Reelin’ in the rut

Grown up broom sage fields offer security for bucks during the daylight hours but the bucks become exposed when they venture out.

Whitetail bucks drop some of their innate caution when the peak of breeding season, aka the rut, arrives. here’s how to take advantage and add a Mississippi trophy to your wall.

Linda Burdine Pollard sat in her favorite deer stand in north Choctaw County last year, searching for sign of a hot doe. What she heard and saw were something very different, but exactly what she was looking for: a red-hot buck.

“I heard something running through the woods, and then I heard a buck grunting, and he was running wide open,” Pollard said. “I guess I missed the doe come by, but I saw the buck, put my crosshairs on him and touched the trigger.”

“Ka-boom.”

The .280 Remington roared, and the buck collapsed in a heap, another nice 10-pointer, one of many that this talented female hunter has harvested over the past 30 years.

“I first started hunting with a shotgun, but my husband, Russell, and son, Jeff, wanted me to try a rifle,” Pollard said. “So Russell … got a rifle and told the man (at the store) he wanted to let me try it out first. The man told him that a .280 wasn’t a woman’s gun. Russell just told him, ‘You don’t know my wife!’

Creek crossings such as this one are good places to intercept rutting bucks that are searching for does.

“Well, I shot the rifle with my son Jeff and then went to the woods the next morning. I heard a deer running flat-out, saw he had horns and dropped him. I really don’t know how I hit that deer running like that the first time, but I called Russell and told him to call that man at the store back and tell him we’re keeping the rifle!”

Hunt the funnels

Over the past 20 years, Pollard has taken many big bucks by hunting funnels in her area; she usually kills a good buck in the same stand every year.

“I have one stand in a funnel that gets really narrow in the middle,” Pollard said. “The woods have acorn trees in the strip, and when it gets to my stand it’s really narrow. On one side of the funnel is a pasture, and on the other there’s a rye grass field. I’ve killed quite a few feeding in the rye grass, but when the bucks are chasing does, I’ll usually kill one traveling through the funnel.”

This map shows the peak breeding dates for whitetails in different areas of Mississippi.

If you have food nearby, the does will be in the area sometime during the day, and you can bet there will be a buck or two trailing any hot does that pass by.

Leave the does, small bucks

“I love to go hunting and don’t have to kill something every time I go to enjoy it,” Pollard said. “I never shoot does, because I want my does there on my place. If does are there, then you’re going to have bucks coming in looking for them during the rut, too.”

If you’re looking to attract trophy bucks to your area, then you’ve got to have the does, because when they put out that estrous scent, they’ll attract those mature bucks, too.

“I don’t shoot little bucks, either,” Pollard said. “If I shoot a smaller buck, then the older, wiser bucks might not come in, so I just don’t want to take a chance. I’m okay with going to the woods and not shooting or bringing a deer out. It’s the big bucks I’m after.”

Letting smaller bucks walk is a good way to make sure you have mature bucks in the area in the future, because dead deer don’t grow antlers. If you want to kill better bucks, you must let them live to maturity, so they can reach their full potential.

Public land during the rut

Easing up to a knoll, overlooking a deep ravine, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a whiff of scent from a rutting buck. The distinctive odor was pungent, and I focused my attention on the unseen buck. Slowly turning my head, I spotted, not 10 feet to my right, a 3- to 4-foot-wide scrape in plain sight; a buck had obviously just worked it, as the coal-black earth had not even crusted over. It still bore the wet markings of his musty scent.

I’d just still-hunted a half-mile and run across a scrape line and rub line that ended in front of me at the precipice overlooking a ravine. The odor was unmistakable, but where to go and how to hunt him was another matter. Should I stay, or should I keep easing along, looking for more sign and antlers?

It was 9:45 on the last morning of a three-day draw hunt at Canemount WMA near Port Gibson, and time was running out. The choice was easy this time, as I’d done some scouting before the hunt and knew deer like to frequent the deep, cane-filled ravine. I’d only been there a couple of times, but I had spotted deer both times during daylight hours.

I picked a good-looking spot on the knoll, sat down and started watching. For 30 minutes, I didn’t see a thing or hear a peep. I was relaxed and comfortable, though, so I grunted, and within 2 minutes, I heard a crack from somewhere in the jungle below.

A 3-day WMA hunt near Port Gibson resulted in the author (left) and buddy Brad Madden taking these nice bucks.

A few minutes later, I head another pop and crack, sounds that only a big buck makes in woods like these. And then there was silence.

For the next 15 minutes, I stared intently into the deep tangle of cane and vegetation with nary a sight nor sign of anything including a deer.

I followed up with a low, guttural, drawn-out buck grunt to see if he was still coming.

“Crack!” It was on now.

Suddenly, a buck appeared like an apparition, directly in front of me, at the base of the hill about 125 yards below. He’d obviously pegged my location and was looking for a hot doe. With a side view, I couldn’t make out the width of his antlers, but I knew that they were thick and a trophy for me.

Turning his head, I could see the antlers rising straight up and curving out wide. They extended well beyond his ears, so I knew he was a legal buck in this trophy unit.

Wasting no time, I centered the crosshairs on him.

“Tic-Boom!”

My .270 roared, and the buck collapsed instantly. He never twitched as one well-placed bullet pierced his backbone between his shoulders and went into his engine room. He never knew what hit him.

The 51/2-year-old buck had lived a life of seclusion; he never had to leave his sanctuary during daylight hours.

His rutting behavior was ultimately his demise; he just couldn’t ignore my sweet love grunts. He weighed 210 pounds, sported a tall, 20-inch wide rack to go with 51/2-inch bases. He was a surely a public-land trophy and made my season complete.

If you’re looking for a quality buck, then you’d do well to head to the woods every chance you get during the rut. There will never be a better time to catch an old buck with his guard down. When does are coming into estrous, bucks throw caution to the wind and run wild, regardless of time of day or where they are. It will be the one time when hunters get a look at some trophies during daylight hours.

Hunting right-of-ways

Though young by most standards, 15-year-old Camden Lott of Sebastopol has been hunting nearly all of his life, and he’s learned a few things from his grandfather.

“I like to hunt pipelines because I can see a long distance and spot bucks running does during the rut,” Camden said. “When the does come out, the bucks will follow them right across the open pipeline, and that’s the best time to shoot a good one.”

Last December, Lott was hunting a pipeline on his grandfather’s when the rut erupted right in front of him.

“I looked up, and does were piling into the field,” said Lott. “It wasn’t long before a nice buck came out, and I was getting ready to take the shot.”

But fate intervened before Lott could squeeze the trigger.

“I took a moment to settle down as I was trying to get on the buck, but then a monster buck with a much bigger rack busted out behind him,” he said. “When they separated, I put the crosshairs on him and squeezed the trigger.”

“Ka-Boom!” roared Lott’s .270, and the buck of a lifetime was in his grasp.

The trophy was indeed the buck of his lifetime, sporting a rocking-chair rack with 11 points, a wide spread and weighed in at 238 pounds!

If you have a pipeline or powerline to hunt, that could be your ticket to the buck of a lifetime like it was for Camden. Find out where deer like to cross and take a stand somewhere within shooting distance — but not too close — and you just might harvest a trophy buck this year as well.

Best tips for hunting the rut

• Know the lay of the land you’re going to hunt.

• Determine the available food sources during that time.

• Determine the bedding areas and travel corridors.

• Scout constantly through the season.

• Find scrape lines, fresh trails and crossings.

• Get into the woods and in a stand every day, every minute you can, while the rut is going on.

About Michael O. Giles 405 Articles
Mike Giles of Meridian has been hunting and fishing Mississippi since 1965. He is an award-winning wildlife photographer, writer, seminar speaker and guide.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply