Leap year/rut timing question

[Etxbuckman]

I hope everyone has had a good 2020 so far.

Being that it's never too soon to start thinking about the next deer season I wanted to see what the Green Screen's brain trust's thoughts are on this.

With this being a leap year the general season will begin on November 7. Assuming that the rut happens at the same time every year, and assuming that, say, late-October is the traditional kick-off of prime rutting time, would it stand to reason then that the rut this year would be inclined to kick-off a few days later in to November?

I may be thinking way too much in to this, and I'm not 100% sure what I'm asking even makes sense, I guess I'm more curious if we'd be likely to see it start later in relation to the calendar dates or not.

It just seems like the only thing changing is our perception of the time. The days themselves do not change, and the deer certainly don't know if it's late October or November.

[lodgepole]

Deer don’t know what the date is. Rut happens when it happens. Down here in the coastal counties rut is in September, South Texas- December/Jan. Where I hunt it is usually within a week of Thanksgiving.


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[Bullseye07]

You are right in your reasoning but I think you have it backwards. The rut would start two days sooner.

If the rut started on November 18th last year it would start on the 16th this year. It’s easier when looking at a calendar. They’re both the 3rd Monday in November but we call it a different number.

Regardless there are way too many other factors involved to predict the exact start, but if all thing were equal to last year, it be two days sooner.


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[Etxbuckman]

You are right in your reasoning but I think you have it backwards. The rut would start two days sooner.

If the rut started on November 18th last year it would start on the 16th this year. It’s easier when looking at a calendar. They’re both the 3rd Monday in November but we call it a different number.

Regardless there are way too many other factors involved to predict the exact start, but if all thing were equal to last year, it be two days sooner.


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Starting two days sooner is NOT what I wanted to hear. LOL

I'm glad you understood what I was getting at though. I couldn't quite find the words to make it make sense.

[Passthrough]

Wow....this is right up there with changing feeding times because of daylight savings time....lol

[Etxbuckman]

Wow....this is right up there with changing feeding times because of daylight savings time....lol

Kind of. LOL It was just something I was curious about, though obviously there's way too many factors to write any of this in stone.

[ctom87]

I was going to post something funny about the illuminati determining when the rut is, but decided a serious post would be better.

I put my first year of truly hunting multiple weekends on the same piece of land under my belt in 2019, so I have a new, fresh perspective on the rut: hunting was easier and deer were more predictable before the rut. I don't really think it matters much, and it may be easier to hunt before and after.

My 2¢ and I am probably still learning. Just what I noticed this year when I was there enough to notice patterns.

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