The December Rut: A day on a small property observing buck behavior

The December Rut. It happens every year. I sometimes hear hunters speculating about the December Rut in my home state of Michigan. I don't have to speculate because I see it every year. Whether you observe the December Rut depends on a variety of things. Most important is that the doe families are still using your property in daytime, which requires that they not feel pressure from your hunting throughout the season. Number one in the arsenal is good scent control. Good scent control is number two and three as well. Second is how you approach stands and leave stands. The more you are seen or heard by deer the faster you location will be worn out. Stand location is another important factor. Finally good deer habitat is vitally important. Deer movement in December mostly involves movement of the doe families to and from bedding and food. The best place to see December rutting activity by bucks is between food and bedding. In this video I show scenes from a single days hunt on my 47 acre Lenawee County Michigan property. The stand is located near a travel corridor between a major feeding area and a major bedding area. Because there is snow on the ground the deer are lingering in this travel funnel to browse on brush and fobs exposed above the snow, and are spending little of that time in food plots. Numerous bucks were seen on this day including one that I judged to be 3.5 years old. I got opportunities to shoot that buck with my muzzleloader 3 times but declined to even reach for my rifle as I was so pleased that he made it this late into the year, and anticipate a high possibility of seeing him next year. December rutting activity is hit and miss, so it requires great patience. Most breeding in December involves doe fawns going into estrus after reaching the weight of 80 lbs. Because there are not as many does in estrus, they tend to draw the attention of a number of bucks at once, so the bucks become clustered. On this day I see numerous different bucks and they are running to and fro on my property, which means they are not on neighboring properties. On another day they may be on the neighbors properties and I will see few. It is a game of great patience, but if you show up and meet all the other criteria I discussed, you my get to witness the best buck activity of the year.

[@sf-gs3iz]

Excellent content. Thank you very much it's greatly appreciated.

[@stanleybuck4195]

Thanks for the great ideas. It looks like your 47 acres are land locked. How do you access your land?

[@ktmhiflyer]

Good content. I appreciate your deer management techniques sir, keep up the good work!

[@johnoblak9631]

Jim are you still active in habitat info? I see this is 3 yrs old and dont see u on MS anymore...miss u

[@shannonblane]

Another good vid, Jim. I have just completed a tornado zone on my property from the instructions in your book. I did some hinge cutting a couple of years ago, but not enough. It's somewhat difficult to let go and start cutting bigger trees, but I trust you and your knowledge and look forward to the payoff. Most of the trees are water oak/ pin oak, and will hopefully continue to produce acorns, but regardless I know deer love the ability to reach the leaves. Also I have a neighbor who is a brown/downer, and I needed the effective screening badly. I also added an "in the timber" food plot. Fingers crossed.

[@formularacingfan]

Good info. Straight to the point

[@brentonrickett1638]

hello, what is your best advice for taking a mature buck in the remainder of the Michigan season? I hunt St. Joseph county, right on the edge of Cass County, and hunt timber on the edge of thickets, dry bottoms, rolling timber and freshly cut corn field. I rarely hunt mornings, if at all, so that I don't bump deer off food on my way in.

[@bradlueckhoff7715]

Kudos to you for sitting out all day in december! A group of bucks showed up on camera dec11-dec24 and i witnesses some chasing in that span of time. In your experience will harvesting a deer (and dressing the deer) drive deer from the area? The area has been a ghost town since a buck was taken dec 24th evening.

[@hoosierbowhunter3808]

Hey, I watch your videos and Randy VanderVeen's videos a lot and you guys never really talk about evergreens. I was wondering if Cedar trees are good for hinge cutting and making bedding or would it be better just to cut them down. Both would let light reach the ground, just trying to figure out which would be better. Thx

[@jeffamckee]

I'm not a professional but I've been hinge cutting for a few years now. I have a small property that has a lot of jack pines and maples. Last year this time you could see 60-100 yards in any direction. I hinge cut a lot of the jack pines this past summer. We saw more deer this year than probably the past 5 years combined. I don't think that the type of tree has as much to do with bedding area as making your woods thick and having that horizontal cover so when they walk through it, they feel safe. Yesterday morning I was watching a deer walk out of the food plot, it's so thick now that almost as soon as it walked back into the woods it disappeared. These guys from "Extreme Deer Habitat" really know their stuff. Up until a few years ago I would shoot the first buck that gave me the opportunity because I didn't know if it would be the only opportunity that I would get. I went from that to passing up on probably more than 90% - 95% of the bucks that I see now because I feel a lot more confident that I could go out almost any time from Oct 1 through Jan 1 and see bucks. Hinge cutting, even pines really transformed the way that I hunt and the way that I think about hunting.

[@ExtremeDeerHabitat]

Red cedars are perhaps the best trees I have ever cut for bedding. they do not survive it, but if you can get them to hang on the stump they will sit there and provide cover for years afterwards. I drop the cedars and then bring any hardwoods down on top of them.

[@hoosierbowhunter3808]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. I plan on using these tactics more throughout the area I hunt.

[@joelindquistregeneration5991]

yes why is there no information on deer habitat improvement in the pines? my property in the UP is thick with red and white pine, hemlock, maple, oak and looks nothing like the habitat shown in videos demonstrating improvement to the deer woods.

[@ExtremeDeerHabitat]

+joe lindquist regeneration. Hi Joe. Are you related to George? I have a chapter in my book that covers how a friend transformed a Scotch Pine Jungle into great deer habitat in northern Michigan. It will work with any kind of pine woods. I know others who have succeeded in the UP as well. extremedeerhabitat.com/buy-the-book/

[@joelindquistregeneration5991]

yes George is my uncle. thanks for the response. i really enjoy your videos.

[@BIGHEN_]

And here i am on December 10th 8:11 in the morning, hey man did you do any calling prior to seeing the bucks?

[@aznyang16]

Same. I havent seen a single deer. I'm stumped.

[@markmark1078]

You musn't have high hunting pressure near you -where i am, 300 acres of state land out back has at least 5 guys tromping around daily which keeps deer nocturnal-made comments before i watched rest of video-i commend you on your trigger restraint-it's amazing how many hunters shoot little bucks when there are plenty of roadkills and does available for meat-taking a little buck robs that deer of his potential for becoming a majestic creature-should be criminal IMO

[@RebelRidersMCBC]

do you allow new hunters to come out and look at how your land is set up or maybe even hunt it?