Important Mountain Whitetail Rut Hunting Tips to Remember

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Timing is Everything

Planning your hunts should always be coordinated around two key events, the rut and the moon phase. The rut is an obvious event that every hunter keeps in consideration for hunting any ungulate in North America, but it’s not across the board a one-size-fits-all solution. Peak rut dates vary across the country with whitetails in the northern Rockies typically rutting in late November and tailing into December. Hunting these later seasons can be brutally cold and oftentimes snow packed, testing a hunter’s fortitude and perseverance.

The key to a successful rut hunt for mountain whitetail is the moon phase, as this drives when the deer will be on their feet, offering hunters key times to be in the field. Utilizing a moon calendar to plan when the deer will most likely be up and active seems to be a mythical event as we have always been told the best times are at first light and last light. I believed this until I started using a lunar calendar and started killing mature bucks in the middle of the day during times I would normally be napping and not glassing.

Right Place Right Time

Location, location, location: This doesn’t just apply to real estate and business planning. You have to hunt where the deer are going to be moving. While preseason scouting can help, many of these mountain deer are up and traveling in search of does and do not spend a lot of time in one area. My hunting partner and I have run trail cameras in the same roadbed off of a spring that has a ton of deer traffic. He has had numerous big bucks on that camera that neither of us have ever seen during hunting season nor found their sheds. It shows these bucks move a lot, primarily at night, and can be difficult to keep tabs on. If you see a big buck and are unable to capitalize, the odds of seeing him again are slim to none. Of the many mature bucks we have taken over the years, none of them had been seen before they presented us an opportunity.

The two biggest factors I look for when deciding on hunting an area are cover and winter feed. Whitetail deer, specifically mature bucks, like heavy cover and they seldom will be found in wide-open areas during hunting season. Thick creek bottoms and dark timber patches, offering ideal bedding areas to avoid both hunters and wolves, is the quintessential habitat to locate bucks. Even a small creek drainage halfway up the side of a south-facing slope with alder patches will hold a mature buck’s attention if there are does in the area. Oftentimes a logged area with a definitive dark timber edge can also be an excellent area to locate a mature buck. This creates open, glassable country that I can keep tabs on feeding does while waiting for a buck to show himself, as they commonly cruise just inside the timber edges until they cross the scent of a hot doe.

What’s on the Menu

When hunting late in the season, the diet of most deer transitions with the changing of the seasons. Basically, as the green stuff dies off, their bodies switch to digesting a more wood-like diet. The tender shoots of softwood plants such as willow, alder, mountain maple, serviceberry and snowberry, as well as many different types of shrubs and mosses, become fan favorites of the whitetail deer. One of their favorites, rightfully dubbed “Old Man’s Beard”, is a gray colored moss that grows in coniferous trees (like spruce and lodgepole pines) but can be difficult for deer to get to. When the snow gets deep enough, I have watched whitetails stand up on their hind legs to reach the moss hanging from the limbs near the trunk of a tree.

Timber logging in the Northwest is a common sight and, when done properly, can help deer habitat and provide food. Particularly after an area has been logged, the slash piles left behind can be gold mines for these deer as the fallen branches are often covered in moss delicacies. The majority of the land in Idaho and Montana is a mix of national forest and privately owned timber company land. This makes locating slash piles from timber-thinning projects fairly easy as both land types get thinned out during the fall every year with the burn piles being burned off in winter when wildfire risk is low. Locating the deer’s winter staging area and the right type of winter browse will dramatically increase your odds of success in tracking down a mature buck.

Patience Must be a Virtue

The old saying “good things come to those who wait” was written specifically for hunting mountain whitetails. This is a game of patience and requires a hunter to sit and glass timber, often from dawn till dusk, despite below freezing temperatures and snow squalls. When it’s cold and most hunters are driving roads or back at camp warming up, you must stick it out and keep after it. All too often the mature buck you’re looking to tag will make one mistake if you’re lucky, and you have to be looking to catch it. This is where a great hunting partner is key. Having a buddy that can help keep you motivated and share tasks such as boiling water for coffee, building a small fire and covering double the country with another set of eyes, is paramount as these deer ghost in and out of the timber and offer just pieces of them if you’re looking in the right place. While this is not a hunt for the faint of heart and fair-weather hunter, finding a dedicated hunting partner can be equally as tough.

Tools of The Trade

Staying out all day requires more gear than a standard walk-through-the-woods day hunt. Layering clothes and having suitable waterproof outerwear is mandatory as you’re often spending hours sitting, kneeling and standing, glassing from various positions and trying to stay warm. The wet ground can soak through the best technical apparel making it null and void in the warmth category. Stone Glacier M7 pants have been my go-to clothing line for this style of hunt. The fleece lining and waterproof shell makes for a warm and dry day. When it gets super cold, Stone Glacier’s Grumman Down pants are great to slide over the M7 pants to add an extra layer of warmth when I am standing to glass. These pants pack into a small stuff sack and take very little room when stowed in your pack.

A quality glassing setup, including a tripod and 12-15X binoculars, make it much easier to glass deep into the timber and pick apart the “deer-like” objects. They also give you enough power to watch the distance openings and ridges where a buck may cross over chasing a doe into the next timber patch. The new Swarovski NL Pure 14x52s would be perfect for this style of hunt and will be in my setup this fall. Utilizing a tripod helps keep the optics steady for the best glassing experience and also keeps you glassing when your hands are warm in your coat pockets. Ensure your tripod is capable of use while standing with your optics fixed atop, as standing to glass helps keep the blood flowing.

Having a stove that can boil water quickly for tea and coffee is, in my opinion, also mandatory for long stands while glassing. Eating cold food is for the birds; heating up dehydrated meals keeps you fueled and lifts spirits when it’s below freezing, ultimately keeping you on the mountain longer. On a recent hunt in Alaska, my guide referred to this as “tea time.” After starting to lose focus after a couple hours of glassing, tea time perked us up.

Carrying a butt pad or folding foam sleep pad is another great way to stay warm as the extra layer between your feet or backside helps reduce heat loss when the ground is frozen and covered in snow. Phoenix Shooting Bags makes their Glassing Seat that is lightweight and packs great on the bottom of your pack. The last couple seasons I started carrying a Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol Sleeping pad that folds up and can be lashed to the bottom of the pack and offers more room to lay down and stretch out my back after hours of glassing. This keeps me in the game much longer and focused on the task at hand.

For my rifle, I have settled on 7mm or larger cartridges as these mature mountain bucks are large bodied and can soak up a solid hit only to run and hide in a thicket. These mountain ranges are covered with wolves and grizzlies; I am not willing to waste all my energy into finding the king of the mountain only to lose him to a grizzly in a thicket due to the bullet not anchoring the buck. The 7 PRC has proven to be an excellent cartridge for longer shots and anchoring these tough deer where they stand. The tried and true .300 Win. Mag., paired with a 180-gr. Nosler Accubond, is also a tough combination to beat and has proven itself on several occasions. Quality rifle optics with excellent light transmission are a must as these hunts often take place on dark, cloud covered days where light is hard to find in the shortened daylight hours. Swarovski’s Z8i 2-16 with the Ballistic Flex Turret has been my go-to optic, allowing for rapid range and dial shooting when a big buck finally appears in the opening that is barely a deer wide.

Final Thoughts

If you’re in the market for a challenging mountain hunt that will give you a unique story in comparison to most whitetail hunts, look no further than the pursuit of whitetail deer deep in the rugged Rockies. These bucks make you work for them and will definitely dish out a large slice of humble pie for those not willing to go the extra mile. With most areas having a steady population of whitetail, getting out to experience a late-season hunt is easily achieved without burning bonus points or waiting years to draw a choice tag.

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