There may still be a month or more of deer hunting opportunity still ahead in your state, but the rut is over. Glimpses of a second phase are sporadically apparent across the Midwest, but for the remaining buck the mission has transitioned from breeding to feeding. They’re primarily interested in recuperating from the physical exhaustion of the last two months.
Hunters still out there trying to wrap their tag on a mature buck are likely to experience the most action in the evening as large groups of deer converge on food sources. Driving rural backroads this time of year will expose the fields where deer are feeding heavily. This is also a good time of year to ask for permission to hunt, because there’s a chance the primary hunters are done for the year. A sympathetic farmer or landowner may take pity on a hunter who’s willing to brave late season conditions.
The Black Hills of South Dakota must be considered one of the most beautiful places in the Midwest to chase whitetails. John Vlcek has been hunting the Hills his whole life. He believes the rut takes place later in far Western South Dakota than it does where he lives in Southeast South Dakota.
The avid hunter has been hunting the Hills for over 40 years and says in late November bucks normally come screaming in to rattling, but this year, the bucks were just not as interested. They managed to shoot some nice ones, but the bucks were being far more cautious than he expected for this time of year.
John’s son, Kolton Vlcek, had a special reason to be thankful on Thanksgiving this year. At 9:30 in the morning, he killed the biggest buck of his life. A buck John, says is bigger than any buck he’s ever taken from the Black Hills and he’s been hunting there for over 40 years.
“Where we hunt in the Hills it’s really, really thick. A lot of people road hunt this country, so they push the deer back into the cover. That’s where we go to find them,” John said.
Treestands are not even considered for the Vlcek family. They hunt on the move, but only one step at a time.
“We stalk-hunt,” John said. “What I mean is, will still hunt so slowly, it’s more like stalking. We take one step, then slowly look at everything. Then we take one more step and scan everything again. When we stop, we sit by big trees and call.”
On this hunt, it was the third stop of the day when John lured this old Hills buck to 60 yards.
“I always grunt first, then rattle. I did that and nothing responded, but I just had a feeling about this spot, so we waited 15 minutes and did it again. This time he showed up and my son put one right behind his shoulder,” John said.
Thomas Sawin, the hunting manager at the Kearny, Nebraska Cabela’s said he didn’t hunt this year, but heard from customers the deer hunting was tough in the Platte River Region.
“The rut was a little light this season. Quite a few customers have said the population is way down to the north of us and that has caused a slower season,” Sawin said.
John Wallace is a lifelong Ohio outdoorsman who has passed his love of hunting on to his three children. With so many under one roof interested in the pursuit of fish and game, John spends a lot of time in outside. He shares a lot of his stories through his online platform The Wild Game Cook.
“It was a heck of a year for the Wallace family, but we’re winding down on whitetails. The rut is clearly over in our neck of the woods in central Ohio. We have a lot of open fields around us. Three weeks ago, bucks were running all over the place. Now you might catch one creeping into the picked corn a few minutes before the end of legal light, but chances are you’re not going to see one hot after a doe,” John said.
And just like that we’ve reached the end of another rut. A ton of incredible whitetail bucks were taken across the Midwest this year. Hunters are certainly reaping the rewards after decades of quality deer management practices. We have reached a time in the history of deer when you can let one walk and have realistic expectations to see it alive next fall.
See you down the trail….
Brandon Butler
bbutler@driftwoodoutdoors.com
Pic: Kolton Vlcek with a buck from the Black Hills of South Dakota.
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