A number of factors influence exactly when deer will go into rut across South Carolina, but for most areas, the 30 days from Oct. 15 and Nov. 15 are historically when does go into estrous and bucks breed them.
According to biologist Richard Morton of the SCDNR, the mountains and the coastal areas represent a shift in what is considered ordinary for the remainder of the state.
“Oct. 1 is when they see it more on the coast,” said Morton, “sometimes even a few days earlier. In the Piedmont area, up in the mountains and in that lower Clemson area, it’s Thanksgiving. It’s hard to believe that it varies that much from the coast to the mountains.”
The rut occurs when females go into estrous. No more chasing, no more running; it’s time to stand and let nature take it’s course. The median date for breeding, outside of the mountains, is Oct. 30, according to biologists.
“You could pretty much count on Oct. 30 kicking off the rut, based on the old check-station data out of the Piedmont,” Morton said. “So all the Abbeville-Union area, all down there, that big stretch that’s in Game Zone 2, the rut was on by Oct. 30. But it was always later in the mountains. We only had limited check station data to pull our surveys from, but pretty much everything that came back to around Thanksgiving. Back when we were doing check stations, that’s where the big bucks came in, around Thanksgiving and into early December. It was Thanksgiving up here before we get cranked up.”
While the rut gets a lot of attention, many hunters have better success during the pre-rut phase when bucks begin making their presence known to both does and deer hunters. They rub trees, both as a way to mark their territories and rid themselves of the velvet that has encased their antlers during the growing season. They also scrape the ground and deposit scent in the scrapes and overhanging trees to let does know where they can be found.
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