Hunting moon phase calendar

For whitetail deer hunters, few things are more important than the rut. That's when whitetail bucks become risk-takers. They throw caution to the wind that normally protects them in order to perpetuate their species. Delirium reigns in the deer woods for the sake of the future of the species, and hunters seek to take advantage of it. Many hunters have undertaken to predict the timing of the rut, but the rut remained a mystery until whitetail photographer and behaviorist Charles J.

Alsheimer and Vermont wildlife biologist Wayne Laroche compiled a mountain of data and related it not just to the lunar calendar, but also to the earth's annual excursion around the sun. The result? They were able to isolate some regularities that nail down the timing of the whitetail rut.

Deer moon phase calendar

However, not everyone agrees, and one reason for disagreement is that people oversimplify the research. Make no mistake. Alsheimer and Laroche didn't arrive at their conclusions with the simplicity their critics bring to the issue. Photo caption: The above photo shows a buck and a doe at the lockdown phase of the rut. Charles Alsheimer photo.

Steve Sorensen. For deer, it means life at its frenzied fullest. We think of the rut as a brief period when bucks become careless in frantic hope of intimacy with does. For a brief time, breeding is more important than dying.