Best week in January to try and catch the rut.

[inline]

I am trying to schedule my days off for January Coues in 30A. If you were to pick a week stretch to hunt and try and catch the rut when would you go?. I was thinking of going somewhere around the 6th-13th.

 

Thanks

[Guest 300ultramag.]

I am trying to schedule my days off for January Coues in 30A. If you were to pick a week stretch to hunt and try and catch the rut when would you go?. I was thinking of going somewhere around the 6th-13th.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

december is best... sorry

 

[bowsniper]

I don't know about 30A, but further North, the peak can be different every year. Any where between the 3rd week of December to 2nd week of January. It's a crap shoot. Good luck!

 

Mark

[Ernesto C]

Any of the last two weeks in January.

[bowsniper]

Come'on, lets get more dates to confuse inline more!

 

Mark

[Coues79]

I am trying to schedule my days off for January Coues in 30A. If you were to pick a week stretch to hunt and try and catch the rut when would you go?. I was thinking of going somewhere around the 6th-13th.

 

Thanks

 

You have a good time planned if you stick with that time frame. I think it is best the 2nd week in January. Hopefully there will be good winter moisture so that many does will cycle this year.

[wardsoutfitters]

30a = any time after the 19th

[Coach]

Unfortunately, these hunts don't go like clockwork. Any given year the rut might be early, late or totally non-existent. I've seen hard-core ruts at the beginning of December - I've seen late December and early January with crickets.

 

I am NO expert, but your chance of filling your tag has less to do with what week you take off, than what you do with the time you are in the field. To clarify that statement, I've seen the "full rut" activity of coues, and generally, that means hound-dog small bucks acting like the outside world doesn't matter - young, smaller bucks will avail themselves all day.

 

The older, wiser bucks who have managed to stay alive through numerous seasons won't follow the standard rut patterns. That's why they are studs now. The same applies to big elk or big mule deer.

 

A rut tag does not mean you are going to go out and grocery shop 100" coues all day picking and choosing as you go. It's still a VERY hard hunt and you have to get your head into what is happening in whatever area you hunt. The mature bucks are NOT going to trot around chasing tail the way rutting bull elk do. They are still secretive, alert and mindful of their surroundings, wind, moon, barometer and cover.

 

Big bucks don't have to leave their hideouts, even late in the season despite what the magazine writers say. They move very little, in my experience, chase a little, bed...feed a little, bed... stretch a little, bed... you get the point. Glass, glass glass, and then glass more.

 

Counting on the rut is like looking past a good (insert your sport) team. If you count on big bucks to start prancing around the hillsides giving you easy shots, you will likely miss the quiet hidden dance that's going on right under your nose. Again, I'm no expert, but that's what I've seen.

Hope this helps.

 

Jason

 

 

 

 

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[Str8Shot]

I agree with AZone... I do know that many studies I have read seem to hint that the diminishing amount of daylight helps in triggering a does estrus cycle and longer lengths of daylight hours after 4-5 weeks following the fist sign of the Beginning of the RUT usually begins the peak time of the rut (daylight hours start climbing up slowly after the winter solstice this year DEC. 21st) Many also state During the Full and during the Last Quarter phase of the moon higher percentages of deer are taken in the daytime hours .... But as AZone stated as well as most of the biologists there are many other factors that can change things up and no studies give guarantees.... And don't forget that there often is a second rut as the does go through their cycles ..... Being able to enjoy that dance as ONE stated is a big reason that I finally took up archery.... this waiting for that coveted late rifle hunt gets tedious ....

 

Good Luck

[bobbyo]

I think February is the most likely time for the rutt this year. In addition if we get no rain the rutt may not start untill late January 2011,

Bob

[Coues Archer]

Hey inline I hunt 30A coues every year with a bow and almost every year we are successful. I have noticed that in this unit they start rutting at about the 23 of december. But then it seems as if the deers just go crazy for does !!!!! And are everywhere even those monster bucks. I see them every time at about the second week of january just chasing does like you wouldnt imagine, any ways deer are different and many times the deer have different schedules. So i would recomend you to hunt all of january and one weekend you are going to witness the monster bucks chasing does like dogs. Well good luck?

[inline]

Thanks for your input. Last year I hunted the 2nd-10th and I didn't think I did to bad for the 1st year, saw some good bucks and had alot of fun. Needless to say I am addicted. I know that they aren't going to prancing around, but women have been the death of many great coues deer so it can't hurt.

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Any of the last two weeks in January.

 

 

+1

[Jakedunn]

My experience has shown that it is exactly one week before or one week after I go hunting. Hope that helps.

[COOSEFAN]

My experience has shown that it is exactly one week before or one week after I go hunting. Hope that helps.

I agree and especially when Turkey hunting!

 

My thoughts are that you'll see spotty pre-rut activity in the end of December and first part of January, but the heat of the action is mostly later in January from what I've seen. I do think that higher elevation deer rut earlier though, seems to be the case with muleys too. JIM>