Since 2011, hunters have run over a million Deer Feeding Chart searches by Zip Code. We grouped every search by county and totaled the year-to-year hits for each week. The weeks that get the most searches usually track the rut, which is exactly when you want to be in the woods.
The science backs this up. The QDMA study No Link Between Moon Phase and Rut Peak found the rut is driven by photoperiod, the length of daylight, not the "Rutting Moon." Daylight doesn't shift from year to year, so the timing stays predictable: breeding peaked in the same 7-day window every year, and the same 4-day window in eight of the nine years studied. Happy hunting!
Enter your Zip Code below to see the Peak Rut Dates for your location.