Knowledge Please!

Cornhusker · Feb 9, 2012

I know someone will jump on this right away I called DWR and they basically told me they had no idea.

I live in rural Ne. It kills me to sit at a desk all day so virtually every day I have 2 1/2 hours to look over the condition of the deer on some of the ranches I hunt. I gives me good exercise and I've been doing the same thing for 30 years.

My question we had very little rut activity this year no buck fight for dominance very little chasing of does. I was out virtually every day for at least a couple of hours from Sept. 15th to Dec 31st. The bucks Whitetail and Mulies were very non-agressive. Now in the middle of Feb. I am seeing some of the most aggressive buck fights not just sparring I have ever seen. Not just little guys 160 and above bucks. I have never seen this before. The weather has been weird but I have never seen this in Feb.. Anyone else seeing action like this? It was 70 to 80 degrees during the rut and through Jan. highs in the 20's now.

tx_packmule · Feb 9, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-09-12 AT 11:47AM (MST)[p]fewer does continuing to cycle will mean more competition for the remaining booty. Hot weather won't completely shut down rut b/c when the does cycle, they cycle, but a lot of the heavy activity will pick up at night during the earlier cycles if the weather is warm and they concentrate more on feeding during daylight hours. Right now a lot of our fawns that are hitting breeding weights are getting ran ragged.

The above post was written with all due respect....

Cornhusker · Feb 9, 2012

I can't imagine that we have does cycling in Ne. in Feb.. The second cycle for those missed the first time usually hits the 1st and 2nd week of December, which I didn't notice this year. I really thing the cold weather has them convinced it is November or December since we had Sept. from October till last week, temperature wise. I also thought the rut was brought on by the light cycle as the sun continued to sink in the South. I don't know kind of fun to watch but we had a buck with potential killed with what looks like an antler stab on a Rye field Monday night.

tx_packmule · Feb 9, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-09-12 AT 02:45PM (MST)[p]photoperiod starts it and they will continue to cycle until they're bred through end of Feb/early march. Where I'm watching, the rut typically starts in Oct and you see it go on until late Feb every 24-28 days. Peak times are Nov/Dec, this time of year is always more fun to watch because the bucks are back in bachelor groups and when one doe comes in heat you could have multiple bachelor groups chasing her. When there's than many involved though the chances of several mature bucks being there ups your chances of one getting side swiped when he's already locked up with another buck.

The above post was written with all due respect....

BCBOY · Feb 10, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-10-12 AT 10:10PM (MST)[p]You probably didn't see any rutting action in Nov and Dec because of the FULL MOON. The peak of the rut normally runs Nov 10-Dec 20. The second rut normally occurs Dec 8-13. I betcha you had clear skies during that period didn't ya? That means the bulk of the rut was nocturnal.
As for fighting now, I see good back and forth sparring most years in Jan and Feb. It is part of the dominance structure of the winter bachelor groups. And they also want to pop those itchy antlers off their heads.

264mag · Feb 10, 2012

I was hunting in KS. during that full moon and all the rut was pretty much at night,seems like all the bucks were resting during the daytime.

overton · Feb 11, 2012

Corny

I'm beginning to think all your questions are really some type of psychological test you are conducting. If you are profiting from the results I want my cut or I won't answer any more.

BCBOY · Feb 11, 2012

>LAST EDITED ON Feb-10-12
>AT 10:10?PM (MST)
>
>You probably didn't see any rutting
>action in Nov and Dec
>because of the FULL MOON.
>The peak of the rut
>normally runs Nov 10-Dec 20.
>The second rut normally occurs
>Dec 8-13. I betcha you
>had clear skies during that
>period didn't ya? That means
>the bulk of the rut
>was nocturnal.
>As for fighting now, I see
>good back and forth sparring
>most years in Jan and
>Feb. It is part of
>the dominance structure of the
>winter bachelor groups. And they
>also want to pop those
>itchy antlers off their heads.
>

Sorry, I see I had a typo in there. I meant the peak of the rut normally runs from Nov 10-Nov 20.

Even up here in Jan and into Feb you can see younger bucks harassing does which would lead to the speculation that the rut is still on. But.....they are just young and dumb. When you have 3 or 4 very mature bucks in the 180-200 inch range bedded or feeding contentedly less than a few hundred yards from a 140 class dink harassing a doe, you can bet the rut is long over.