WHEN THE RUT Goes South

When trying to accurately characterize the essence of the Southern rut, one term comes to mind: aberrant. The Southern whitetail rut definitely deviates from the expected course of action.

The rut down South usually — if not always — differs from what is considered normal, or might be described in a textbook on the subject as typical of the species. In the South, the white-tailed deer rut can be anything but typical.

The Southern rut — being highly unpredictable and variable from season to season, state to state and even region to region within individual states — makes hunting big bucks in the South one of the most challenging prospects in the world of hunting. There is no predictable, typical rut — that narrow envelope of time when hunters assume that a buck will momentarily let down its guard in pursuit of does. But Southern deer breed, and they do rut! Timing and intensity are the