Early season hunting is an effective way to pattern mature bucks before the disruptive behavior of the rut begins.

“I guess I'd say if you're if you haven't tried early season before, give it a shot because this is the first time I did it and you can really have a chance to pattern a big buck before they start going crazy with the rut.”

Hunting whitetail during the early season provides a higher probability of encountering a mature buck on public land than hunting during the peak of the rut.

“So, um even though it's way more challenging and difficult to hunt early season, um my like percentage chance of getting on a big mature buck on public land is way higher um during that time.”

The rut in Kansas appears to be running approximately seven to nine days behind the typical schedule.

“I truly feel like we're probably seven to nine days behind a typical rut schedule.”

The timing of the rut is determined by biology and is consistent year to year, meaning environmental factors like the moon or temperature do not change breeding dates.

“any theory that tries to tell you that breeding dates will change, you know, from year to year, uh is not backed up by science.”