2012 Rut Hunting

[blackbeard]

Its difficult when you have to select a week to take off and hunt during the rut because the week you pick, even if it is the first week of November for example, might have temperatures in the mid 70's all week or it might rain every day. So the closer to late October you can wait to select the week the better because you can at least look at the long term weather forecasts. It seems to me that every year there is one really good week when everything works together (rut, weather, moon) but you gotta be hunting during that week. It could be the last week of October (used to be good for me but not so much the last few years) or the first three weeks of November. This is why I just take off most of those four weeks!

[OHBooner]

First, the first of the month isn't always the full moon. And even if it were, "cloud cover" wouldn't have any effect on deer movement. They can still see....

That being said, you might as well flip a coin IMO. I have killed 4 bucks between 130 and 155 between November 8-11 and only one before that (10/31). My favorite seems to be around November 10...but you're right, you risk lockdown which seems to be worse than the October lull.

I'd probably go with the later dates but I don't think you can really go wrong.