Where and How to Hunt the Deep South Deer Rut

If you live anywhere in a 1,000-mile swath of the South below the 37th parallel, buckle up and get ready. Bucks are starting to push the does, and, on and off for the next couple of months, the rut will be on. It’s time to get in a southern deer stand and have some fun.

If you hunt in one of these areas of the Deep South, buckle up, the rut is about to kick into high gear. Image by Realtree Media.

DIXIE RUT DATES

Three Deep South states offer great rut hunting opportunities now and into early 2025. They include:

Mississippi

Historical rut data compiled by state biologists shows that peak breeding begins around December 6 and runs through December 13 in the northwestern counties. As you move south across the state, the rut occurs progressively later in mid-December and into January. In the extreme southeastern counties, bucks push and chase does well into January, with breeding peaking from roughly January 24 through February 6.

Rut dates vary widely across the state of Mississippi. Graphic by Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks

Louisiana

Biologists from the Bayou State say that deer breed from September to February, depending on region, habitat and herd parameters. In the easternmost counties from the top of the state down through counties in the extreme southeast, peak rutting occurs from Christmas through January 26.

Average rut dates across Louisiana. Graphic by Louisianasportsman.com

Alabama

Across most of the state, peak breeding ranges from Christmas into the first week of February. In the northern half of Alabama, bucks chase does from Christmas until mid-January, while deer in the southern counties breed from mid-January into the first week of February.

Average peak rut runs from December in the northern part of Alabama all the way into February for southern counties. Graphic by OutdoorAlabama.com

SOUTHERN RUT EXPECTATIONS

While states farther north have a loosely defined rutting period of two to three weeks in November, it’s an extended or “trickle” rut in these Deep South states. Wherever you hunt from early December through January, you’re apt to experience spotty periods of bucks pushing and chasing does for 4 to 6 weeks, but with many slow days and weeks in between.

Instead of a compact flurry of activity over a week or two, the Deep South rut tends to trickle from late November through January. Image by Realtree Media

Why is that? The drawn-out rut can be due to the age structure of the deer herd in a certain region or county, or an unbalanced buck-to-doe ratio on a public area, or humid 80-degree weather, or heavy hunting pressure. Combined, many factors make deer movement and rutting activity highly unpredictable from week to week and month to month in the Deep South.

4 GREAT SOUTHERN RUT STANDS

There is no shortage of cutovers down here, and they are great spots to kill a rutting buck, especially in the morning. I like to hunt a regenerating clear-cut that’s 3 to 5 years old and tangled with brush, briars, and brambles that are head high to a buck.

If you’re bowhunting, hang a treestand on an edge and near a well-used deer trail. With a rifle, I often just sit atop a pile of logs pushed together by a bulldozer where I can cover 200 yards or so. A buck is liable to chase a doe across a cut anytime of morning because he feels safe and hidden in the cover. If you spot a doe bedded or walking in the cut, glass closely around and behind her for a drooling buck that’s waiting not so patiently for the chance to breed her.

Bowhunters in the south should target well worn deer trails on the edges of cutovers and overgrown fields. Image by Bill Konway

Another fine and similar spot to set up is an overgrown weed field. Having been hassled by bucks for days and weeks, does sneak out into a broomsedge-and-weed field where the randy boys cannot so easily chase them around. Also, a mature buck knows when a doe is on the verge of standing for him. He’ll herd her out into cover, pin her down, and stand guard for 36 hours or so, until he finally gets his way.

With that in mind, set a stand to overlook a weedy habitat where you can glass 100 yards or farther into the brush for a breeding pair or a loner buck prowling for a doe. To set up a 40-yard bow shot, hang a stand or set a blind to watch a deer trail that comes out of the woods and into the weeds, or along a fence line, or through a gap gate or similar funnel. If you see sustained deer activity 100-200 yards out in the high grass and weeds, don’t be shy to move in on the action, especially if you’re carrying a rifle or muzzleloader.

Any long, linear funnel (like a strip of timber between two weed fields or logging cuts, or a long, brushy creek bottom) that connects two or more covers where groups of does bed is a hotspot in the rut. Research of GPS-collared southern deer shows that throughout the up-and-down rutting period, bucks make long and winding excursions to maximize their chances of contacting hot does. Set up in and along a funnel in hopes of intercepting a big deer.

With a rifle, look for a narrow strip of open ground between two blocks of woods or cutovers, and set a ground blind to cover it. When crossing open ground to check for does, bucks will run to that choke point and then cross between the timbers or thickets, thereby minimizing their exposure in the open. Stay sharp and be ready for a quick shot; rutting bucks almost always trot from point A to B when crossing an opening.

Don’t Miss: HAVE YOUR BEST RUT WEEK EVER

3 HOT TACTICS FOR SOUTHERN RUT HUNTING

One day last December in northwest Mississippi, in a platform stand set hard against the Mississippi River, I spotted an old 9-pointer crossing a levee road about 400 yards out. I raised my grunt call and cut loose a barrage of long, loud, gurgling tending grunts. The buck threw up his head, turned and began marching in a stiff-legged gait my way. At 120 yards, he stopped quartering on, and I put a 150-grain bullet into his brisket.

When you see a mature buck cruising out of bow or rifle range, you have nothing to lose and perhaps much to gain by throwing out some tending grunts. These loud, guttural calls are most commonly made when a dominant buck is tending a doe in heat, but bucks will also utter them while prowling alone in search of an estrus doe. In the rut, don’t be shy. Grunt loud and long enough for a buck to hear you; I really had to bear down on the call to catch that old Mississippi swamp buck’s attention at 400 yards away. And doe bleats can work great on southern bucks. Try mixing some bleats on a can call with aggressive grunts.

Watch for mature bucks cruising and hit them with loud tending grunts to draw them in. Image by Tim Reichner

One morning a few years ago in south Louisiana, I staked a full-size doe decoy 60 yards from my box blind on the edge of a green field. I generally don’t like to hunt fields or plots in the morning, but camera surveillance showed several nice bucks working the area. I reluctantly climbed into the stand, hoping the decoy might help.

An hour after sunrise, a thick-bodied 10-pointer stepped out of the timber, spotted my fake and began sidling toward it, hackles raised and head laid sideways. I let him come to within 80 yards, and the shot was easy. Try a decoy when you hunt a food plot, cut bean field or other open area anytime in the rut. If a wild-eyed buck comes to it one day, it will make your season.

Chuck Sykes, Alabama’s Director of Wildlife and Fisheries, is not only a conservation professional but a hardcore hunter like us, and he offers some of the best advice you’ll get. “In January or even early February, I’m going to be in a stand close to where I know a group of does bed,” he says. “If a mature buck decides to get up and move in daylight one day, chances are it’s going to be tight to a doe bedding area. That’s where you need to be.”

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A TEXAS BONUS

If I’m not hunting in December or January in one of the “Big Three” Deep South states, you’ll find me over in Texas. Of the 10 ecological areas in this huge state, two sections offer excellent winter rut hunting.

In the Trans-Pecos, the westernmost range of the whitetail in Texas, a three-year scientific study found peak breeding to be around December 8, with conception dates for does occurring as late as January 4. Down in the South Texas Plains, the vaunted brush country that extends to the border with Mexico, the study showed that peak breeding was around December 16 in eastern counties, while in the western region the peak was December 24.

Depending on the zone, the Texas rut can peak from early December through early January. Image by Dennis W Donohue

I have hunted dozens of times in Texas over the years, and whether I’m on a ranch in the Trans-Pecos near Del Rio or down in the brush country 10 miles from the border, the strategy is the same. Set up in a box blind on the ground, or in a 10-foot tower stand, and watch for deer coming to corn feeders down sendero roads or through openings in the brush.

Say you’re hunting a 4,000-acre ranch, where there will be 20 or more feeders and stands scattered strategically across the property. I have learned over the years to find one or two blinds I like, and where I know one or more shooters have been spotted, and hang out there for several days or even all week. Rutting Texas bucks have one thing in common: They cruise for miles through the brush each morning and afternoon, checking two, three or more feeder locations for does on each excursion. It might take your target buck two or three days to show back up at the spot you’re hunting. Rather than jumping around from stand to stand each day, I’ve had better luck staying put and being patient.

I rarely hunt Texas in January without taking a morning or two or three to get out of the stand and go walking and rattling in the brush. Banging a set of antlers to simulate two bucks fighting over a doe is a Texas tradition. When it works and a buck comes running or sneaking into your setup, it is the highlight of your season.

The step is to set up on a low rise, knoll, or any slight vantage that overlooks a semi-open dry wash or low-grass plain. You need to rattle near brush, but you need good visibility into the cover here and there to spot a buck that responds.

Cool mornings with cloud cover and little or wind are perfect. A grizzled old Texas guide told me one time, “If your hands and arms aren’t tired and shaking after you rattle, you didn’t do it hard enough.” He was right. I’ve found that loud, aggressive rattling during a peak rut window is much more effective than light sparring. Bang and twist the horns for one or two minutes, lay them down, stay still, and scan the cover. A good buck might come flying in, or you might glimpse of him sneaking in toward the downwind side of your set. Either way, calm your nerves, shoot straight and end your rut hunt with a bang.