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.
November 6-10
November 1-5
The bucks are definitely on the march. They are spending more time looking for does than looking for food. The does and fawns are still eating machines but the bucks are all about breeding. Every move they make has a purpose and is testosterone driven. They are tearing up rubs, laying down scrapes, and staining their tarsals. No doe group has yet to remain unvisited by a buck with love on his mind. All the bucks need is a little more estrus in the air to go absolutely crazy!
Each day does will be coming into estrus, every day more and more isolated does are coming into estrus, when the bucks know a doe is about to come into in estrus, they hang tight just waiting for her to be ready. The rut report field staff at North American Outdoorsman and Deer Hunter have reported numerous incidents of bucks standing watch over a “soon to be estrus doe”, isolated fawns are beginning to show up without momma.
The occasional doe has already been bred, but the majority of them aren’t quite ready. Pretty soon the pressure will get to the bucks and they will start chasing with the passion that only comes once per year. The testosterone is there, all we need is a little more estrus to make the rut finally explode.
October 23-28
Our Best Days to Hunt the Rut Meter is on the move, so things must be heating up in the whitetail woods. They are moving across ridges and marching from one social area to another. Are they looking for estrus does? Well, not exactly; they are most likely responding to increased levels of testosterone pulsing through their systems and just doing what bucks do.
Bucks are on the move, and they will keep marching until an estrus doe reminds them as to why the fall march is on. That doesn’t mean the occasional buck will open a scrape or rub a tree, but it is all a dress rehearsal for the real deal that lies ahead the next few weeks. Seasoned whitetail hunters know that it’s the does that trigger the rut we are all waiting for. Our whitetail Reporting team is reporting does on grain and green food sources. The does are spending untold hours filling their bellies, while the bucks are moving aimlessly about.
Fall food preferences can change by the day but make no mistake, it is still all about the “need to feed” in the whitetail woods. Hunters will do well to stay on food sources the next 10-12 days.
October 16-22, 2024
Most parts of the country is seeing deer movements and patterns change around this week of the 15th of October. Determining these early season movements and patterns and learning how to hunt them is paramount to your success. This time of year can also be associated as arguably the best time of year to take down a monster buck. Most hunters agree that the first step for early season success is scouting in late summer and finding the food sources your area has to offer. Observing deer from a good distance with binoculars and spotting scopes in agricultural fields is another good starting point at this time of year.
Most of the time in October mature bucks bed down less than 75 yards from their primary food source. Besides traveling to feed, the only other time deer will leave these bedding areas this time of year is for water, unless you get too close and bump them out. So it goes without saying that if you can determine bedding areas with food and water close by, you are in the right place. Find the hub of these elements and you will be in for a great October Hunting set up. Most bucks we have been capturing on our Spypoint Trail Cameras have still been after dark, bu the swith is about to flip in the next ten to twelve days.
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.
