by Rick Hall

In the current stage of my hunting life, I consider myself a weekend warrior. Because of where I live, my work schedule and coaching a girls’ 14U travel softball team, I typically get to hunt 1-2 weekends a month during the season, with the occasional 3 day trip and hopefully, one 5 day trip each year. With limited time to hunt during the season, as well as minimal opportunities for off-season scouting, I really must get creative and look for ways to increase my odds when I do get the chance to hunt. One of the ways I’ve been able to do that over the past few years is to focus most of my hunting during or around to the rut. While I don’t consider myself a black belt in deer hunting, I do have a lot of confidence in my ability to quickly find and get close to deer during the rut and have had solid success in multiple states doing this. I am also addicted to the action that hunting the rut can bring. Who doesn’t love seeing the chase, watching bucks lose their minds and knowing that any moment in the woods could end with a big buck down? The rut is a magical time and those of us in the south have a unique opportunity to experience it for months on end. 

Most avid deer hunters have probably dreamt of or maybe even had the fortune of experiencing the legendary rut of the Midwestern states. Places like Illinois, Iowa or Kansas are famous for early November, where giants come out of hiding and drop their guard in the name of love. I’ve been able to see it firsthand several times and it truly is the stuff dreams are made of. If I could only hunt one time a year, I would absolutely push in all the chips for a rut trip to the Midwest, because the rut seems to be more defined and enhanced when compared to the southern states. That said, across the Midwest those magical days are numbered, with only a couple of weeks each November bringing the true rutting frenzy. As a southern hunter though, with roots in Florida and Alabama, I’m only a short drive away from rutting deer for most of the entire fall and winter. 

There are a number of “southern rut maps” available online through a quick google search. The National Deer Association (NDA) has a pretty good one and most states below the Mason Dixon line will have one on their DNR or Conservation sites. I am a big fan of the OnX app and mapping software, and they have a great feature that identifies the rut across the south. These resources are great for identifying the peak breeding dates for a given area, as they use historical data from harvest records and fawn birthdates to hone in on the peak times. There are exceptions for sure, as there could be rutting activity before or after any of the posted timeframes on these maps, but they do give a really good indication of when the best rut action should take place.

As I’m writing this, I’m looking at the OnX rut map, and between FL, AL, GA and SC, there are rut hunting opportunities as early as July and continuing each month until February. For purposes of this article, I’m going to exclude the July-August rut that happens in south FL, as most of us probably agree that hunting deer during the hottest months of the year in the hottest part of the country doesn’t seem like much fun at all. I do plan to check that off my list in the next couple of years, but I’m going to focus on the rut hunting opportunities that take place between September (when my local season begins) and February (when AL season ends). 

If you are a private land only hunter, this might not be of much interest to you, and it likely shouldn’t be. Having your own private area(s) to hunt, you’re likely going to have more familiarity with the land and deer behavior thanks to your scouting, habitat work, historical data, camera inventory, etc., so even when hunting outside of the rut you should have enough intel to always be in the game. If you are a public land hunter or weekend warrior like me with limited time to hunt and scout, or if you’re just looking for a way to shake things up for the season, then scheduling your hunts around the wide span of southern rut dates might be something to consider. Specifically for the hunter with limited time, this could have a big impact on your mindset and enjoyment of the hunting season. I know all too well how easy it is to slide into a negative mindset when you’d rather be hunting than working, when you know that you only have a handful of days to hunt all season. Planning hunts around the rut has helped me overcome that mindset, and now I can approach a short trip or a new area with confidence and excitement because of the rut. 

For a little perspective on what 6 months of rut looks like, I’m going to walk through my hunting plans for this upcoming season. Living in Jacksonville, FL, I’m right in the middle of the some of the earliest ruts in the south. Not only do the rut maps indicate that, but I’ve experienced it myself, witnessing rutting activity through September into early October each of the past several seasons. Archery season opens in mid-September here, so I’ll start my year bouncing around a few pieces of public land close to home. I focus all of my FL hunting around this timeframe, and for the most part will be done with local hunting by mid-October. From there, I’ll start shifting my focus to my one long trip of the year, which I typically take around Halloween into the first week of November, targeting KY or IL (TBD for this year). As I’ll already be hunting an October rut here in FL, I usually consider this trip my November rut. I obviously have to take more time off of work for the Midwest swing, so the rest of my November is focused on family and catching up on emails, but there are still a ton of November rut options available across GA, SC and even in small pockets of AL. I do try to hit one of these AL pockets around Thanksgiving as well, but that’s usually an “on the fly” trip that only happens if everything works out just right. As a sidenote, that’s an added bonus of hunting public land and scheduling by the rut. If an unexpected opening pops up in my schedule, I can make quick plans based on the date, using my OnX rut map to find pieces of public land that should have rut activity taking place right then. As December arrives, all of my focus shifts to Alabama as there is no shortage of rut activity from then through January, even into early February in some areas. With family still in Alabama, I know we’ll be spending parts of the Christmas season visiting, so I will find a couple of days during one of those visits to target the December rut that happens in certain areas of the northern half of the state.

As January comes, the rut really heats up in central and south AL, so any free weekend from New Year’s Day through the end of season on February 10, will find me back in my hometown, bouncing around between private land that I’ve been hunting for years and some public that I’m just starting to discover. Once the AL season comes to an end, I always keep my gear ready, as I have hunted as late as Valentine’s Day week in the FL panhandle, as those deer are just getting fired up and several pieces of public land there offer late season rut hunting opportunities. This is also one of those “on the fly” decisions, but if my schedule allows, you can bet I’ll take advantage of one last chance to hunt. The panhandle hunt is a lot of fun and I’ve seen rutting activity there that rivals anywhere in the country, making it a great way to cap of the season.

If you’re reading this, chances are you are a southern hunter like me. The outline of my season above is what works for me and my schedule, but can be used for almost any area in the south, and with only having to buy one non-resident tag to another state. If you’re in South Carolina, you can hunt the October-November rut close to home, and then chase a December and even January rut in south Georgia. If you’re in Mississippi, you can hunt the October and November rut in Louisiana, and spend December and January at home doing the same thing. The opportunities are plenty, making hunting the rut across multiple states, all season long not just a possibility, but a realistic option for a lot of weekend warriors like myself. 

Living most of my life in rural AL, I was blessed to have hunting opportunities right outside my door. I was able to spend a significant amount of time scouting during the offseason and had the ability to hunt almost any day of the hunting season. I was successful during the early season because of scouting and I knew where to find deer throughout the entire season because of my frequent visits to the woods. Now, I find myself in a stage of life that doesn’t allow me to be as intimate with any one piece of ground or one group of deer, so I have to maximize my time and put myself in high percentage opportunities. To me, there’s not a better way to do that than hunting the rut. No matter what type of hunter you are, it’s hard to debate the excitement and anticipation the rut brings. As I settle into being a weekend warrior, I want to feel that excitement on every trip I take, and I can honestly say that during my southern rut tour, I will be fired up the entire time. I’m getting the shakes just thinking about it!