Mike: Over the past couple years I only got one or two photos of this buck. Last year, 2020, I got 4. The buck made his home in a pine and sage grass cutover that joined a small strip of hardwoods in Marion County Alabama. I hunted him hard during bow season, and passed on smaller bucks waiting for him. The rut here doesn’t start till early January and I knew I had to get him before it kicked off. The day after Thanksgiving I climbed at the edge of the cut about a quarter-mile west of where I got the photos of the deer. Hadn’t been seeing any deer movement for a couple weeks close to my camera, so [...]

At first I figured some guy on the next ridge had spooked the jittery doe that dashed past my stand. But then I had a premonition: Was something more happening here? I readied my .270, just as the 9-pointer prowled forth, grunting with his nose to the ground. Easy shot. That would have been your classic rut hunt, except for one thing. I killed that gnarly buck on a cold day in late December, a good month after the breeding season had peaked in Virginia. Understanding the Second Rut Many hunters think the rut is confined to 2 or 3 weeks in mid-November, but it’s not. There is more “trickle breeding” going on into December than you might imagine. Bucks [...]