Seriously still waiting on deer action

By Mac Arnold
RTWO Editor-In-Chief

In the previous blog post Saturday, Oct. 24, I said "it was time to get serious about deer hunting," and there is no doubt I'm focused and ready, but now I need dance partners.

Which leads me into the next aspect of this: When is this year's rut going to begin?

I've heard that everything is behind from the late spring, and I'm half tempted to go along with this theory. Of course, it is only Oct. 25.

There are two approaches for when the rut kicks off: the lunarist types and the scientists.

To get to the bottom of these two theories on what's up for this season, I will get some help from an article I came across online by Mark Kenyon titled "Wired to Hunt."

Kenyon cites the moon philosophies for his article from well-known lunarists Charles Alsheimer and Wayne Laroche, who believe the whitetail's breeding season is influenced by the phases of the moon.

This usually is what is used by such devices as my Garmin's "game finder." And I'll have to admit there are many coincidences of deer or turkey coming in right when it predicts "best" or "good" times during the day.

Laroche is a respected fish biologist and also an avid whitetail hunter who became interested in the moon influences on deer after seeing how it would drive grouper fish in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Alsheimer, also a big-time deer hunter and field editor at Deer and Deer Hunting, has been detailing the moon's impact on whitetails for articles in DDH and Outdoor Life magazines for many years.

They've researched this material for more than 20 years, so we at RTWO realize we are really simplifying their hypotheses for the sake of getting down to the actual rut predictions for a quickie blog post.

Since Laroche and Alsheimer ultimately pinpoint the rut launch from "the second full moon after the autumn equinox" and for this year that would make it today (Tuesday, Oct. 27).

This "rutting moon," as they call it, is much earlier than last year's one, on Nov. 6, which fell in a more preferable date that "syncs up well with other rutting factors and results in a synchronized and frenzied rut," according to Laroche and Alsheimer's predictions in Kenyon's article.

Furthermore, it was saying the "seeking" behavior of bucks should have started about Oct. 20 and ignited into full-blown "chasing" by today (Tuesday, Oct. 27) with the best time of the season coming between Oct. 25 to Nov. 3.

After this Nov. 3 date, the "tending" behavior, where a buck follows a doe closely until she comes into estrus, will continue until Nov. 10.

Not to be a fly in the ointment, but I haven't seen any chasing behavior from Oct. 20 and on, and I hunted a good four hours the morning of Saturday, Oct. 24. In fact I had a doe come in with a button buck in tow. You would think she would have ran him off by now if the rut was beginning in earnest.

And they didn't seem nervous or on the lookout for potential bucks in the area, which I know are there from last year's hunting and trail cam pictures taken only a week ago.

But believe me I'll welcome this supposed theory since I hope to be on point this morning.

Historically, the week before Halloween has been good to me, and I was reminded of that by a "post your memories" item on Facebook that showed a picture of me with a 6-pointer I took on Oct. 26 in 2009.

As far as the full-moon hunting goes, at least from what I've experienced, it's a dud. What I believe happens, especially if the moonbeams keep the night sky lit up, is the deer are even more active during the hours when us hunters can't get at them and are more likely to remain bedded down longer once it hits daylight.

Now, all of this is just bunk to the scientific theorists and organizations such as Quality Deer Management Association -- also quoted in Kenyon's article -- who say unequivocally that studies find the biggest influence on when the rut begins is based on the length of the day getting shorter from region to region and not by moon phases or other surmised things such as cooler temperatures.

In addition, these "pro-science" prognosticators say the prime breeding periods remain fairly consistent in these areas on a yearly basis.

So now that I have mulled over these theories for this posting, it's clear to me so far that maybe the lunarists are just looney and the scientific ones have the right plan, especially if I see Mr. Big Boy start grunting and stomping around the hunting grounds ... oh, somewhere around the week of Nov. 8 to Nov. 14.

Last year, after the same slow start, once I got into that  week, that's when all of the buck sightings, shots and activity began for me in Monroe County, Michigan.

Now it's time to watch and wait,  and just maybe bring down a beast.