Do does change patterns during rut?

[cmuller]

It will be my first time bowhunting and rut hunting this year. I've always hunted shotgun and late muzzleloader in Dec. I'm wondering where to place my stands. Do I pattern the does and hope the bucks will follow. Or keep watching the bucks and hope they will be in the same areas once the rut starts.

 

[Daver]

Well let's put it this way... if you had a 200+ pound, half-crazed beast chasing you around and beating you up with his antlers trying to get some love for only three weeks of the year, would you change your patterns?? Heh-heh, I thought so!

During the prime breeding period, IMO Nov. 10-20 or thereabouts here in Iowa, I hunt does and count on the bucks to be where the does are. ( I love seeing a doe come through that looks like she hasn't sat down all day and knowing that a buck will soon come trotting into the picture!)

From about Nov. 1 - 10, I hunt places that I expect bucks to use while cruising looking for does. Prime spots to me are fencelines connecting two timbers, long points that extend into fields that bucks will use to obscure their travels, etc.

As far as does changing patterns... Many times during the breeding period I have seen a doe bedded or staying in a real odd place only to find a buck bedded with her. I think the buck "bird dogs" the not quite ready doe for as long as it takes and will deliberately move the doe out of her "home". It kind of reminds me of a teenage boy trying to get a girl off by herself somewhere so they can have some privacy, if you what I mean.

Good luck this

fall!!

 

[wisco kid]

I liken the rut to this scenario: When you get lost in the wilderness, rescuers always tell people to STAY PUT. Its easier to find someone if they stay in one place. With all the bucks roaming around, its much easier to find does that are staying in one small area. Its natures way of ensuring the deer get bred. Of course it doesn't work like that all the time, but in general, I believe that's part of the equation. I second what was said above as well...many of the does really get hassled, and their life is hell whenever they are spotted by a "horny" buck. So given a choice, they just go low-profile.