Chasing isn’t rutting

So when is the rut?

You’ll hear it as early as August amongst some Carolina deer hunters: “Bucks are already chasing does. The rut sure has come early this year.”

But chasing isn’t rutting, and is not at all an indicator of an early rut, according to SCDNR deer biologist Charles Ruth. NCWRC’s deer biologist Moriah Boggess agrees.

“Bucks chase does all year long. But that’s just chasing. When the does are receptive to it in a way that allows breeding, that’s when the rut is on,” said Ruth.

He and Boggess agree that the timing of the rut, at least the peak of it, changes very little from one year to the next. That’s because the rut is controlled by the length of day, or what’s called the photoperiod, which is basically how long it remains daylight.

Forget the weather

A diminishing ratio of daylight is what causes behavioral changes among the deer herd that leads to breeding. That’s the peak of the rut.

Many hunters will notice the first freeze of the season, and see an increase in deer movement. Again, that doesn’t mean the rut is on.

“Weather patterns will certainly change deer movement patterns, and many hunters will see what they believe is rutting activity then. But colder temperatures have nothing to do with the rut. It just so happens that we get a lot of cold days during the same time of year that the photoperiod triggers breeding. If it’s unseasonably warm when that photoperiod is right, they’re still going to breed,” said Boggess.

Ruth said hunters also need to realize that some breeding will occur outside the peak of the rut, but the vast majority of does will be bred during the peak.

So when is the peak? It varies depending on where you live. In South Carolina, the majority of the state sees the peak of the rut between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15. The extreme Upstate has it between Nov. 15 and Dec. 15, and the extreme Lowcountry sees it between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1

In North Carolina, The Western Zone’s peak rut is generally Dec. 4, give or take a day. In the Northwestern Zone, it’s Nov. 25. The Central Zone is Nov. 17. The Northeastern Zone sees it on Nov. 8, and the Southeastern Zone’s average peak rut date is Oct. 31.

When the rut is on, hunters should be in the stand as much as possible, for as long as possible. Even the biggest, most mature bucks let their guards down in a dangerous way during the rut, as their desire to breed takes over.

Many hunters see big bucks they’ve never seen before, and at odd times of the day, simply because those big bucks are roaming more than they normally do.