A Guide's Guide to the Rut

11/12/24 • 48 min

All bowhunters get excited for the whitetail rut, but sometimes Mother Nature can throw you curveballs with warm weather and other challenges. Jake Shaffer, owner of Branded Outdoors guide service in Maryland, shares his top rut-hunting tips for mid-November, including how to adapt to hot weather, tactics he’s learned from hunting the flatlands of the Eastern Shore and what to do when the deer seem to disappear.

Previous Episode

Expect the Unexpected with Mature Bucks

Would you pay $180 to shoot a 170? Well, that's essentially what Nebraska bowhunter Zeke Pipher recently did, tagging a 174 7/8-inch monster on a 25-acre conservation property where he made a $180 donation for hunting rights. This week, as the rut heats up, sit back and listen to Pipher's amazing story about why you should always expect the unexpected when hunting mature whitetail bucks.

Next Episode

Proven Tactics for Pressured Bucks

Like most bowhunters, Michigan's Jim Bouchard knows the challenge of hunting highly pressured whitetails. He owns no hunting ground, has no food plots and competes with many other hunters on every property he hunts. Yet, in spite of the challenges, Bouchard is highly successful and filled both his 2024 buck tags in October. Bouchard details his proven, out-of-the-box tactics for locating and hunting mature bucks that have become masters of survival.