around, typically sometime around the 13th of the month.  I've seen it year after year - previously unseen bucks suddenly make an appearance for a night or two and then disappear again till the very end of the month or even later.  Many, many forum members have posted photos of massive bucks suddenly making daylight appearances at mid-day in areas of heavy human traffic such as school yards, worksites, football games, etc., the timing of which all seem to converge around the 13 - 15th of October.     

I've often postulated over the past several years that the onset of these more mature buck behaviors was likely their reaction to a nearby doe experiencing an early estrus, which would presumably leave the first scent of the oncoming rut both in the air and on the ground (and get those bigger bucks out for a first cruise of the season).  Discussions in scientific literature such as the following discuss the estrus cycles of BT deer:

Estrus in Black-Tailed Deer
Beatrice Wong; Katherine L. Parker
Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 69, No. 1. (Feb., 1988), pp. 168-171.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2372%28198802%2969%3A1%3C168%3AEIBD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
Journal of Mammalogy is currently published by American Society of Mammalogists

"The potential mating season of the four female black-tailed deer (day of first estrus to day of last estrus)
ranged from 107 to 124 days (X i SD = 118.3 i 7.8 days). Wild black-tailed deer in northern latitudes
mate between mid-October and early January, with most mating occurring in mid-November (Anderson,
1981:42). Our study and observations by Cowan (1956:527) document that female black-tailed deer, like
Rocky Mountain mule deer (Anderson, 1981:42), are capable of mating into March."

An early estrus in a single doe could (in my mind) easily get a few of the local bucks up and doing some searching around during a period where they would otherwise be laying low.  Clearly this is not "the rut" per se, but just the first trickle of the upcoming rut activity which typically peaks sometime around 10 -12 Nov. +/-

Further demonstrating this idea - that same early morning of Oct. 12th, shortly after the small forkie chased a doe across the cam's field of view, this better (and previously unknown buck) also makes an appearance.  Certainly it could be coincidence, but when these bigger buck appearances happen consistently year after year at similar times of the month, then the likelyhood is likely that some other process is at work.   


 

[trophyhunt]

Good friend works for the city of Kent, he saw a 3 point chasing a doe in their water shed last week.

[Pacific Ghost]

Haven't seen this guy before, and now he shows up on a property adjacent to ours. Hanging out with at least a half dozen other deer, and acting kind of like an idiot.  Of course the residential area deer are quite a bit different than the typical timber land animals. At least in my experience.

[elkboy]

Haven't seen this guy before, and now he shows up on a property adjacent to ours. Hanging out with at least a half dozen other deer, and acting kind of like an idiot.  Of course the residential area deer are quite a bit different than the typical timber land animals. At least in my experience.

What a pig of a blacktail!  Look at that chunky body.  Lots of venison, right there...

[HunterofWA]

Not much activity on the cams for me, but I have found two nice rubs from mature bucks.

[Wolfdog2314]

Rubs are definitely starting to pop up. Haven’t seen a deer today tho. Could have shot a decent bull at 50 yards tho. Go figure.

[Parasite]

Saw a Forky close to the Lacey Cabela's a few days ago around 9am. Swollen neck and trolling.

[Sundance]

Good article on calling blacktails as we move closer to peak rut.

https://pnwbowhunting.com/blog/f/calling-blacktails-top-10-questions-answers-a7abb46e7044?blogcategory=Blacktail+deer&fbclid=IwAR3mTisv15DYTi-UAkmiQEcYmZ_gRcSHUNkbfeS9AqcA0dw9mFz3qwsRq5I

[fishnfur]

Great article Sundance.  Lots of good information.  Estrus cycles in Blacktails average roughly 23 +/- days (rather than 28)according to all the literature I've read. Some doe studies found estrus cycles as short as 19 days. 

Haven't seen this guy before, and now he shows up on a property adjacent to ours. Hanging out with at least a half dozen other deer, and acting kind of like an idiot.  Of course the residential area deer are quite a bit different than the typical timber land animals. At least in my experience.

I could be totally wrong, but I always assumed that residential deer would be on the exact same schedule as the deer in the deep woods (in that same area).  We are just better able to observe the behaviour when it happens in a our more open environment.