Buck behavior changes throughout the rut, and the tactics that produce in late October may well prove fruitless come late November. So, knowing which phase of the rut you are hunting -- and how bucks behave during that phase -- is critical to adjusting your hunting strategy. If you don't know the exact timing of rut phases in your area, talk to an experienced bowhunter or call your regional biologist for help.

This month, I've broken down my top 10 rut strategies by the phase of the rut when they work best. These simple tactics will help you solve the mysteries of the rut.

1. Hunt Does
When to do it: When bucks start hunting does, you should too. That generally happens just before the first does come into estrus -- the late parts of the pre-rut and also during the entire breeding phase of the rut.

How to do it: It is hard to go wrong hunting the times and places where does concentrate.

Eventually, the bucks will come looking. If you want a simple strategy that you can fall back on anywhere you hunt whitetails, this is it.

When hunting does, you sometimes have to fool many noses, ears and eyes. About 25 percent of the bucks I have shot during the rut were following does. One of my best bucks is a perfect example. The bruiser was following a doe through a narrow strip of trees when they came right past the stand. After the doe smelled my scent on the ground and darted out into a CRP field, the buck went on alert too. Fortunately, he was already in bow range and I was at full draw.

If you are going to spend a lot of time around does, you need to be extremely careful in how you hunt. Be sure you can get to and from the stand without alerting deer, and be sure the stand itself keeps your airborne scent from their noses.

2. Hunt Bottlenecks for the Cruisers
When to do it: The best time to hunt bottlenecks is when bucks are on their feet. And since that is a pretty good definition of the entire rut, this strategy works in every rut phase.

You can anticipate where the travel routes and scrape lines will be in your hunting area by studying topographic maps and aerial photos.

How to do it: Anytime you find a saddle, creek crossing, ditch or bluff (among many other options), or a narrow strip of cover, you have a potential bottleneck during the rut.

Typically, you'll find scrape lines through most of these places, but don't count on sign to give them away. Use your imagination. If it makes sense that a buck would travel through the area looking for does, it is probably a great choice.

Be on the lookout for any funnel or bottleneck that lies between two places where does might concentrate. When bucks are on the move, these spots are great choices and very easy to hunt.

3. Hunt Scrape Lines
When to do it: Hunting scrape lines works best during the very earliest phases of the rut, before does come into estrus.

How to do it: Scrape lines are not mysterious. They are simply travel routes bucks use, and the scrapes give them away. You can find travel routes many ways, but the best way is to do as much scouting as possible from your sofa. You should be able to predict where travel routes (and the scrape lines that reveal them) will be with reasonable accuracy simply from studying an aerial photo or topographical map of the area.

With a few possibilities in mind, make a quick pass through the area and check out your hunches firsthand. Keep the scouting light and quick. I usually wear a pair of waders or Elimitrax boots to keep ground scent to a minimum when scouting during the season.