Many believe mature bucks are running wild during the rut. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Big has seen this act two, three or more times before. He understands how to maximize breeding opportunities. Understanding how he does is a true key to consistently scoring on rutting bucks.
This is Chapter 10 of Steve Bartylla’s free online book, Understanding Mature Bucks.
Since we covered why does enter estrus and when last week, let’s spend today exploring rutting buck behaviors.
The first thing we must do is go back to the first chapter in this series, where it was stated that mature bucks are essentially a separate species. As it applies to breeding, this is super easy to wrap my mind around with one cheesy comparison. When I was in high school, I acted like a complete fool around girls way too often, as I had no clue what I was doing. By college, I still acted like a fool around girls, but far less than when in high school, as I was starting to have a clue. As an adult, I still act like a fool at times, but far less than when I was in college and infinitely less than when I was in high school. Experience is a good teacher (and I apologize to every girl I ever made an idiot of myself around. I’m afraid there are more than I’d care to admit).
The same applies to various-aged bucks trying to score breeding opportunities. That 1.5-year-old buck is me back in high school, completely making a fool of himself and doing stuff that doesn’t make a lick of logical sense, such as continuing to chase that girl that has made it crystal clear she has zero interest in me. Those 2.5- and 3.5-year-old bucks are essentially me in college. I’m starting to figure it out, but still don’t have it down to a science. 4.5-year-old and older bucks are finally experienced enough to actually know what they’re doing and be confident doing it.
When it comes to determining the rut phase, based on buck behaviors, completely ignore those 1.5-year-olds chasing does around in September, as they have zero clue what they’re doing. The 2.5- and 3.5-year-olds are starting to, but their behaviors will show their inexperience about as much as not. Those 4.5-year-old and older bucks are like the old bull in the bad joke about standing on the hill, looking at all the heifers, with the young bull, and youngster saying he is going to run down and breed a heifer. The old bull responds that he is going to walk down and breed them all. Cheesy, but hopefully makes the point that Mr. Big KNOWS what he’s doing and has the experience to KNOW how to pull it off most effectively.
Side note, watch for lone does and unaccompanied fawns indicating the does have kicked their fawns out, as they are ready to breed. That’s another good indication that breeding activity is happening.
You can see that in the way Mr. Big searches for estrous does. He rarely runs around the field or clear cut, frantically checking every doe. Instead, he most often either simply passes downwind, allowing his nose to tell him everything, or merely observes the does’ behaviors, as they aren’t shy and don’t hide that they are in or on the edge of estrus. In fact, if I can peg an estrous or near estrous doe within minutes of seeing her, merely from her mannerisms, you can bet Mr. Big can within seconds.
Young bucks tend to obsessively run the same circuit during the rut over and over and over again, and those areas are actually comparatively small, which is why it is so common to see the same 1.5-year-old numerous times in an all-day sit. That 1.5-year-old is also likely to chase every doe he sees.
Mr. Big’s area tends to be larger. He also relies far more on his nose and eyes than his younger brothers. Where the youngsters are running around in those family group bedding areas, desperately trying to find and check does, assuming the bedding area works for this, Mr. Big is most often making one pass of the downwind side. Just that quick, with that little effort, he KNOWS if there is an estrous doe within or not. If not, he’s on to the next doe concentration within his home range.
Remember, we CAN’T smell compared to deer. Mr. Big can easily pick up an estrous doe’s trail from 24 hours ago. When he does, he often follows it right to the doe, who is in estrus for about 48 hours. If she’s still in estrus, he’ll try to breed her, regardless of if she has been or even is still with another buck. If I recall correctly, somewhere right around half of all sets of twins are sired by two different bucks.
Mr. Big KNOWS where the does most likely are at any point of the day or night within his home range. When actively trying to locate estrous does, he merely goes from doe concentration to doe concentration to doe concentration. At night, those concentrations are most often in and around food sources. During most of daylight, they’re most often family group bedding locations.
We’ll talk about this more later, but Mr. Big does indeed have a rut pattern. The idea that you can’t pattern bucks during the rut is pure hog wash. In fact, I’ve found a good number of mature bucks to cling tighter to patterns during the rut than at any other time of deer season. Some don’t, no different than some bucks being more or less patternable at any other time of year. Sure, breeding, fighting and a host of other events can temporarily or permanently alter these rut patterns, but so can all sorts of stuff during any other phase of season.
The real point to this is that it’s pure baloney to say that mature bucks are running wild during the rut. The combo of increased testosterone levels and the promise of breeding can and typically does inspire Mr. Big to move much more than he otherwise would, but, unlike the youngsters, he’s not running around like an idiot. He is actually very systematically checking one high-odds location after another, for that specific time of day.
At the same time, he isn’t out there chasing not ready or already cycled does. He’s going to lose 25% to 30% of his body weight over the rut simply from increased movements and a lesser importance being temporarily placed on feeding (mature bucks certainly do feed over the rut, just typically not as much and nowhere near enough to match their increased calorie burning). Then, he must survive winter. Winter, for those in the Midwest and points north, is a seasonal low point of food and high point on weather stress. Add it all up and each year the rut itself kills a surprisingly high percentage of mature bucks. They can’t afford to waste energies in the rut or they’re likely signing their own death sentence, as Mr. Big also KNOWS that there will be breeding opportunities to find well after the peak breeding phase is done. While the youngsters pretty much shut down a couple weeks after peak breading, Mr. Big keeps going and going and going, often another month or more past peak breeding.
To wrap up with an interesting side note, on the large grounds I’ve managed over the years, I rarely get mature, newcomers during the rut and/or have mature bucks I know vanish (unless killed by hunters or of rut related injuries). It’s actually post rut when a mature buck or two vanishes and new ones pop up.
For as much as others talk about bucks running wild in the rut, showing up places they’ve never been before, I rarely see that on the big grounds. (I do a bunch on the smaller, real world properties, as you just don’t have intel from a large enough area to realize they’re already somewhat nearby.) What I see far more commonly are mature bucks breaking off for parts unknown AFTER peek breeding.
I BELIEVE what’s happening is that Mr. Big has way more than enough does to keep him occupied during peak breeding, but he knows that fawns will continue trickling in. When none of those in his home range are, I believe that’s when he tends to break for parts unknown. We’re still not talking most, but 10% to 20% of mature bucks, in my experience. After a couple weeks, they tend to come back home for winter.
Read Chapter 1: Whitetail Tendencies
Read Chapter 2: Whitetail Home Ranges
Read Chapter 3: How Deer Use Core Areas
Read Chapter 4: When Core Areas Shift
Read Chapter 5: Seasonal Shifts
Read Chapter 6: Family Group Dominance
Read Chapter 7: Male Dominance
Read Chapter 8: Deer Population Dynamics
Read Chapter 9: Deciphering Deer Breeding Phases
