Our Gulf Coast is still shaken from the passage of Hurricane Helene and as I pen this piece, another major hurricane is heading our way, looking to bring major devastation to us. Hurricane Milton will have come and gone by the time these words appear in print, so before I get into an update about the progress of our Fall whitetail season, I want to assure you that my sincerest prayers are with all of you, my friends, in harm’s way.
Now, as for the deer season, lots of activity has occurred early this year. The bucks shed their velvet early, the acorn drop began early and now the rut is beginning early. On each trip to the woods, I encountered fresh rubs and scrapes, confirming that the bucks were on the prowl.
For anybody unfamiliar with the rut, in practical terms, the rut is the breeding season when whitetail does are in heat and bucks are hot on their heels in search of a willing mate. Deer abandon their natural caution during this time, resulting in both bucks and does on the move. The commotion makes the forest come alive with movement and sounds that can seem almost chaotic compared to its usual stillness.
Because of this uptick in activity, the rutting season is when hunters have the best chance of sighting deer and rooting out wary bucks. As for tactics, I’m still keying on buck bedding areas during this phase. However, the rut sign is becoming a little more important now. Odds still aren’t good for killing a buck over a scrape (they never are—most scraping activity is done at night), but if you find several scrapes and a rub line really close to a known bedding area, get between it and the buck’s bedroom on morning hunts. Continue to focus on bed-to-feed patterns for afternoon sits.
As far as this bad weather goes; I’ve never sat in the woods to hunt during a hurricane. But, I have sat in a blind twice during tropical storms. Several things struck me as I headed out to my blind each day. For one thing, I was the only one hunting during what should have been (and was) the peak of the rut. All around me on properties up and down the coast, I could see empty climbers, ladder stands and pop-ups that would have held hunters had the weather been more appealing. Even so, the deer were out, active and busy the entire time. Naturally, the biggest bucks I saw were far away across a clear cut, standing 15 yards from someone else’s stand or blind. One, the biggest, a guaranteed state record book contender, ran the closed road on the clear-cuts edge all day, back and forth without stopping. He ran by me several times, but too fast and just out of range, close enough to take my breath away and give me the incentive to come back the next day.
The point of all this, of course, is that deer are going to rut regardless of the weather conditions. Breeding bucks are as oblivious to the weather during a hurricane as they are when the sun is shining. They have a need, a job to do, a natural calling to answer, and rain or shine, they’re going to participate. We all hope for bright, crisp, sunny days, but hunters, like the deer, must take what Mother Nature dishes out.
As always, you are welcome to reach out to me at [email protected]. God Bless, and good hunting.
Toby Benoit is a best-selling novelist and professional outdoorsman with thirty-five years of experience guiding and outfitting for big game all across America. Toby is a renowned archer and turkey hunting expert who manufactures custom game calls and is a regular judge at NWTF sanctioned turkey calling events across the Southeast.
