Pennsylvania Game News - October 2023 - 13

weeks of October, but an in-heat doe in
mid-October will get neighborhood bucks
scraping sooner.
Early scrapes can be great stakeouts,
but don't hunt directly over them. Set up
at least 20 yards off the scrape along the
travel corridor or in the area where it's
found, use the wind and a cover scent to
your advantage and make sure you and
your tree stand blend in like they belong
there.
As October closes in on Halloween,
more does are coming into heat and buck
testosterone levels are surging. That
hormonal exuberance bucks were using
to confirm their dominance earlier in the
month now gives way to a perceptible
push by bucks seeking estrous does. But
every time a buck finds an estrous doe,
it effectively is checking out of the race.
That's part of why the rut's peak can
be tough to hunt. Add to that an unnoticed
change in whitetail movements caused
by fall-food availability or bedding-area
intrusion, the guile of Pennsylvania's
older and smarter bucks, and hunters
overplaying stands, and some rut hunters
soon start questioning what went wrong.
Just remember, the whitetails aren't gone;
they're just not where you are.
STRATEGIES
When deer disappear or won't come
near, many hunters reach for calls or
attractants. My preference is to modify
my stand's placement, or to rotate through
a network of stand trees. Where I go is
determined by what I saw recently from
a particular stand, and whether I find fresh
sign going in or coming out. My walks to
stand sites usually are about a mile.
I rarely use calls/attractants. My reasoning
is too many inexperienced hunters
are using that stuff - rattling antlers, using
vocal calls and estrous lures - and they're
OCTOBER 2023
Rut Roots
The word rut seems to have come
to America on the tongues of European
colonists. Back in the Old World, where
hunting traditions trace back centuries
before America's European colonization,
the word rut is believed to be a derivative
of the Latin words rugio or rugire,
which translated means to bellow or
roar, and dates back to the early 15th
century, according to many sources.
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary
suggests this history and etymology
for rut: " Middle English: rutte; from
Middle French: ruit - rut, disturbance;
from Late Latin: rugitus: roar; from
Latin: rugireI - to roar; akin to Middle
Irish: rucht - roar; and from Old Church
Slavonic: rŭžati - to neigh.
In the 16th century, Shakespeare
used the word " ruttish " in his work to
reference lustful behavior, so it would
appear the word rut was at least somewhat
familiar in Merry Old England.
Indigenous Pennsylvanians surely
had a name for the rut, but none could
be uncovered in references. In general,
though, Native Americans referred to
the Hunter's Moon as that which occurs
in late October or early November,
somewhat synching with the whitetail
rut.
The word rut also is used to reference
male breeding behavior among
species from elk and bison to giraffes
and elephants. Male giraffes spar, whipping
their long necks; bison, by head-on
charges and sparring. In male elephants,
the rut is more commonly referred to
as musth.
educating deer. Most of the time, I'd rather
run silent, off the ground and using the
wind to my advantage.
Being where deer come is more important
than anything else in the rut. That's
why field time is so important: it helps
you see where you need to be.
If your stand selection puts you in
position to get a shot at an approaching
13
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2023

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