The Rutting Moon: Are you a believer?

[WWWJD]

I'm pretty new to the whitetail hunting scene. That means that most of you have probably forgotten more than I'll learn, given my lack of ability to participate in hunting as much as I'd like.

I've read a few articles on this web site or the other, regarding the rutting moon. Some call it a bunch of phooey; say that the doe's estrous cycle is purely triggered by hours of sunlight, and that the weather and lunar cycle have nothing to do with it. Countless hours have been spent writing in agreement with one side of the fence or the other. This is my third year hunting. Unfortunately, I have another variable playing against my success yet again. My hunting ground is surrounded by corn fields with corn still standing, and even if seeking n' chasing has begun, I'm fairly certain that those shenanigans are taking place in the thick cover that the corn fields are providing... but...

Comparing my tag dates to the timing of the rutting moon.. I'm starting to wonder if it truly is worth paying attention to. This weekend, as with the previous two years, I didn't see any activity that would suggest that breeding is kicking off. I saw an 8 pointer, and two 6 pointers grazing together. They didn't care about each other in the least little bit. Now it could be that another dominant buck has already put them in their place, but then again, maybe the does that are back there with them aren't done cooking yet. In my previous two years, the days that I filled my tags all took place after the rutting moon, and it was a night and day difference in all the observed activity, corn fields or not. I've always seen more fat does, and more mature bucks in the open after the rutting moon. Next year, I'm definitely going to work on putting together a small food plot to get some meat on my side of the property line, but I have to ask:

Based on your experience (not just on what you've read), is the rutting moon for real?

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

I don't know about any "rutting moon" but there's two different concepts, there's the actual breeding time and there's the "chase".

The breeding time is bad, bad, bad for hunters. The bucks are with does and nothing is running around except for a buck that can't find any does, which given that most places have 3, 4, even 5 or 6 doe per buck, isn't many.

The "chase" is the good hunting time. It always happens at approximately the same time of year but there's no keying it to a single start and end date. Around here (Central NY) it begins very late October at the very earliest, or more likely the end of the first week of November (it's full swing right now) and lasts a week or 10 days, give or take, usually ending just before or just after gun season begins, which is this coming Saturday.