Where do StagSense's rut dates come from?

Updated October 10, 2026

Every location starts from a latitude-based rut estimate. Wherever a state wildlife agency or published deer research gives us real rut timing, StagSense uses that instead, and names the source in the app. Today that covers 40 states: county or sub-county dates in 13, part of the state in 7, and a statewide date in 20.

County or sub-county dates (13 states)

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas. In Texas, 220 of 254 counties have their own dates; the rest of Texas uses the latitude estimate.

Dates for part of the state (7 states)

Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin. The rest of each state uses the latitude estimate.

One statewide date (20 states)

Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia.

Where the data comes from

Sources are state wildlife agencies and published deer research: fetal-aging studies, breeding surveys, and deer-vehicle collision records. In Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina, rut areas follow the agency's own map rather than county lines, and StagSense matches them by ZIP code.

Why the detail matters

Indiana shows why the detail matters. Indiana DNR's "Average Annual Peak Deer Rut" data resolves all 92 counties into 17 zones, so Ohio County in the southeast and Pike County in the southwest, only about half a degree of latitude apart, show peak rut dates a full month apart (October 21 and November 20). A latitude-only model would give both the same date.

What you see in the app

In the app, the rut phase card names the source your date came from and links to the document behind it. Where the source is deer-vehicle collision records, as in Indiana, the date marks peak deer movement rather than a direct measure of conception.

StagSense breaks the rut into seven phases (Pre-Rut, Scraping, Seeking, Chasing, Peak Rut, Post Rut, and Secondary Rut) customized to your location with day-level precision, and the phase feeds every score. See how StagSense scores a day.