Southern Indiana Whitetail: Blizzard Bucks and the Secondary Rut

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Blizzard Bucks and the Secondary Rut

We are getting some pretty heavy snow this evening throughout most of Indiana. I love hunting in the snow. It is a change of scenery after the first 70 days of the season.

Winter hunting centers around one thing. Food! All deer and bucks especially after the rut are looking to hang out somewhere close to food and filter in and eat in the evening. I try to find a heavily used trail into a grain field (usually corn) and sit on the southeast side as the prevailing winds are usually from the northwest this time of year. Does will generally make their way into the field much earlier than the big bucks (much like early season) and as shooting light is fading the mature bucks will get on their feet. If you're lucky, he'll use your trail.

Because of the heat and drought, a lot of the corn was picked very early in Indiana this year. That means that a lot of what the combines missed has already been eaten. The good news, though, is that the deer will be more concentrated into fields that still have food left. Think back to October about which fields were latest to get picked. This seems like the best place to start in my area.

I've found that this type of hunting takes a guess and check strategy. Find a good trail, set up, and see where they come out. If they come out on another trail, I may need to move. Another way to go about it may be to scope the field one evening and see what kind of action you see and make note of where the deer enter the field.

In areas with a higher doe population, this period in early and mid December can produce some pretty good rut activity. It's not quite the rut, but a lot of yearling does will come in to estrus in this period and bucks won't let them go unbothered.

A buddy of mine has had a big buck nearly run him over as it chased does into a corn field twice in the past week. Unfortunately, this happened after shooting light. He has now moved his stand up further into the staging area hoping to get a shot with a little shooting light left.

So if you can brave the cold, this could be a fun final 20 days of the season in Indiana.

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Properties

My only property in the Cincinnati area right now is a 50 acre tract on the Great Miami River that I call "The Sanctuary". 50 acres does not sound like much, but the setting of this property is what makes it great. Sitting adjacent to a park, it is protected from hunting pressure and receives deer traffic from the vast amoun of wildlife habitat in the park. The 50 acres is about 1/3 native grass field and 2/3 wooded area and thick burr patch. My first year hunting this property was 2008. Though I filled my tag on Thanksgiving morning on a different property, I saw a good amount of mature buck activity on this property that fall. Having worked hard all summer to get ready for the 2009 season, I was able to arrow a mature buck on Halloween.

The Dream 80 is an 80 acre tract in southern Orange county that is surrounded mostly by Hoosier National Forestry. We started our lease at the beginning of December, 2010. Dad had lusted after this property for many years, so it is now called The Dream 80 and referred to as TD-80. At this point (12/12/2010) we are just beginning to make plans for TD-80. We are beginning to map out sanctuaries and food plots that we will break ground on early in the spring (map seen here http://siwhitetail.blogspot.com/2010/12/preliminary-plans-for-td-80.html). The innitial goal for this property is to make it home to two mature bucks a year. That seems like a realistic goal that will push us to want more out of the property. If this property produces one mature buck (four of us will hunt it with bow only) per year, I will consider it a major success.