Blacktail Rut thread

[JakeLand]

Saw one buck today. First time he followed does into the woods. 2nd time I saw him he did not get to follow them back into the woods. I guess the point is, I saw multiple groups of does in one clear cut this morning, and the mature buck was definitely checking them out and drawing him out into the open in the middle of the day. Shot him at 11:30am.

and it’s a Dandy !!

[nwmein199]

Saw a very nice BT buck at 345pm yesterday chasing a doe across a busy road in Bonney Lake

[bowNarrow]

Seen this big guy yesterday sniffing around .

[HntnFsh]

Nice buck and picture!

[Cylvertip]

Had a big forky come strolliin in on the ladies feeding on my property yesterday evenjng.  Did not care one bit about me.  Came within  5 yards of me.  Did not care about the bon fire I lit later where he came by at 15 yards.  I ended up walking within 3 yards of him a bit after that.  Girls on the mind and they wanted nothing to do with him.

[elkboy]

Bucks going crazy in our neighborhood here in western Oregon.  We have a big 5x5 that I keep running into while walking the dogs in the pre-dawn darkness or after dark.  He's been trailing the does, and running the younger suburban bucks off.  I just need to bump into his countryside brother this weekend out in the woods...

[BigredRusch]

Spent a lot of time out in the woods the last two days. I have seen 4 or 5 forkies out running in the daylight. Two of them almost ran me over while I was sitting. I don’t think we have had the cold snap needed to get mature bucks running during daylight on Whidbey yet.

I’ll go out in the morning and then spend the evening with my family trick or treating .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bornhunter]

Its like the rut just stopped where I am at. 10 days ago I was passing on small bucks and the last four days nothing. Not even any night photos with a bunch of does showing. Never seen this before. 

[elkboy]

Its like the rut just stopped where I am at. 10 days ago I was passing on small bucks and the last four days nothing. Not even any night photos with a bunch of does showing. Never seen this before. 

Seems a bit early for them to be locking down with does.   I wonder what's behind your lack of observations.

[2MANY]

Change in the weather.

[highside74]

I've been sitting on a beautiful 6 year clearcut at 2000ft elevation since dawn. It has a timbered creek drainage along the bottom and timber at the top. Zero deer today. 2 does on the hike up in the dark. That's it so far. I haven't moved since 8am but I'm losing patience.

Side note the puffy pants make it a lot easier to sit and stay warm. Game changer.

[mboyle0828]

Has anyone had luck seeing bucks in the daylight during the late season (Nov 14-17)?

I’ve always wondered why it’s so short. Maybe it’s prime time?

[highside74]

Has anyone had luck seeing bucks in the daylight during the late season (Nov 14-17)?

I’ve always wondered why it’s so short. Maybe it’s prime time?

Other than the last few days of Oct this years late season is almost perfect as far as dates go.

[7mmfan]

The rut ebbs and flows from about October 15 until it really kicks in around November 5-15. The bulk of the buck movement that we see in mid-Late October is pre-rut movement, looking for doe groups and bucks being drawn by a hot doe that has gone into early estrus in October. Daytime movement "should" increase as we get to the end of the month, but since the overwhelming majority of does aren't in estrus yet, that movement is still heavily dependent on things like pressure and weather. Cold/wet/windy weather generally keeps deer on their feet longer than warm pleasant weather. I promise, if today was 42 degrees and raining sideways, deer would be dropping like hot rocks.

To answer mboyle's question, the main event happens between about November 5-15 every year. There are does that come in sooner, and does that come in later, but that's when the vast majority are bred. The late buck season is short because it can be exceptionally productive. I read somewhere that often there are as many deer killed in those 4 days as there are in the entire general season. There's a few reasons for that.

- It's close enough to the main rut that there can still be numbers of hot does around, keeping bucks active.
- Bucks are rarely on lockdown at this point, they're cruising again looking for hot does, so they're visible.
- The understory has thinned significantly because of leaves dropping and storms knocking them down. You can simply see better than you could the month before.
- Weather is generally cool and rainy/windy, which is ideal weather for seeing Blacktail.

[highside74]

The rut ebbs and flows from about October 15 until it really kicks in around November 5-15. The bulk of the buck movement that we see in mid-Late October is pre-rut movement, looking for doe groups and bucks being drawn by a hot doe that has gone into early estrus in October. Daytime movement "should" increase as we get to the end of the month, but since the overwhelming majority of does aren't in estrus yet, that movement is still heavily dependent on things like pressure and weather. Cold/wet/windy weather generally keeps deer on their feet longer than warm pleasant weather. I promise, if today was 42 degrees and raining sideways, deer would be dropping like hot rocks.

To answer mboyle's question, the main event happens between about November 5-15 every year. There are does that come in sooner, and does that come in later, but that's when the vast majority are bred. The late buck season is short because it can be exceptionally productive. I read somewhere that often there are as many deer killed in those 4 days as there are in the entire general season. There's a few reasons for that.

- It's close enough to the main rut that there can still be numbers of hot does around, keeping bucks active.
- Bucks are rarely on lockdown at this point, they're cruising again looking for hot does, so they're visible.
- The understory has thinned significantly because of leaves dropping and storms knocking them down. You can simply see better than you could the month before.
- Weather is generally cool and rainy/windy, which is ideal weather for seeing Blacktail.

Exactly what I said🫣