Deer Rut Archives

28 10, 2025

3 Stands for Hunting Thick Cover in the Deer Rut

Clay Hanback2025-10-26T09:45:08-04:00October 28th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Three days or so before the peak of the rut, many does pile into stands of thick cedars or pines. They’re tired of being chased over hill and dale by horny bucks, so they try to hide out in the thickets. Of course, the boys pitch in there and keep harassing them. Check an aerial photograph for a small clearing in the greens, like a third-row thinning in planted pines. Sneak in there (great quiet walking) and set up in a ground blind on the downwind side of the opening. A doe might pop out to browse with a buck on her heels, or more likely she’ll flash across, still trying to dump a rowdy 8-pointer. An old buck is [...]

26 10, 2025

4 Rut Stands For Farm Country Bucks

Clay Hanback2025-10-26T09:33:13-04:00October 26th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Rut, sportsman channel, trijicon, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Where are the best spots in farm country to ambush a rut-wired buck? The first week of November bucks love to troll nose down across an old pasture or weed field from one point of woods to the next. It’s a natural pinch point. Hang a tree stand in the downwind point of timber where you can see and shoot far out into the cover with a firearm. If bowhunting, move a stand more toward the middle of the patch of woods and set up on the downwind side of the heaviest doe trail in the vicinity. Let’s say that later in November you see a big 8-pointer chase a doe out of the far point of woods and toward [...]

25 03, 2025

New Moon Phase Means Hot Deer Rut

Clay Hanback2025-03-17T11:39:07-04:00March 25th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, sportsman channel, trijicon, whitetail deer|Comments Off on New Moon Phase Means Hot Deer Rut

Here on the blog last August, I wrote: In all my years of chasing whitetails across North America, I’ve noticed the tendency for the animals to move most in twilight is magnified during a new (dark) moon that overlaps the seeking phase of the rut, as it does this year. I went on to predict that the new moon week of November 2 through 6 would be five of the best days to hunt in 2024. Not coincidentally, we planned our annual Virginia deer camp to start on November 2, in the middle of archery season and during the first week of muzzleloader. This is typically when what I call the “hard pre-rut” occurs in the Virginia Piedmont. Weeks earlier, [...]

9 10, 2024

Tarsal Scent for Deer Hunting

Clay Hanback2024-10-09T14:48:06-04:00October 9th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, whitetail deer|2 Comments

One morning in early November, I smoked an 8-pointer with my muzzleloader and got on the blood trail. I could smell his rankness as I tracked, and when I found him a short way ahead, I covered my nose with my sleeve and thought, Man, you stink. The deer’s hocks were wet and black as motor oil. I rolled him over, held my breath and started gutting. Leaves popped. I peeked up and saw 10-pointer bearing down, head and rack held low, hair bristling on his neck. I crouched low behind the dead deer. A rut-crazed buck is unpredictable. I figured staying put rather than trying to wave him off was best. The intruder sidled to within 15 yards, popping [...]

30 05, 2024

Do Whitetail Does Have More Buck Fawns in Hunted Areas?

Clay Hanback2024-05-30T09:54:58-04:00May 30th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Rut, Deer Science, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Do Whitetail Does Have More Buck Fawns in Hunted Areas?

I just ran across a study conducted by the University of Florida years ago. It found that in areas where hunting is permitted, whitetail does give birth to more male fawns than female fawns. Researchers examined the reproductive tracts of 380 legally harvested does from four tracts across Florida. Two of the areas were off limits to general hunting, and the other two WMAs were regularly hunted. More than 90 percent of the does in all the areas were pregnant, the research found. Males comprised 56 percent of the fetuses in the hunted areas but just 39 percent in the non-hunted areas. Additionally, the researchers found 38 percent of does on hunted sites carried twins, compared with just 14 percent [...]