Southwest Rut Report, Week 6: Big Weather Brings in the Rut.

A massive storm smashed a large portion of the Southwest last week. Many of the major interstates and highways were closed in New Mexico and Colorado, making travel impossible. I spoke with multiple outfitters that had hunters and guides alike stranded hours from where they were scheduled to be the day before season. An absolute mess for many but the silver lining is that the rut came into full force and the hunting got really good.

The mountain regions of the Southwest are in prime time right now. Does are stacked and bucks are traveling from herd to herd looking for the does in estrus. Lots of big mature bucks got killed on opening day of Colorado’s 3rd season. I expected this as I had noticed an influx of mature bucks traveling the week before. I suspect more big bucks will continue to hit the dirt in the mountain states over the next few weeks as the prime of the rut is just getting going.

A good portion of Colorado, Utah and Nevada are seeing this type of rut activity. There is no real dividing line, but the interstates actually work pretty well. North of I-70 has been in rut for two weeks. South of I-70 and north of I-40 is just getting going and will continue towards the end of November. South of I-40 tends to run later in November and into December. South of I-10 generally doesn’t have any activity until mid-December or even later. If you are in the mountain regions right now, the best tactic is to locate does and keep checking them until a big buck is with them. Further south, travel corridors are hot right now.

Don’t Miss: Have Your Best Rut Week Ever

Texas is on my mind. I am likely going to be there in the very near future which has me very excited. Due to my heavy guiding schedule, I have never been able to hunt my lease in November. Normally I have to wait until December or even January. With this in mind, I was visiting with Blake Barnett from Trailing the Hunters Moon TV as he is going to be hunting near Dublin soon, which isn’t too far from my lease. He said it sounds like the rut is picking up there with lots of scrapes and rubs and a good amount of cruising.

It looks like I might hit it just right to do some rattling. Blake lives near San Antonio and travels across Texas (and the world) hunting. He is always a good resource for finding the pulse of all things Texas. Blake explained that the last cold front that blew through, the same storm that pounded Colorado and New Mexico, brought very heavy rain to many areas in Texas. In the panhandle near Childress, the deer are heavily in pre-rut with lots of fresh scrapes and lots of bucks cruising. The lower Hill Country is still in full rut. The Edwards plateau and southwest Texas are just getting going. The activity should really pick up in the next week or two. We are still a few weeks and, in some cases, more than a month away from the rut in the far south areas of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.

We are in the heart of it now. The best days are right now for some. The southwest is very diverse in terrain as well as latitude so we are fortunate that as one rut starts to wind down, another will kick off.