TexasDeerHunter Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 I was watching a hunting show and the host, who had the caption " Whitetail Expert" under his name, commented that the deer they were hunting should be rutting now , but since it was warm outside they were not. Scientific data compiled over the last few years has proven that the temperature does not have any affect on the rut, it is the photoperiods ( amount of light in a day ) that onset the rut. This guy is a proclaimed expert , yet he is making statements like that. What we know is: Onset of the rut is caused by photoperiods ( not weather ) Most all breeding occurs at night The rut can last months ( peaks usually for 2 weeks ) If a doe is not successfully bred she will usually come back into estrus about every 28 days The gestation period of a whitetail is about 200 days A buddy shot a doe the last week of December, she was pregnant with twins nearly fully developed and close to birth. If you do the math theis deer was bred around June/July, and here it was about 100 degrees. This backs up the data that she came back into estrus after being unsuccessfully bred and the warm weather did not affect the breeding. It just bothers me that there are so called experts still giving out false information on national television . Just a pet peeve of mine and I needed to vent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowin_in_illinois Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 I was watching a hunting show and the host, who had the caption " Whitetail Expert" under his name, commented that the deer they were hunting should be rutting now , but since it was warm outside they were not..... I can't speak for the "expert", but I would guess he was talking more about "chasing" and "rutting activity" during warm weather. Is it still the rut if it is warm. yes. Are they less likely to run around scent checking trails and doggin' does because of the temp. ...sure. When I am hunting the rut, and it is warm out, I don't see as many deer. it doesn't mean it isn't the rut, I think they wait til the cooler hours of the day. When it cools off...I see more. I think that is what he was probably getting at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhine16 Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 I can't speak for the "expert", but I would guess he was talking more about "chasing" and "rutting activity" during warm weather. Is it still the rut if it is warm. yes. Are they less likely to run around scent checking trails and doggin' does because of the temp. ...sure. When I am hunting the rut, and it is warm out, I don't see as many deer. it doesn't mean it isn't the rut, I think they wait til the cooler hours of the day. When it cools off...I see more. I think that is what he was probably getting at. This was going to be my exact reply, but looks like bowin beat me to it. Think this is gonna be exactly what that guy meant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasDeerHunter Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 This was going to be my exact reply, but looks like bowin beat me to it. Think this is gonna be exactly what that guy meant. Maybe, based on his statement it definately did'nt sound that way. Here in Texas the temperature does not affect deer movement as much as it does up north , it is usually pretty warm during the peak. This guy was from Texas and hunting here when he made the comment, figured he should/would know better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhine16 Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 Maybe, based on his statement it definately did'nt sound that way. Here in Texas the temperature does not affect deer movement as much as it does up north , it is usually pretty warm during the peak. This guy was from Texas and hunting here when he made the comment, figured he should/would know better. Well, weather definitely affects our movement in Mississippi. Our peak of the rut last year(which was from Dec 20-28) was some of the hottest December weather i've ever seen. Temps getting into 80s and not dropping below 50. I'm not sure if i even saw a deer during that week or so, much less a buck. However, reports showed that most every doe got bred in that time period, or at least their first cycle. This puzzled many hunters across our state, because we hardly saw rut activity at all. It was pretty much concluded that every bit of the rutting activity was done at night. I'm not sure, but i think Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and some of the other midwestern states experience a bad rut this year, because of warm weather. Maybe some of those guys will agree with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 rhine16 as you know I'm not from Iowa but I was up there bowhuting from Nov. 3rd thru Nov. 14th. From what I saw they had a fairly normal rut compared to the other 5 times I've been there in the past. There was no doubt when the deer went into lockdown though. That started on Nov. 10th and they started coming out of it on the 13th. For most of the time I was there the weather was pretty cool (very cold one morning) with the exception of 2 days when the lows were about 50 with the high in the low 70's one day and about 60 the next day when another front moved through. I took that 70 degree afternoon off since deer movement that morning was poor. The rest of the time it was anywhere from 20 to 40 in the morning and upper 30's to mid 50's in the afternoon. According to my journal in the 10 1/2 days that I actually hunted I saw 78 bucks (7 of them big mature bucks), 99 does and fawns, and 11 I couldn't identify. Not bad for 10 1/2 days on stand. I spent the 1st day scouting and hanging stands. As you know the weather during the peak of the rut in MS this year sucked. With the exception of a few days you could have hunted in short sleve T shirts. There were a couple of mornings I was sitting on the back porch of my camp drinking coffee between 4:30 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. dressed in shorts and a T shirt. Doesn't get much worse than that. I did manage to kill a couple of mature bucks in MS but that was during the few days when the cooler weather was conducive for daylight deer movement. As for TexasDeerHunter's original post...nobody that is supposed to be a so called whitetail expert should make a statement like that. An expert should have said that the hot weather was not conducive for daytime rutting activity. There's a difference between that statement and what he said. There you have it from an old struggling veteran hunter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhine16 Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 rhine16 as you know I'm not from Iowa but I was up there bowhuting from Nov. 3rd thru Nov. 14th. From what I saw they had a fairly normal rut compared to the other 5 times I've been there in the past. There was no doubt when the deer went into lockdown though. That started on Nov. 10th and they started coming out of it on the 13th. For most of the time I was there the weather was pretty cool (very cold one morning) with the exception of 2 days when the lows were about 50 with the high in the low 70's one day and about 60 the next day when another front moved through. I took that 70 degree afternoon off since deer movement that morning was poor. The rest of the time it was anywhere from 20 to 40 in the morning and upper 30's to mid 50's in the afternoon. According to my journal in the 10 1/2 days that I actually hunted I saw 78 bucks (7 of them big mature bucks), 99 does and fawns, and 11 I couldn't identify. Not bad for 10 1/2 days on stand. I spent the 1st day scouting and hanging stands. As you know the weather during the peak of the rut in MS this year sucked. With the exception of a few days you could have hunted in short sleve T shirts. There were a couple of mornings I was sitting on the back porch of my camp drinking coffee between 4:30 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. dressed in shorts and a T shirt. Doesn't get much worse than that. I did manage to kill a couple of mature bucks in MS but that was during the few days when the cooler weather was conducive for daylight deer movement. Well i was thinking i read a few post from some other guys about the weather being warm during the rut in the midwestern states. Maybe i'm crazy Our rut had it's moments this year though. Between the 24-29 of December, our bucks were absolutely rocking. I passed on a couple of 120 class bucks with my gun then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 I was watching a hunting show and the host, who had the caption " Whitetail Expert" under his name, commented that the deer they were hunting should be rutting now , but since it was warm outside they were not. I am no expert by any means, but I will say this: warm weather in my experience will most certainly slow daytime rutting activity and cooler weather will encourage more daytime rutting activity. Pretty simple really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddyboman Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 I am no expert by any means, but I will say this: warm weather in my experience will most certainly slow daytime rutting activity and cooler weather will encourage more daytime rutting activity. Pretty simple really. I agree. The warmer weather does not mean the deer stop rutting but they just do most of their activities at night when its cooler ;):) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasDeerHunter Posted January 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 I absolutely agree that in most areas warm temps will limit daytime movement of whitetail. Let me paint a better picture of this: This guy was hunting in south Texas and the weather was a bit warmer than most of us like to hunt, he was watching several doe and a couple of bucks feed in front of him when he made the statement. It was'nt the fact that the warm weather was limiting deer activity, it was the fact he said they should be rutting but the weather was too warm. I do not claim to be an expert by any stretch , I feel this guy completely misinformed all who were watching. Some of us know better and some don't, the fact he claimed to be a whitetail expert is what kinda threw a wrench in my sprocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I am no expert by any means, but I will say this: warm weather in my experience will most certainly slow daytime rutting activity and cooler weather will encourage more daytime rutting activity. Pretty simple really. Yep, agree with this. This year's rut was pretty cool. Saw one big deer, and an absolute MESS of little guys. One day I saw at least 12 different bucks, all cruising looking for love. Best time was the week of November 5th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowtech_archer07 Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I can't speak for the "expert", but I would guess he was talking more about "chasing" and "rutting activity" during warm weather. Is it still the rut if it is warm. yes. Are they less likely to run around scent checking trails and doggin' does because of the temp. ...sure. When I am hunting the rut, and it is warm out, I don't see as many deer. it doesn't mean it isn't the rut, I think they wait til the cooler hours of the day. When it cools off...I see more. I think that is what he was probably getting at. I've got to agree with bowin. You are correct in everything you said about what we know about the rut, but like bowin said.. when the weather is warm, chasing activity does slow down somewhat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 We do know a lot now about deer activity, especially with the research going on now, using cameras and streaming live video from in the field. However, in my opinion there are too many different variables to go by. If you think about it people act entirely different in various regions, so why wouldn't deer? I observe what the deer do where I hunt and that's what I primarily go on. I remain open minded to all the other stuff, but that's where I stand. - Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horst Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Well i was thinking i read a few post from some other guys about the weather being warm during the rut in the midwestern states. Maybe i'm crazy Your not crazy, Im in Iowa and it wasnt great {in my area}It started off good and things warmed up, the rut slowed down.It gets hot out the deer are biologically still in rut, but physically they wont move much untill dark.Ive actually seen warm years here when there was better rutting activity in early jan then weve had during the actual rut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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