The best situation is where you find food, water and cover in close proximity. One of the best food sources is acorns. Research has shown that where they occur, acorns are far and away the preferred food of whitetails. However, the predominant species over much of the whitetail's range are red oaks. The red oak is a two-year species, producing a good crop only every other year, when conditions are favorable. White oaks, on the other hand, produce acorns every year. Thus they provide a more reliable food source from year to year.

Avoid getting too close to bedding areas, particularly before the peak of the rut. If you move too close, too soon, you risk alerting deer before what may be your best hunting days.

One advantage of the pre-rut period is that bucks are still traveling in bachelor groups. While conventional wisdom says the rut is the best time to rattle, and that may well be true, I've found the pre-rut almost as good. Bucks are still in bachelor groups, but this is when they sort out the dominance hierarchy, the pecking order. This sorting is done mostly by sparring. Thus, the sound of clashing antlers is a familiar one. Furthermore, because many bucks are still vying for position, rattling is more likely to attract subordinate bucks. During the rut, most of the fighting is between dominant rivals of nearly equal stature, and may actually scare off subordinate bucks. There may be a minor flare up of rutting activity as roughly 10 percent of the does come into estrus around the pre-rut moon, but that will subside rapidly.

The Rutting Moon
As you get closer to the rutting moon (the second full moon after fall equinox), it's time to shift your attention to rut stands. This is the time to start keying in on scrapes and rub lines. Like a loaded gun, bucks are now primed and ready to breed. They begin scraping intensively to advertise their readiness to females, and scrapes become the computer dating service of the whitetail woods. The beginning of this period is a good time to exploit a dominant buck's jealous nature by introducing a bogus rival. Until the does come into estrus, about the only thing that will draw a mature buck out of hiding is competition. Start applying buck lure to scrape and rub lines.

As you get closer to the rutting moon, you can start switching to estrous doe lures. Once the doe's come into heat, bucks begin to lose their wariness, and this will be your best opportunity to tag a mature buck. Rattling works well at this time, as does calling, the more aggressive the better. This is another area where hunters often fall short.

Brad Harris, Vice President of Public Relations for Outland Sports, and host of the Outdoor Traditions cable show feels another big mistake most hunters make is not calling aggressively enough. "People are little bit timid," he says. "Maybe their not totally sold on the effectiveness of calls. They'll carry a grunt call and rattling horns, maybe use them once or twice and decide they don't work. Or, they'll get a deer to come, then stop calling, thus losing the battle. The deer loses interest and moves off." Harris recommends utilizing deer calls aggressively, especially during peak activity periods. "Using natural sounds like grunts, bleats and rattling allows you to cover more terrain and take advantage of upbeat activity patterns. Bucks are searching; they're edgy and they're vulnerable."

Alsheimer also recommends rattling as you approach the rutting moon, in addition to hunting transition zones between bedding and feeding areas. He claims rattling works best from a week before the rutting moon to about the third phase of moon. When a real fight occurs at this time, it is almost certain to be two dominant bucks fighting over an estrous doe. Rattling tells a dominant buck that not one, but two potential rivals are battling over his does. Once a buck begins tending a hot doe, about the only thing that will pull him off is a potential rival.

The author with a good whitetail buck he waylayed by timing his hunt and varying his tactics to coincide with various stages of the rut.

Post-Rut
By the time the post-rut period arrives, 80-90 percent of the does have likely been bred. Hunters have pressured deer for several months, and bucks are worn down from the rut's intensity. Because of this, Alsheimer believes "post-rut bucks can be the hardest of all whitetails to hunt." He recommends hunting food sources close to the thickest cover you can find. One major advantage northern hunters have is the amount of snow on the ground now. Tracking can reveal a lot about movement patterns. A predominance of tracks leading from bedding to feeding likely indicate an afternoon trail, while those leading to bedding often indicate the opposite. Hunters should time their hunts accordingly.

Roughly 28 days after the peak of the first rut, a smaller, second rut occurs. This is when most of the remaining does are bred, mostly yearling does. This rut is less intense. However, by continuing to concentrate on the same cover, and the doe groups that inhabit it, you'll automatically be putting yourself in the right place. While not as effective as during the first rut, rattling and calling also work now. I've had several friends and acquaintances say they've had moderate success rattling in does at this time of year, and often the bucks aren't far behind.

Below the Mason-Dixon Line
While this moon-phase theory can be applied to the South as well, there are numerous mitigating factors, including climate, genetics, nutrition, sex ratio and radically different day lengths. Alsheimer cautions: "In some parts of the South, nothing makes sense when predicting the rut." One of the biggest confounding factors involves adaptive strategies. Because of the persistent moderate climate, survival rate of fawns varies less in relation to when they were born. Thus, does aren't locked into a fixed breeding window.

Another mitigating factor is genetics. Many parts of the South have been re-stocked with Northern deer, whose genetic hard wiring is tuned into Northern day length conditions. Mixing them with Southern genetic lines could result in intermediate breeding dates, and some evidence from Mississippi has demonstrated this. Many Southern states also have dense herds, which often results in poorer nutrition and skewed sex ratios, both of which can throw off the rut's timing. Based on his observations and those of several other researchers, however, Alsheimer believes that in well-balanced herds with good nutrition, timing of the rut will be more consistent with his moon-phase theory.

It's important to remember that some of those same factors that confound timing of the rut in the South may also apply to Northern deer, particularly concerning the population size and sex ratio. Numerous other factors such as weather conditions, temperature and hunting pressure can also wreak havoc on your hunting plans if your goal is to hit the peak of rut. Remember too that these are generalities, and for every rule there is an exception. Still, by using the moon-phase theory as a guideline, and hunting accordingly, you can increase your chances of scoring big this fall.