January brings breeding activity to many parts of Mississippi, so hunters can literally find themselves in a rut as long as they’d like to be.
George Clark Burge settled the crosshairs of his .45/70 on a massive, swamp-bottom buck in Pearl River County and squeezed the trigger deliberately.
Ka-Boom!
The rifle roared, and the big buck collapsed in a heap. Burge’s trophy harvest was not an accident, nor a one-time occurrence. If there was any luck, it was preparation meeting opportunity, which equals some hard-earned success. Anybody can be lucky once, but to consistently harvest trophy bucks, hunters must have a strategy and plan of action and carry that out to the nth degree.
Burge has consistently harvested trophies in a part of Mississippi that is not known to have big bucks, but he targets them, and when he locates the biggest bucks in an area, he buckles down and hunts him mano a mano: one on one.
“Our rut in Pearl River County is crazy,” Burge said. “A few years ago, they did a study, and it seems that the rut occurred in parts of three months — starting in November — and it was vastly different, even in the same county.”
Now retired, Burge, who is from Poplarville, hunts with his brother almost every day of the season; where depends upon the time of the season and month.
Southeast Region late rut
“We hunt the WMAs up through December, and then I head to my camp in the northern part of Pearl River County after Jan. 1,” Burge said. “We still try the south end occasionally in January, but it’s like all of the bucks just left the southern part of the county and followed the does up to the north.”
With Pearl River County being in the Southeast Region, it’s obvious to knowledgeable hunters that the rut usually occurs there much later than the rest of the state. In fact, the Southeast Region season runs through mid-February to take advantage of the late rutting activity.
“We hunt 6,000 acres up there, and you can’t hardly kill a buck before Jan. 1. In fact, last year we killed 80 percent of our bucks after Jan. 1. Of the 24 bucks we killed, 17 of them were killed in January. And it’s not like there is no pressure on the deer before then. People hunt hard from Thanksgiving right through Christmas, but most bucks are nocturnal then.
“The area we hunt on the north end of the county is rolling hills with a lot of pine timber, almost the exact opposite of the swamp bottoms on the south end of the county,” Burge said. “But it’s pretty obvious when the rut occurs, because we start seeing buck movement and killing a bunch, too.”
“Every time we see the bucks running or chasing does, we mark the calendar,” Burge said. “Some people think the weather affects it, but it’s all affected by the light.”
Find the does and you’ll find the books during the primary and secondary rut, because the bucks will go where the does are coming into heat.
Secondary rut
Mark McPhail scanned the cutover hillsides for any sign of a deer, but the action had slowed to a crawl in south Lauderdale County. The year-end rut had long since passed, and McPhail just hoped to catch a glimpse of antlers.
Suddenly, a doe burst over the crest of the ridge, running wide open across the cutover. Seconds later, a buck followed in hot pursuit. Amazingly, several small-racked bucks popped over the ridge until nine bucks were following in a helter-skelter line. McPhail simply picked out the one he wanted, and it was easy pickings.
A Collinsville resident, McPhail hunts to the very end of January and credits the secondary rut for some of his best buck kills in central Mississippi during a time when most hunters have hung it up.
Across much of Mississippi, the main rutting activity has already ceased by January, but for die-hard hunters like McPhail who are willing to put in the time, the secondary rut may be even better.
“I normally like to hunt areas where I can see a long distance like cutovers, power lines or long lanes through the timber,” McPhail said. “The further I can see, the better, and I like to move in real quietly and ease up into my stand undetected. The less you disturb the environment, the more likely you are to see a buck and get a shot. I prefer being at least 200 to 300 yards from where the bucks normally cross the opening.”
McPhail is a sharpshooter with his Ruger 7mm Magnum, having harvested many bucks and even elk with the trusty rifle.
“That Ruger 7-Mag will reach out there and touch them,” McPhail said. “Last season, I watched a buck chase a doe back and forth across a lane, and I finally got on him when he came across hot on the doe’s trail. I squeezed off a shot at him, but he never checked up. I really thought I’d missed him but when I got ready to head home, I checked and found him (dead) just outside the lane.”
If you have a rifle that is dead-on and you know how to shoot it, there’s a good probability that you might harvest a trophy buck chasing a doe during the secondary rut as well. But take a tip from McPhail and have your gun aimed in the direction that the doe crosses the lane, because you’ll only have a split second to decide, aim and fire when the buck comes into view.
Does in heat
If a doe doesn’t get bred the first time she comes into estrus, she will come in again, and sometimes, you’ll have several does come in a second time in the same area — and you have a secondary rut. As J. P. Nolen was prone to say, “I don’t care where it is, if a doe in heat ran down Capital
Street in downtown Jackson during the rush hour, that buck would be hot on her tail; nothing would deter him from his natural mating urge.”
Normally, the secondary rut is more concentrated, and since most of the does have already been bred, there may be more bucks following one doe. Don’t shoot the first one that pops out. Camden Lot passed on a smaller buck that followed a doe out last year in Quitman County and then shot the buck of a lifetime, an 11-point, 238-pounder that sported 12-inch tines, and an 18-inch spread.
ReAnn Chatham of Meridian also passed on a decent 8-point on a hunt during the rut and then killed a 14-point buck that was also hot on the trail of a doe. That buck weighed 170 pounds and scored 1497/8 Boone & Crockett points.
Hunters must be patient and stay in the woods, ready for a moment of truth that may not come. If it does present itself however, you’ll only have a split second to make the right choice. It helps to have nerves of steel, good optics and a steady, accurate rifle that is easy to handle. If you have those things, you need to stay in the woods as the season wanes.
Midday hunting: corridors
There’s one good thing about hunting during the rut; bucks will move night and day until a doe they’ve picked out is receptive. Even though they sometimes throw caution to the wind, does and bucks will try to avoid hunters, stay in the thickest cover available and move only when human activity is at a minimum.
“We like to hunt at the crack of dawn, but if you don’t catch one moving by 7 a.m., it is usually a dead time until about 10:30,” Burge said.
One of the best spots Burge has is a mid-day crossing on a beaver dam. Bucks will move during the mid-day hours, and they’ll slip through the swamps by traveling on top of a beaver dam situated between two sloughs. When the deer are on the move there’s a good chance Burge will get a shot at one crossing that beaver dam.
“One year we started getting pictures of bucks moving between 10:30 and 12:30,” Burge said, “so we decided to sleep late and do some things around the farm and then go to the woods. It seems that the woods wake up around 10:30 during the late season. We tried to be in the woods between 9:30 and 10.”
Turns out that was just the ticket for Burge.
“I went into the woods mid-morning, and was going to hunt a particular stand, but the wind shifted, so I changed plans and got to another stand about 11. I was tired, so I dozed off for about an hour and then decided to get up and leave,” Burge said. “I’d already turned around when I saw a nice 9-point coming my way, so I eased my rifle up and shot him,” said Burge.
Get back, Jack
When hunting late in the season and during the secondary rut George Clark Burge of Poplarville always hunts at least 100 yards off fields or food sources.
Burge has harvested many quality bucks by backing off about 100 yards downwind and intercepting them before they get to the field during daylight hours.
If you hunt on the field, there’s a good chance the buck will come in after legal shooting light.
