Rut crazy — Tips for hunting Louisiana’s late rut

The rut extends through December and even into February in large swatches of the state. Here’s how to take advantage of that fact to kill more bucks.

Gail “Bucky” McDavid of Carencro enjoys hunting during the diverse rutting periods of Louisiana.

He’s so avid about it that McDavid will hunt Area 3’s early rut at Clear Creek Wildlife Management Area in October and November, and then follow the rut all the way into January by making frequent trips to Thistlethwaite WMA.

And he’s learned a lot from hunting the rut.

Last Jan. 6, McDavid had chosen a stand site deep within the interior of Thistlethwaite WMA.

“I worked hard, for two years, at finding a way to get in there well away from hunting pressure,” he said. “It was the approach I needed, a way to set up downwind from where the rutting activity was happening.”

McDavid knew just how wary the big bucks of Thistlethwaite can become. Over the years, he’s taken a 250-pound 10-pointer there, as well as several 8-points.

“The deer sign I had found was certainly in a natural area where the does were moving from bedding to feeding,” he said. “There was a mast ridge on one edge and an expansive palmetto thicket on the other side.”

It was the transition area that caught the hunter’s eye — a thick area where he figured a buck would move away from breeding does back to his bedding area.

“I set up between the mast ridge and the bedding area downwind from the thicket,” the hunter said.

At 7:30 a.m., McDavid heard distinct sounds of grunting and rustling in the feeding area behind his stand.

“For a while, I could hear bucks chasing does through the palmettos about 80 yards behind my stand,” he said.

After an hour had passed, the hunter said the area becoming suddenly quiet.

“I looked forward and found a good buck slipping away in the thicket in front of me,” McDavid said. “He was heading toward the bedding area.”

From his stand site, the hunter estimated the buck to be at 30 yards.

When an opening through the palmettos revealed a vital shot, McDavid pulled the trigger on his .30-06. The buck dropped at the shot.

A little later, the hunter stood observing a 7-pointer. It sported 23 1/4- and 24-inch main beams draped around 17 1/4 inches of air. It would later weigh 205 pounds at the weigh station.

It was one of the many quality whitetails taken at Thistlethwaite WMA year after year.

Stick it to them in January

Due chiefly to the late rutting period, Louisiana bowhunters can enjoy a very long season that extends to Feb. 15 in Area 6, and until Jan. 31 in Areas 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Gordon Smith of West Monroe enjoys bow hunting in January in some prime private acres in Union Parish. He has made bow hunting his life’s work, as he is the designer, manufacturer and marketer of the Bowshooter Station (www.lahuntinggear.com).

“In January, I will focus my efforts on finding the most-recent scrapes to give me an idea that bucks are still tending does in the area,” Smith said.

He will hunt “trailing bucks,” those that move from feeding and rutting areas to bedding areas.

“As long as I see fresh scrapes and rubs in January, I will use attractants and put up a camera,” Smith said. “If I see does frequenting the area, I know then that a buck will show up.”

As most bowhunters, Smith does not hunt stands but instead he hunts deer.

“I build my own ladder stands in sections of 4 feet where they can be extended,” he said. “That way I have identical equipment that can be moved quickly in segments to where the deer activity is occurring.

“I’ll stack them quickly, and hunt downwind.”

On his private tract, unlike most public lands where deer are pressured, Smith has had success with calling tactics. He will rattle, as well as use tending grunts on a tube. He also uses the Can successfully.

Public lands where bowhunters have been very successful in January include all of the following:

Big Lake WMA; Buckhorn WMA; Tensas River NWR; Bayou Cocodrie NWR; Lake Ophelia NWR; Red River/Three Rivers WMAs; the Sherburne Complex; the Indian Bayou Area; Thistlethwaite WMA; and Attakapas WMA.

It is important to note that there is much rutting area occurring along the Mississippi River to the east, where bucks of high caliber have been taken by bow in East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes.

A quick review of the 2011-12 Big Buck Recognition List shows that 22 of the 72 bucks recognized were taken in January — one of those in February. That’s roughly 30 percent of the state’s biggest bucks taken last season.

This list is made available at the LDWF Web site at www.wlf.louisiana.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/pagehunting/32531-big-game-recognition-program/big_bucks_11-12.pdf.

When roughly a third of Louisiana’s biggest bucks are taken in January, that’s reason enough to visit the Delta areas where deer activity is high yet hunter pressure can be low — especially during the late bow seasons when the NFL playoffs are occurring.

Of rutting bucks and signposts

McDavid and Smith key into signpost activity (scrapes and rubs) as well as signature feeding in an area during the rut.

However, McDavid said these are only indications that deer are in an area.

“The majority of the scrapes are made at night,” McDavid said. “And I don’t hunt scrapes during the peak of the rut.

“Instead I’ll find transition areas where bucks are moving away from meeting does in feeding areas, thick areas that allow bucks escape cover.

“I’ll find them in daylight passing through these areas. The fresh rubs and scrapes may be 80 yards away, but they tell me that bucks are frequenting the does in the area.”

In terms of the size of trees that bucks rub, deer study leader Durham said there is some evidence that supports some variation.

“We have evidence that bucks with larger sets of antlers hook larger trees, yet smaller trees may be used by both young bucks and big bucks,” Durham said.

According to the deer study leader, the size of the circumference of a scrape has not been associated with larger or smaller bucks.

Bucks also engage in “licking tree” activities, such as licking and rubbing thin tree branches and often breaking branch tips over scrapes with their antlers and foreheads.

“Deer use the pre-orbital gland on the inside of the eye as a scent marker on branches,” Durham explained. “In the middle of the forehead, there is also another scent marker that is used.”

Very rarely hunters see a licking tree where a multitude of scrapes and branches are used as a communication device.

The author has only observed one in his lifetime at Willow Point Island in East Carroll Parish in the 1990s.

This “group” licking tree was explained as a signal to other deer in the area that a new buck was encroaching, a guide/hunter on the island with a depth of understanding of deer behavior due to a lifetime of hunting deer and guiding other hunters.

But, most importantly, the peak of the rut has more to do with doe receptivity and the presence of a group of does in an area. If during the peak of the rut a doe does not come into estrus, it will go into estrus 28 days later — thus the definition of the secondary rut.

And bucks have been known to chase such does no matter what headgear (or lack thereof) that they wear. Bucks in velvet have been known to chase does in various portions of area 3 where the early rut occurs — even in August.

About Chris Berzas 368 Articles
Chris Berzas has fished and hunted in the Bayou State ever since he could hold a rod and shoot a shotgun. Berzas has been a freelancer featured in newspapers, magazines, television and DVDs since 1989.