Search for 170" - Mid November Rut Report

Charlie Reade

Hey everyone, it’s been a while! Hope you all are enjoying your hunting season so far and staying safe.

We are over half way through November and that means one thing for most hunters in Alberta and many parts of North America, THE WHITETAIL RUT. Personally, my favorite time of year for my favorite species to chase. This year I have been fortunate enough to be able to hunt quite a bit. I drew a moose tag and spent a bunch of time chasing after them, unfortunately with no luck. That said, I’m confident that with what I learned about them this year will translate into success in the future during general bow season.

Around the first weekend of November I totally switched gears to whitetails and have spent a lot of hours in a tree since then basically observing deer. I’d like to share with you what I’m seeing.

I wanna start by declaring that I’m no expert. I’ve killed some nice deer, and put people on some nice deer. But there are people who I’m sure have forgotten more about deer hunting than I know, and I’m alright with that. I just wanna share my observations in the field and on my trail cameras with other hunters of all categories, maybe someone, including myself can learn something new.

The first week of November was very slow in my area, a lot of that had to do with a recent full moon, mild temps with Eastern winds and very little actual rutting activity. I noticed that does were usually alone or with their fawns still, signalling to me that they haven’t yet come into heat. These does moved around and acted very calm and un provoked until about the 7th.. During the first week to ten days I noticed bucks were obviously well out of their bachelor groups, but not seeming to be actually chasing or seeking does with any real purpose. They seemed more concerned with maintaining their scrape lines and preserving energy for what seemed inevitable in the coming days.

On the weekend of the 7th-8th, I was able to get full day sits in, both were highly active, seeing 9 bucks on Saturday and a couple more on Sunday. The problem was, they were all 2.5 and 3.5 year old deer. I captured a little video and away they all went.

I didn’t hunt through the week of the 9th-13th mostly due to work, but also due to warm weather and south eastern winds that don’t work for the stands I’m looking to hunt, however on the 12th I saw a 160 class buck crossing the highway on an adjacent property to the one I hunt while I was working, but that buck came out of very thick cover and went right back into even thicker stuff. Before I hunted on the 14th I pulled some memory cards from a few cameras to get an idea what time bucks seemed more active in the recent days. They were consistent to what I had been seeing the week before and were somewhat full of 3.5 year old bucks that were daytime active on scrape lines like the one below.

With mature bucks hitting them at night.

Does and fawns were heading for bedding cover at first light and heading for food just before dark.

The night of the 14th I did see this buck (above) chasing a doe half an hour before last light from another set I was hunting. I was excited to see a buck actively chasing a doe, but a little disappointed in the action on a day that I thought I had great conditions. That same trail camera revealed another mature buck daytime active as well (see below).

The 15th was also a pretty slow day, I did see a 130” 5x5 buck with a broken G3 about an hour after the below trail camera photo was taken. However, it was through very thick cover behind my stand. Also, I passed a 120”-130” 4x4 at last light opting to video instead of risking a longer than wanted shot. The 4x4 was definitely seeking does. He was cruising the downwind edge of a thick spruce patch that a number of does frequently bed in. It was good to see strong rutting behaviour.

A few more days and I will be back in the stand with my wife, looking to take her second big whitetail buck with a rifle, or any mature buck that wanders into bow range.

Good luck out there folks, and check back in next week for an update on the local rut report.

Charlie.