Looks like the whitetail rut has peaked across much of the northern portion of Texas but the breeding season is just getting underway down in the South Texas brush country. I spent the weekend hunting with my friends Jeff and Demi Rice at their Buck and Bass Ranch in north east Texas and although the ranch is teeming with deer and hogs, hunting was slow. The peak of the whitetail rut has passed and bucks simply were not chasing does like they were the past couple weeks. The oaks were loaded with acorns this year and deer and hogs simply didn’t have a reason to be on the move. I’m sure they simply walked a few yards from their bedding areas to the nearest oak tree and ate their fill of freshly fallen acorns.
After an afternoon sit on stands without seeing a single deer or hog, Jeff and I decided to do a spot and stalk hunt the next morning. When game simply is not moving, slowly slipping through the woods can be productive. We slowly still hunted through the ranch, heading from feeder to feeder but all we saw were squirrels, lots of squirrels! Squirrels breed twice each year and during their ‘rut’ they are up and moving, just like whitetail deer. As we slipped through the woods, we encountered male (boar) squirrels chasing female (sow) squirrels all over the woods. We were definitely hunting during the peak of the squirrel breeding season and, just like deer, the squirrels had abandoned their usual caution during the rut and, caught up in their courting ritual, allowed us to walk within a few yards on several occasions.
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