The best time of the year for bow and crossbow hunters is upon us, but if you drive through deer country or run an insurance agency during the rut, you may not be smiling.
The rut is simply the whitetail deer’s mating season. While there are actually a couple times when bucks chase does in heat, the primary rut in our area starts around Nov. 1 and continues for a week or two. There is a secondary rut in December.
A buck’s neck swells up from hormones, and he thrashes at trees with his antlers to create rubs and also paws bare spots on trails with his hoof to make scrapes, which serve as little scent stations, with estrus does leaving their urine there to give Mr. Mossyhorns the OK to breed her.
Meanwhile, November’s roads become a pinball game as bucks and does leap and bound in front of and into vehicles. Corn and soybean harvests contribute to the heavy metal mayhem as they flush the deer from their favorite daytime hideouts.
I literally watched four deer running in a circle in a picked section of cornfield on my rural New London road just after I passed the combine. I’m now driving a 2022 Honda Pilot, my replacement after totaling my Honda Odyssey minivan on Highway 45 in New London and have had numerous close calls in recent days.
November is the number one month for car-deer collisions, and if you do not drive at least 10 or 20 mph slower than the posted speed limit after dark, you are either driving a beater wagon that you want to get rid of or are unaware of the deer density in our area. I just read last year’s deer harvest totals again, and Waupaca County finished second (10,244), with Shawano County a close third (9,346).
Marathon County takes first place with 11,580 deer. Waupaca and Shawano counties’ bow and gun hunters kill more deer than some Eastern states. If you see a dead deer on the shoulder, that’s your obvious warning.
There are about 1.8 million deer statewide, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
That’s almost 200,000 deer more than in 2023. The herd continues to grow by leaps and bounds, especially in the Farmland Zones, where ag crops and mixed open cover and woods create ideal habitat.
If there is one thing you hunters can do to help thin the herd, it’s to simply shoot more does. They are delicious, nutritious and the only way to stop the out-of-control herd growth in most (not all) areas. The DNR’s return to numbered zones in the north will allow a more tailored approach to management, which we had before Dr. Deer and his narrowly focused management ideas that became law.
When I first moved to Wisconsin in 2000, I have to admit all the numbered zones were confusing, but now I get the reasons for it. Meanwhile for 2025, Waupaca, Shawano and most other counties in the Central and Southern Farmland Zones will remain managed by county.
If you like statistics, you’ll love the DNR link with deer population histories and densities:
https://apps.dnr.wi.gov/deermetrics/HarvestStats.aspx.
The DNR facebook page reports the rut starts in late October (they are giving a report to cover the whole state, and I believe it starts a bit later in the north).
Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/WIDNR/posts/the-deer-rut-or-breeding-season-occurs-in-late-october-through-mid-november-in-w/868076442139204/.
I’ve read a lot of deer hunting stories and lore in my 50-plus years of deer hunting, including ideas on hunting certain moon phases, using various sprays, lures, ozone-generating machines, camo patterns that make humans invisible, etc. My advice is to hunt as much as you can, whenever you can, because you will never kill one in the living room (although I did get one from my back deck a few years ago).
Don’t be surprised if the big bucks have their own trails and don’t follow the rules like the rest. I’m mostly a meat hunter, and a fat adult doe draws my attention, although I’d love to drop a giant buck with my recurve bow.
I am headed out the door as soon as I finish this column.
Speaking of gadgets and gimmicks that may or may not work, I’d love to hear from you about something you bought for deer hunting that now makes you chuckle. I call these Boondoggle Buck Buys.
Sportsman’s Guide catalog once sold a plastic deer butt with a battery-powered tail that was supposed to lure in deer (I didn’t buy one but never forgot it). My two favorites are Duke Cannon Big Ol’ Brick of Hunting Soap Scent Eliminator (actual name) and ESP Technology Scent Prevent Toothpaste from Dead Down Wind.
Fleet Farm and other stores have full aisles of unscented soaps, sprays and lures, and I am a sucker to try most of them. No matter that scientists have shown that deer have better noses than the best bloodhounds, and a bloodhound can find human scent on a sock buried in other socks sprayed with this stuff.
Send me an email listing your wacky BBB purchases and if they worked or not, and I might even come up with a prize for the best one.
Good luck this fall.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.
