Southeastern Rut Report, Season Recap: Deep South Gearing Up for Peak Rut

Even though the rut hasn’t fully taken off in areas of the Deep South such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, it’s time to recap the season for the region as a whole, as another year of the Realtree Rut Report has come to an end.

Much of the Southeast got off to a rough start with unseasonably warm weather and drought conditions that lingered for weeks. Deer movement remained mostly nocturnal as hunters complained about not being able to plant their food plots because of the hot and dry conditions.

During the last week of September, Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding to much of the Southeast, especially in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, causing destruction across portions of the state. The flooding and damage from both hurricanes lead to hunting closures in some areas due to impassable roads, fallen trees, and disrupted deer habitats, making it unsafe for hunters to access their usual hunting grounds.

Those who were able to hunt had to seek out deer in the hardwoods as they fed on the vast abundance of acorns that were blown to the ground during the storms. Even areas of the Southeast that weren’t directly impacted by the storm, such as Kentucky, experienced a bumper acorn crop that kept the deer in the woods and out of the food plots until late in the season.

Don’t Miss: The Best Post-Rut Stands

Rut activity began really kicking off around the first or second week of November in areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Arkansas, even though rainy weather in some regions disrupted hunts. The unseasonably warm weather continued until temps began dropping across the region during the last week of November, finally putting deer on the move during daylight hours. Rifle season hit full swing for many states just as the temps dropped and reports came in of many big bucks on the ground.

By the first week of December, peak rut was winding down for much of the region, with deep southern states, such as Alabama and Mississippi barely getting started. In fact, several hunters in those two states claimed to see little to no rutting activity at all at that point.

Mid December has brought with it a mix of pre-rut and post-rut activity, depending on what state you’re hunting in. Peak breeding action is happening now in Mississippi’s northern section, and will occur progressively later as you move south across the state. Alabama is just starting to see a bit of action, but peak rut for most of the state won’t likely hit until After Christmas, with breeding occurring through February. The rut won’t begin in the southern part of the state until mid-January. Louisiana is a hodge-podge of rutting activity, from little action to full rut, depending on where you hunt in the state.

Although the Rut Report is over, there’s plenty of good late-season hunting opportunities available across the Southeast, with the peak of the rut just around the corner for a couple of the Deep South states. If you haven’t tagged that big one yet, you’ve still got time. Get out there and make the most of the remainder of the season.