The whitetail rut lockdown phase is very real and it requires a different set of hunting strategies than the pre, peak and post rut phases. By switching gears to bedding areas and remote food sources for just a few days, you can not only learn to survive the lockdown phase, but to hunt it with a level of predictable success.
In order to hunt the rut lockdown phase, you have to learn why it is so real and predictable in the first place. There are two factors at work, when it comes to understanding and timing the annual lockdown:
1. The rut takes place at the same time every year
The Annual Rut Timing is not a moving object based on the moon, weather or if your grandpa sees his shadow on the bow opener. The annual rut takes place at the exact same time every single season in your neck of the woods, and only when you fully understand this fact can you unleash your true potential as a hunter. At the same time, that makes the annual rut lockdown a highly predictable phenomenon that you can count on at just about the exact same time in your exact location, to the day, every single season.
2. Almost always, there are more does than bucks
What is buck to doe ratio in your area? Well, in the case of the rut lockdown phase, it doesn’t matter. Whether you think the ratio is 2 does for every buck, 3 or even 4 does for every buck let’s face it, unless you plan to hunt the rut in a fenced in heavily controlled perserve that probably none of us have a desire to practice (including me!), then there are more does than bucks. So what do you get when you combine an annual rut timing that takes place at the same time every season with a large % of does entering into estrus at the same time, in a herd where does significantly outnumber bucks? You are delivered a rut lockdown phase where every buck who comes to the female dominated party, gets to dance. And when I say dance I mean, well…you know what I mean!
