Rut Tracking 9-20-19
(rut meter 2%)

Rubs and scrapes are starting to showing up in the woods, rut on? No, no rut yet, but before you know it, we’ll be telling you to “drop everything and hit the woods, the rut’s on. For the third year in a row, our team of deer watchers will be bringing you our “Rut Report” via The Hunting Page on Facebook. This year we will also asking you what you are seeing in the deer woods. Starting today, you will start regular reports on how the whitetail rut is progressing at first you will hear from us every week, but as the rut heats up, it might just be daily, and we won’t stop until the rut is over, totally over, wherever whitetails are found. We’ll keep you on posted not only on the status of the rut, but what the deer are doing, and how to hunt them, all you have to do is tune into https://thehuntingpage.wpengine.com/or https://www.facebook.com/thehuntingpage

 

Rut wise, we are off to our usual early fall fax rut, some scrapes and rubs but no serious rut sign. After carefully reviewing our camera data and our reports from our brigade of deer
watchers, we’re only able to set the rut meter at a paltry 2% there. Worry not, the meter will work its way up over time and one day shortly it will be hovering around the magic 100% “Rut On” reading. Most bucks are hard horned and we are seeing plenty of velvet-shedding rubbing activity and some territorial scraping, if you are a serious rut hunter, signs like these are only a precursor of the serious rut sign to come. This week, it’s all about food where ever deer are found, buck testosterone levels may be rising but the but the does are far from estrus.

 

Food is definitely where the whitetail action is and when it comes to food, the woods are full of it. Mast is beginning to hit the ground and fall crops and food plots are feeding deer. That’s where the real deer action is. Savvy hunters are staking out fall food sources. Cool mornings and evenings have whitetail bucks on the move and they have pounds to gain before the rut. The early season is a great time to pattern a good buck as early season wall hangers are more interested in filling their
stomachs than chasing does.