It’s that time of year again, and North American Deer Hunter has teamed up with Spypoint to bring you the 2024 Rut Report! Follow along with our team of hunters across the US and Canada while we compile real time data and trail camera activity to let you know when you should be in the woods. The 2024 Rut Report is proudly presented by Spypoint and the new Flex series of cameras.
October 8th, 2024 – October 16th, 2024
Here’s what’s going on with the rut: the young bucks 1.5 to 2.5 are starting to move about and are beginning to spend more time with the does; they aren’t doing much chasing, but they sure as heck are doing plenty of eyeballing and “crowding” the does, they move in until the does have enough and scamper away, it’s a long way from an estrus driven chase, but it tells us the testosterone is level is rising. The bucks are also beginning to shove each other around with more aggression than prior weeks, not exactly what you would call a fight but a pretty good shoving match none the less. Rubs and scrapes are showing up everywhere. Absent from the mix are the older aged bucks, which are still pretty much “night riders.” we expect them to start showing up as we march towards late October.
We are photographing the occasional “old timer” during daylight hours (on mostly green food sources), but for every older buck we photograph during daylight hours, we get 5-8 at night. The big bucks haven’t started their “rut marching” just yet; most of them are still in their fall feeding patterns, and either paired or grouped up, it will take some estrus to get them away from the dinner table and each other. Does that mean that there are no does in estrus yet? No, it just means most of the does are not there yet. Scientific fawn conception studies indicate that at this point in the rut cycle, perhaps 3-5% of the mature does are being bred starting around October 10th. The early breeding starts in a few weeks then ramps up in a hurry, what we are waiting for is a solid 85-90%, when the rut starts to explode will be there with our rut report predictions and real time activity. Right now, if you want to kill a mature buck, your best bet is still to hunt food, the rut is still “out there” a bit and the fall feeding is at its peak.
