who predicts the rut, and how?

[dcnewyork]

I have been wondering who and how they predict when the rut will be? I see all the magazines say that the rut this year would start about nov.20 and go through the mid of december. I was in teh woods and did not see that activity till much later. So what i am wondring is if this is all bull, is it all voodoo, hearsay, and mishmash.  hHow can some writer predict when all the deer in this vast country with different seasons and different foods and different gentics and weather paterns will go into rut? I am in collage and i know for a fact that girls all living together will have their period at the same time. they change their cycles.....why cant deer do the same thing? Do we as hunters just hear and repeat what we are told about the rut, and just believe it is fact ?

[rickt300]

In 2004 at my lease there were two ruts, the first was in the second week of the season say from Nov. 15 to december 7 and the second around the first on Jan.  This year I saw rutting activity from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15.  I have no idea how to predict it.  Hard to figure when the does get hot.

[Redhawk1]

It is a prediction, not an exact date. The deer will go into estrus and kick off the rut. Mother Nature is the only one than can make it happen.  

[beemanbeme]

I don't have a real answer nor a formula but it is supposed to be driven by the moon phase and the amount of daylight.  That said, there isn't some sort of starting gun.  And it is possible to have two ruts as if a doe is missed, she will come back in in (I think) 21 days.

[760 Nut]

The second full moon after the fall equinox is what triggers the "rut" or does coming into estrous. Below the mason-dixon line the rut starts a little later. If a doe is not bred in her first cycle, she will cycle once more  28 days following.
Just because we don't see the activity, does not mean it's not going on. Some people will use the term "trickle rut/slow rut" a lot. But in reality, most of it happens at night (especially if the weather is unusually warm during the day). If the weather is cooperating, that's when hunters see more "rutting" action.

[Leatherstocking]

It has always been my understanding that breeding goes on all fall from about mid October through December. This is due to the fact that some does will go into estrous in mid October. Then, those that aren't bred, plus many other does will then go into estrous in mid-November. Any does not yet bred will go into a third estrous cycle again in mid-December. Obviously the highest number of does are typically in estrous in mid-November, thereby providng what we call the "rut", which is really just that small window in the fall breeding season when the greatest number of does are in estrous. In my area (New York) I've always understood that to happen around November 12th, give or take a week. I'm sure weather and moon phase probably play a small role in swinging it either direction.