Judge your breeding by when the horns start to drop, no hot does means hormone levels change and some start to cast. A whitetail buck will try to breed year round to a receptive doe, he doesn't have to have antlers to do it but the change will signal new antler growth and other changes as well. You will notice good bucks that are not declining will have more of a bony mass at the base to make way for larger horns, they will look like ball on a hip joint when they're near the top for size. Take notice for when the first fawns appear on your land and count back 220 some odd days to schedule your rut hunt. Take advantage of whatever weapon is pertinent for the season to score. Do not always go by established periods that are based on current seasons with a rut determination made from numbers checked in by telephone which can be misleading. I believe some forecasts are made using this method which is the easiest/ best tool that is available to our biologist use for management and the numbers occur by hunter density/ days in field and they do a pretty good job but don't beat all. This is based solely on 35 years experience and raiding DB-D's elaborate notebooks to make a hypothesis. See ESM proposed new deer regs and the subsequent rant that corresponds with it for more thought provocation. You can also bow shoot a doe on the last day and use what you find inside the to aid the study process. Remember to account for weather and geography interference from others during the note/map making process.
