Hello August! We hope you've all been having some fun with your calls...
After observing three weeks of rutting activity, we have to say it’s been a bit hit or miss for us. We first tried calling on the 15th of July, having seen bucks close to does the previous week. To our surprise, we immediately called in two mature bucks and even witnessed a buck chasing a doe—an unusually early sighting in my experience!
The following week, the deer were quick to respond to the call, but by the end of July, it became increasingly difficult. Any bucks that did respond had to be coaxed out, like trying to pull a stubborn thorn.
Interestingly, this year I’ve had more Muntjac respond to calls meant for Roebucks than ever before, which I believe has affected our overall success.
In the past few days, no Roebucks have responded to our calls—not even the curious yearlings, as they have in previous ruts. Hopefully, they’re just taking a mid-rut break, and we’ll see better results next week!
As we've mentioned before, the rut and calling are unpredictable. It can be great fun at times, but also very frustrating!
Despite the challenges, we’ve managed to take some lovely bucks over the past few weeks, both for ourselves, friends, and clients.
Here are a few Rut observations we've made:
We’ve seen the most rutting activity in the cooler woodland areas, though in previous years, our best success was out in the fields.
Morning calls were more successful than those in the afternoon or early evening.
Most of the Roe does we’ve encountered have had single fawns, suggesting that the wet spring and early summer may have impacted fawn mortality.
We've seen a lot of Roe moving mid-afternoon, between 2-4pm.
The buttalo call is always a favourite, but the star of the show for us this Roe Rut (when we have actually managed to call in bucks) has been the raspy tones of the Lockschmiede Rehblatter call.
Want more Roe Rut calling tips? We answer your questions in the video below, giving you a practical guide to calling in the Rut and looking at our favourite calls.
What's New:
Fancy having Roe deer running past you at 2 metres? Well, that's exactly what we experienced in our latest Roe Rut film - shot and filmed from last week's adrenaline-filled outings.
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