Alabama's rut is so weird

[ChrisAU]

Never thought about it growing up, but now that i travel some to hunt whitetail and have hunted out West, it's just insane. My home county is in the Southeast corner, Henry County. That stark line through it with a rut that differs by a month or so is spot on. Have properties on both sides of that line. There is absolutely no geographical feature that creates that. Oh, and just to the East in GA the rut is early to mid November, state wide (as far as I know, I hunt Southern GA too). Is it this weird anywhere else? Hunting in Escambia county next week (southern central edge of the state map), so I looked this up hoping to see Early Jan...nope, early Feb! Yay.

 

[pwsINC]

Most of this has to do with reintroduction of deer. Hard as it is to imagine whitetail too were nearly driven to their end. So when they reintroduced they would offset the rut accidentally and since deer are prolific breeders the does just keep being bred at 100% success rate thus keeping this cycle from adjusting to other neighboring areas of the state.

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[Thwack16]

Mississippi is much of the same. 30 minutes from me sees a good mid December rut. My home farms rut late December, early January. I use it to my advantage and hunt both, which also decreases pressure.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

I asked some wildlife biologists/vets when I was in school at UGA. Alabama had a large proportion of reintroduced deer come from Texas where the rut is later. Our Property is in Russel County and we’ll see them start early January all the way into February. Seems like when our buck:doe ratio is good they rut earlier.


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[Grumman]

Interesting stuff thanks for posting. I just moved to Alabama and the late rut and varying times was a mystery to me.


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[FLAK]

I've killed deer in Talladega co., that were chasing does in Nov. Dec. and Jan.
It's all Jacked up.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I've setup on gobbling turkeys in March next to active scrapes when I lived in Monroeville.

 

[Wiscohunter]

This article in QDMA's magazine explains why 30 miles can separate ruts that are months apart. The south Florida deer are the strangest, August? Plus, those are the native deer.

Chasing An Explanation for the South’s Odd Rut | QDMA

 

[Bogle]

Thanks for the link to the QDMA article. I live in Florida and the rut absolutely crazy down here. I hunt in S.W GA as well and it is much more defined with an actual "peak". There was an article on the GON website (I think) that contained a lot of information about the deer introduction in GA. The plus is, between Florida, Georgia and Alabama you can almost hunt deer year round!

 

[ChrisAU]

I've setup on gobbling turkeys in March next to active scrapes when I lived in Monroeville.

Yep, I found fawn tracks this weekend so small it had to have just dropped. April/May conceptions.

 

[cburgin72]

I live and hunt in south west alabama. I can relate to this very well. State biologists did some work at a big club near me and I got to take a look at their conclusions. They estimated fawns to have been conceived as early as early-mid Jan all the way to as late as March.

By the way I’ve also lived and hunted in southeast AL. Helped out with the Henry County NWTF banquet not long ago. I enjoyed it over that way.


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[deerhunt1988]

The Lawrence County early breeding is due to the deer being brought in from Michigan. This is the Bankhead National Forest area. Some studs are killed there, for Alabama.

 

[MallardSX2]

Georgia Also has a strange rut. I dont think the does at my place have even been bred yet. I was seeing fawns with spots very small into October this year. That puts it MONTHS behind the rest of the state.

 

[Poser]

Ask any whitetail hunter and their area has a “strange” rut. If every area is “strange” then it’s actually just standard and who will admit to having a “standard” rut? In fact, every year is described as being “strange” in every locale.

It does seem to move across the Deep South states in “waves”, but it is interesting that 25 miles can make a difference of weeks. When I lived in TN, I would do a lot of “rut chasing” and could hunt rutting bucks for 6 weeks by moving around. Biggest buck I killed was in late Dec in the NW corner of the state where the rut was more in line with 100 miles south than any immediate surrounding area.

 

[Studd muffin]

Louisiana has a similar rut diagram like the one you posted. It is weird, but pretty cool you can hunt the rut multiple times throughout the state.

 

[OK_hunter]

I moved to AL two years ago, and from what I have seen this map is accurate for the areas I have hunted in North AL. I shot a nice buck up at Skyline this past weekend. He was running does hard. Last year I hunted on Wheeler and the rut activity picked up around the end of Jan for the area I was hunting there.

Coming from Oklahoma I was very confused that first November. Now I know I can hunt another state in November and not miss out on a rut hunt in AL so it works well for me.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I would think this makes for a trickle effect in a lot of the state. Have you ever tried jumping around the state to hit peak times? Seems like you might be able to optimize your hunting? Here in Michigan, the southern peninsula is better early November, up where I live 8 hours north, the last week of November seems to be peak chasing. Sometimes I think about going to the lower early and hunting here late.

 

[Boarmaster]

My lease is a 15 miles Northeast of Greenville. This year the rut was a bit later than usual. Really kicked in the last week of January and was pretty good right out thru the end of the season around Feb 10th. Generally it cranks up starting around the 15th of January. We seem to be right on the line between the mid -late Jan and early Feb Rut.
The older guys that have been on the property for 20 years felt the late rut was due to the weather which was warm and rainy in Jan.

 

[ChrisAU]

Turkey hunted a couple weeks ago and found a fresh scrape line. Also saw a few bucks with antlers still well attached.

 

[vanish]

How do the "rut is triggered by amount of light in the day" folks answer this?