Roe rut morning stalk question

[Jamie956]

Hi all
I'm wondering what time in the morning folks prefer to set off stalking in the rut, do you get out really early and have had a look round with thermal if you use one ready for first light or do you find heading out a bit later works best, especially if there's going to be morning and evening stalks
Cheers

 

[Shootgun]

Best results i had when calling, between mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

 

[Freeforester]

No great advantage to go before hours IME, the fun and passion usually (but by no means always) begins to rise as as the temperature increases, but can equally come to a sudden stop with eg a cloud shadow or a spot of rain.

 

[kenbro]

Hi all
I'm wondering what time in the morning folks prefer to set off stalking in the rut, do you get out really early and have had a look round with thermal if you use one ready for first light or do you find heading out a bit later works best, especially if there's going to be morning and evening stalks
Cheers

Looks like you’re up in time for an early start if need be!
Ken.

 

[HonestJohn]

I’ve seen most bucks reacting to calling or barking in the exact hours when you’d normally NOT be on the ground. It’s the best time of year because you can wake up at 6 and go stalking, and be home by 7/8pm. Only beaten by winter where you can sleep till 10 and be in bed by 9!

Bear in mind - the rut is in many places still a good week away.

On a side note - a reed call is highly effective, if you practice. The buttolo is good, but I prefer a reed call for strong reactions. I’d avoid using the same call all rutting season though, they can get used to it and call your bluff. Or maybe that’s just me

 

[HonestJohn]

Looks like you’re up in time for an early start if need be!
Ken.

Or late to bed !

 

[willie_gunn]

The received wisdom is to go out in the heat of the day, particularly if it getting hot and humid.

However if I go out with the camera it is almost invariably first thing in the morning, and I’ve encountered roe enthusiastically rutting - and responding to the call - from first light.

IMHO with only one month in which to rut, roe seek to maximise every opportunity!

 

[wildfowler.250]

I enjoy reading these posts because there’s so many variables with everyone’s experiences. Red / Sika / fallow, the rut is fairly obvious. With roe, you’ll get the first whispers of folk seeing rut like behaviour in June, all the way through to false rut in September. Some folk will say it’s been and gone by early August whilst the next will say it hasn’t started yet.
- personally I think it’s got more to do with what the does in the area are doing than anything but anyway.

What does intrigue me more though is the folk that say take buck X after the rut. Only for every buck to completely vanish once the rut is finished.

 

[willie_gunn]

I enjoy reading these posts because there’s so many variables with everyone’s experiences. Red / Sika / fallow, the rut is fairly obvious. With roe, you’ll get the first whispers of folk seeing rut like behaviour in June, all the way through to false rut in September. Some folk will say it’s been and gone by early August whilst the next will say it hasn’t started yet.
- personally I think it’s got more to do with what the does in the area are doing than anything but anyway.

What does intrigue me more though is the folk that say take buck X after the rut. Only for every buck to completely vanish once the rut is finished.

That, and how we talk about leaving a good buck to breed in the rut, when in reality the females migrate between buck territories and can mate multiple times!

 

[wildfowler.250]

That, and how we talk about leaving a good buck to breed in the rut, when in reality the females migrate between buck territories and can mate multiple times!

True! I think leaving leaving the bucks to get to a decent age is half the battle,(plus food availability and weather). Selective culling won’t do any harm but I don’t think it’s key

 

[Jamie956]

Cheers folks

I was late to bed and couldn't sleep ha

I've had a buttolo a while but have just bought a cherrywood aswell for this rut but il take the advice on board thank you

Yeah I've read things on here about management and being selective, which I like the idea of, then I've also seen people saying shoot them when you see them. It's good to see different ideas and reasons

Cheers

 

[David Barker]

During rutting time i go out just before first light get an eye on a doe or maybe two. A buck will join them. I retire after a few hours get some food in me and go back out mid afternoon. Again get your eye on a does and sure as dam she will have a buck with her somewhere very close.

 

[Jamie956]

I'm planning on having a look out this next weekend coming and see if they've started round me, I've never experienced much action yet in the rut apart from the odd bark here and there, do they tend to rut more out in the open or in the cover of woodland?
I might also get another call but I'm not sure what to add to a buttolo and cherrywood to mix it up a bit?
Cheers

 

[Shootgun]

I'm planning on having a look out this next weekend coming and see if they've started round me, I've never experienced much action yet in the rut apart from the odd bark here and there, do they tend to rut more out in the open or in the cover of woodland?
I might also get another call but I'm not sure what to add to a buttolo and cherrywood to mix it up a bit?
Cheers

Bear in mind, is much easier to call the bucks into the woodland from open terrain, than the other way around.

 

[bullet chucker]

This season from winters end I have only seen one Buck, several Does, more Muntys than ever before. Could be a new' stalker has hammered them, I shall have to wait and see.

BC

 

[Jamie956]

Bear in mind, is much easier to call the bucks into the woodland from open terrain, than the other way around.

Well i ain't gonna lie, I didn't know that, and thinking about it I think I've probably always tried getting tucked in somewhere and calling from outside the cover never called from in cover

 

[sikamalc]

In my opinion, much depends on the weather and terrain.

Down south the rut is generally around late July into early August. If its been terribly hot, as we have had of late, a lot of the rutting appears to be at night, and very early morning. When its much cooler. I have noticed over the years that such weather makes the bucks lie up more, and then start to move once the temperature has dropped, so not moving until very late evening.
Middle of the day has been not that great. But if the weather is over cast and cooler with a possible thunder storm, they seem to move more in the middle of the day. Also once the harvest is off they are easier to see, and calling them in makes it slightly more easier, as you can see better, with out standing crops.

Every year is different. Some years the bucks will come to a call like a rocket, other times not so much.

 

[anguscrombie]

Best results i had when calling, between mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

Though the middle of the day?

 

[anguscrombie]

DuringView attachment 428412 rutting time i go out just before first light get an eye on a doe or maybe two. A buck will join them. I retire after a few hours get some food in me and go back out mid afternoon. Again get your eye on a does and sure as dam she will have a buck with her somewhere very close.

Sounds like good advise.

 

[wildfowler.250]

Do folk find the rain puts them off at all or if they’re rutting anyway, doesn’t make much odds?


I saw my friend call one by blind luck *once* in a torrent of rain. He was still a novice at the time and by the time the sticks were sorted, it was off but I still couldn’t believe it crossed a whole field in what was essentially a monsoon