Central Alabama Whitetail Deer Rut Phases and Hunting Strategies

September 15th - October 15th: Pre-season Scouting

Deploy game cameras to map early season deer movement.

October15th - November 15th: (Bow Season): Late Summer Feeding

Find oak flats that are dropping acorns and expect deer to move short distances between bedding and feeding areas.

November 15th - December 1st: (Gun Season): Pre-rut

Rubs and scrapes appear in late November. Deer movement will increase during this time and is highly dependent on weather conditions. Colder weather will generate more day-time movement.

 

December 1st - 15th: Chasing

Bucks are actively checking scrapes and chasing doe. Find an active scrape and still hunt. Just be in the woods between Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

December 15th - January 1st: Peak Rut

Mature bucks are holding with mature doe. Daytime activity slows as deer breed overnight and mid-day activity is more common.

January 1st - January 15th: Lock-down

Bucks are locked down with doe and there will be very limited day-time activity. This is one of the slowest parts of the rut cycle.

January 15th - February 10th: Post-rut 

Deer are recovering and using food plots. Check food plot for heavy scat indicating the food plot is being actively used.

Chasin' Bucks at Mulberry

November 24, 2023
Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area
McKenzie Trail

Thanksgiving and doe days at Mulberry Fork - it doesn't get any better for a central Alabama whitetail hunter. Dad and I spent Thanksgiving afternoon talking hunt strategy - which location would be best for the wind conditions, which terrain would be best for late November and if it would be best to still hunt or attempt a spot-and-stalk. I had planned a spot-and-stalk hunt at a location on McKenzie Trail during the 2022 season and that was at the front of my mind. It's common to "spook," "bump," "jump" or "push" deer on a spot-and-stalk hunt so I saved this hunt for when I would have maximum shooting freedom at a running deer. I put on my hiking boots, silenced the 4am alarm and we set off for the McKenzie trail on Friday morning. The plan was to slowly hike until we found deer sign and then Dad was going to still hunt while I hiked further. I've only hunted a few times this year so I had no current intel on deer activity or patterns and had very low expectations for the hunt. Dad and I started hiking 20 minutes before daylight and kept checking our scope to see when we would have enough shooting light - we didn't want to get to our target areas and not have enough shooting light. We made it to the first target area by 7am and found a fresh scrape so dad set up and started still hunting. I kept hiking and jumped 2 deer bedded 40 yards from where he was sitting. I kept hiking and spooked a second set of deer which let me know that they were there with loud blowing and stomping. I finally made it to my second target area and started still hunting. I waited for 45 minutes while the woods were silent until I decided to make a move. I decided to get in the creek bottom (preferably in the creek) so that I could walk silently through the area. I would check each drainage slowly until I spotted some late morning deer movement. I found my first large rub in the 3rd drainage that I checked and spotted some movement in the 4th drainage - it was a group of doe deer moving across the creek. I crawled into a better shooting location and found a deer in the scope. Then I caught more movement out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't believe it - there was a mature buck running towards the doe group with his tail showing. I swiveled around, put the crosshairs on the buck, watched him move between shooting lanes in the timber and then pulled the trigger. The buck flinched, jumped down a 60 foot creek bank and then it was silent.

I started to track the deer and heard him scurry up a small hill. I found hair and blood at the bottom of the creek bank and thought that it was a lethal shot, but a little far back on his body. Dad and I tracked the deer for over 500 yards and bumped him out of two beds. There was no more blood so we decided to call for a tracking dog. A cardinal rule of hunting: never track a wounded deer without your rifle. You will most likely have a follow-up shot opportunity which could be a short-range or long-range shot. If you don't see the deer drop, everyone that tracks the deer should have their rifle. Big bucks are full of adrenaline once they've been wounded and can run very long distances after they've been bumped from their bed making a recovery very unlikely.

Willow, a German Shorthaired Pointer and registered tracking dog with United Blood Trackers, and her handler, Cody, met us at the management area around 9pm and we started the trailing the deer. Cody mentioned that Willow works better during the night due to limited visibility which makes her rely primarily on the scent trail. We learned a lot about tracking a wounded deer that night. Tracking dogs smell scent from the interdigital gland located between a deer's hooves - not the blood itself. This gland deposits ground scent with every step after they've been wounded. The sticky, stinky wax can stick to the bottom of a hunter's boots which can confuse the tracking dog. If you wound a deer, it's best to mark the last blood or bed and don't grid search for the animal. Also, deer will move longer distances between beds once they've been bumped. The first and second bed may be 100 yards apart while the 2nd and 3rd bed may be 500 yards apart. So, after you bump the deer from the first bed, don't go any further, mark the last blood sign, leave the area the same way that you entered and give the animal 6 hours to expire before trailing it with a tracking dog. We tracked the deer for a couple of hours until Willow found the buck in his final bed. We got the buck on the skinning rack just after midnight and back home by 2am. We spent 22 hours in the field for this deer and we felt a great sense of relief that we didn't leave a wounded animal on the property. The deer weighed 132 pounds and was one of the biggest bucks taken from the management area at that point in the season.

California Palm Springs Hike

October 23, 2022
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs Canyon Trail

Fifteen miles long, Palm Canyon is one of the areas of great beauty in Western North America. Its indigenous flora and fauna, which the Cahuilla people so expertly used, and its abundant Washingtonia filifera (California Fan Palm) are breathtaking contrasts to the stark rocky gorges and barren desert lands beyond.

Deep Sea Bachelor Party

June 25, 2022
Orange Beach, Alabama

Zeke's Landing and Marina

Blake was getting married so the boys headed down to Orange Beach for a bachelor party and fishing trip. Our party of seven met the captain and crew at daylight, packed the boat and idled to the Perdido Pass to catch baitfish. After loading the live wells with fresh cigar minnows and mullet we started fishing for our target species, red snapper. We fished several wrecks and underwater structures. Red snapper school with other fish that are similar in size and the biggest fish are usually swimming at the top of the school. Red snapper are bottom dwellers so their eyes are on the top of their head and oriented upwards which helps them spot baitfish swimming above. It's risky for the smaller snapper to hang out above the larger fish because they can easily eaten mistaken as bait. We moved from reef to reef and structure to structure catching fish from smaller and larger groups. We ended the day with a limit of snapper that we put on the grill that afternoon.Bachelor party fishing trip

Catch and Release in the Grease

March 5, 2022
Locust Fork, Warrior River

Spring time in Alabama brings about blooming flowers, cold weather and great largemouth bass fishing. I took a quick fishing trip to one of my favorite bass spawning locations on the Warrior River and landed a nice 3lb largemouth while she was protecting her newly made bed. 

The blackened dinner entrée paired well with some fresh green beans, red potatoes and chardonnay. 

Talladega National Forest

January 22, 2022

Talladega National Forest

I had ambitious plans to scout the food plots in Talladega National Forest near mount Cheaha and then hike the mountain afterwards. I spent the afternoon checking food plots for deer sign and discovered rolling swaths of burnt timber. Large parts of the Talladega National Forest are routinely burned to promote healthy tree growth. Unfortunately, this removes most of the underbrush forcing deer to leave those parts of the property. Also, this property is one of the few public lands that permit dog hunting during deer season. The burned timber and hunting pressure from dog drives makes this challenging territory for whitetail hunters. 

3-Factor Weighted Hunt Quality Index (HQI)

Birmingham, Alabama 

The hunting community has know for centuries that deer activity is influenced by the lunar cycle, mating cycle and weather conditions. I created a model to quantify the overall hunt quality which is synonymous with day-time deer activity. The index can range from 0 to 100 where 100 would represent a "trifecta" of optimal conditions including peak rut, cold weather and a new moon.

The chart indicated that January 6th and January 8th offered the best whitetail hunting conditions during the 2020-2021 Alabama whitetail hunting season. This considering the peak rut for the Jefferson county whitetail population and climate data from Birmingham, Alabama. I've also updated the 2021-2022 model to include a precipitation correction, weather forecast input (this allows for a 14 day future prediction of the HQI) and a recommendation for a morning or afternoon hunt. Of course, us dedicated hunters will always want to hunt morning and afternoon.