KEY RUT DATES

I came across an old deer hunting rut date graph for NYS that I thought I would post some dates  from here. I know all the top hunting rags come out with the best days to be in the wood's graphs every year, however I have found that those same dates or very close to it seem to pop up every year. I STILL read all those articles and TRY to plan my hunting days around them if I can.

These dates are from a bow hunting course I took in Cortland, NY over 20 years ago.

First interesting statistic which doesn't change much is that approximately 63% of the does are bred between the 10th of November and the 30th of November. I have always felt those were great days to be in the woods anyway and they co-orespond with the last week or so of bow hunting and the first week  or two of gun anyway.

Sept 7th on the graph is dated / Velvet Shed
October 18th as / False Rut
November 15th as / Peak Rut
December 13th as / Secondary Rut

Hot dates to watch scrapes listed as October 16-20th, 10/26, 27, 31st, November 3, 11, 14, 16-19th, 21 24th-26th (I don't read as much about hunting over scrapes as I used to)

Dec 1, 3, 6, 9, 11

It is safe to say that the last week and 1/2 of bow hunting has always give me more action and deer sightings than the early bow season and with gun season in the southern tier opening on 11/17 the first week and 1/2 of gun combined with a lot more hunters in the woods moving deer around just happens to fall in that time zone when 63% of the does are bred anyway.


My strategy this year is to go hunting every day I can, and keep in mind personal success days and deer pattern movements on the property I hunt combined with the best dates the deer biologists and game management folks come up with.

Good luck and good hunting.

Dan