False Rut Observations?

deerhunter10 · Oct 11, 2023

Scrapes started getting hammered on our places Sunday morning. Actually getting worked all the way through. Deer have moved like crazy yesterday and today between 830 to 11. 3 shooters walking in daylight. Haven't witness any bucks fooling with does yet.

mike243 · Oct 11, 2023

Well, I'm of the mind there is no false rut, when it starts it continues till the last doe is bred, highs and lows due to the estrous cycle of the doe's. We don't see a lot of it but more now due to trail cams.

BSK · Oct 12, 2023

mike243 said:
Well, I'm of the mind there is no false rut, when it starts it continues till the last doe is bred, highs and lows due to the estrous cycle of the doe's. We don't see a lot of it but more now due to trail cams.

In the past, we used to see what many would call a "false rut," in that we would see a big surge of rubbing, scraping, and daylight movement by bucks almost exactly a month prior to the "normal" rut (generally around Oct 10-15). My speculation is that, as does are on a monthly cycle, a few actually do come into heat a month prior to other does in the area. But this also means it isn't truly a "false" rut. Real breeding is going on, but it involves just a small percentage of the does.

However, in the past few years, we have not observed this trend continuing. No idea why the change.

All that said, the crazy amount of early chasing by older bucks this year continues on my place. Checked cameras yesterday and got several hardcore chases on video.