Are you having trouble locating mature bucks? Me too. It’s lockdown time. What, you haven’t heard about the lockdown period of the whitetail rut? It’s the time of November when the majority of does come into heat in the majority of the whitetail nation.

Does all cycle at the same time to increase the survivability of the fawns they birth in the spring. It’s basically an overload for the predators. If they dump an entire crop of fawns on the landscape at once, the predators can’t get them all before the fawns gain strength for their own evasive measures.

This isn’t good for you and I though during mid-November. When a doe comes into estrus she slips away with a buck to a hidey hole away from the majority of other deer to avoid pestering. Bucks stick to a hot doe, and the duo usually lays lows until the breeding is complete. That’s the lockdown, and it can cause some slow days during the peak of the rut.

Here’s my advice for hunting the whitetail rut during the lockdown period:

- Continue to hunt all day. When a buck finishes breeding a doe, he’s immediately back on the hunt 24/7. Bucks that don’t have a hot doe are also still on the hunt for love.

- Look in out-of-the-way hideouts. Open fields, abandoned farms and even fencelines can all provide cover for an eHarmony.com relationship. 

- Be aggressive. When you do find a breeding pair, don’t be afraid to sneak up for a shot. They are definitely preoccupied.

It’s lockdown time, but not time to throw in the towel.