How to Hunt Bucks After the Rut

Once the rut is done, how do you go about hunting those elusive mature bucks? This topic interests many hunters who didn’t connect with a nice buck — like myself this year.

Jeff Sturgis talks about this in a video he just published yesterday.

His first tip? Hunt evening food sources in the post-rut, especially if you can find a group of does feeding there. And once the rut truly winds down, deer are all about food. So find out where they are eating and stake it out.

Also, make sure you’re in the woods 28 days after the peak of the rut so you can catch the secondary rut, when unbred does and larger doe fawns will come into estrus, driving bucks crazy and getting them out & about once more.

In his words, “Don’t panic, There are still some incredible opportunities in the whitetail woods.”

Happy hunting!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.