Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the heck out of this fall's hunting seasons across the planet. I think it is going to be a good Rut this year.

The full moon is tomorrow night. I know there are those who stick with the November 10-24th rule for peak rut and that always seems to be a good rule of thumb, however, I've noticed that RIGHT NOW is the time to sit all day.

I've been getting my annual influx of landowner reports about seeing "BIG" deer moving between 1130am and 2pm, then some spotted at 330 and 4pm.

I just hung up the phone with one of the landowners and while we were talking, she was telling me that she was watching 2 Big antlered deer walk across her back property (10:08a.m.). And this same lady said that yesterday she watched a small buck breed a doe in the same area. So, "tis the season" and time to sit all day!

I let 3 walk this morning, and what an excellent morning, 19 degrees, 3mph breeze. I called the 3 bucks in with my grunt tube but none were anything I wanted. The 8 pt would go roughly 130s and just wouldn't leave. Good problem to have.

But I needed to be at work by 9am.

Good luck rut hunting!

Doc:

I'll have to agree with you. While spotting last night, I saw a very nice,old, heavy 10 pt. mount a doe three times in the course of about 5 minutes. They were in a clover field about 80 yards from us. They were the only 2 deer in the field. They did not pay much attention to us at all. He was about 16-18 inches wide with G2's about 9 inches long and G3's about 7 inches long - a definate shooter for me.

Unfortunately, they were on property that I do not have access to. I can bet that buck will stay in that area with the doe until she goes out of heat.

Work kept me out of the woods this morning, but
I am going the hunt the perimeter of that posted property tonight.

I could sit but for doe's only. I got mine back in September 5x4 19 3/4inch outside spread. I hunted him for two years and finally got him. This is my favorite time of the year to sit to. Oh well rifle starts next week. Here is a pic of the buck I got with the bow.

Hey, WAIT A MINUTE! That looks like one of the bucks I saw this morning! But it had a swollen neck.

Nice buck dakor. Speaking of rifle, I only get to hunt KY's opener on Sat. morning next week only. Wife and oldest kid will be OOT. I'll have my 2 little ones. But I have a sitter Sat. a.m. So, if nothing happens that morning, I'll not get to go back til the end of rifle season.

I got out of work at noon and sat the stand all day.

Not even a squirrel moved!

????

I must be jinxed.

This post is breaking my heart. Some bucks in the area are just starting to sniff the does.

Did I mention that our season closed 2 WEEKS AGO.

quote:

Originally posted by Don_G:
I must be jinxed.

Must be! I had an unusual schedule today. I went back to Indian Hill between 1145am and 330pm and saw:

1) a HUGE buck chasing a doe on Spooky Hollow almost to Loveland-Madeira Rd. (1225pm)
2) A doe and fawn feeding on one of our properties at 1259pm)
3) 2 button bucks crossing Drake Rd at 2pm

My bro went hunting and got to one of the spots at 345pm. On the way, he saw a decent 8 getting ready to cross Camargo Club at 335pm.

I heard quite a bit of grunting on the hill south of one property but I couldn't see anything, although the leaves were quite noisy.

We're heading back in the morning.

Thanks Doc I am pretty happy with him. Well good luck in a few hours. Let us know how you did.

We went out this morning and saw a bunch of deer from first light right up til 11am. I had a sitter for the kids and had to go, dang it. Otherwise, I would have stayed out.

I saw Does only, but 5 of them. Neat watching them do their thing across the creek at about 80 yards. Most of the leaves have fallen in our areas and the hardwoods have opened up, so visibility is improved.

My brother walked down almost to the creekbottom and used his climber stand. He told me he was all of 5 feet up when 3 big Does were walking, from the west, right at him down a hillside across an adjacent creek bottom. He was made in the tree but there was nothing he could do. They took off in the direction they came from.

THEN he said that as he got ready to pull his bow up, he saw a buck coming his way, from the south, big body, medium antlers. He hoisted his bow up as fast as he could but didn't get the chance to settle properly in the seat, so he was caught facing the tree still but had bow in hand.

The buck came within 22 yards, then saw some people walking a trail about 200 yards to the west, so he started snorting and went back across the creek where he came from.

Then around 11am, he saw 4 more deer, a Doe and 2 fawns on another hillside, followed by a small buck. Things were just getting hot when we had to leave.

Here hard on the Mass border the bucks are more interested than the does right now. However, the bigger boys are beginning to move. I'll be spending the peak of the rut in Aruba this Fall, so the nude beaches will have to somehow make up for the rut action.

Rifle season starts in Arkansas next weekend. My cousin called me yesterday while he was in his tractor drilling 80 acres of fescue. He had two nice 8 pts. chasing does come out of the woods while he was planting. Will be leaving Friday morning. Sure hope we have some good weather and not this 80 degree heat we have today down here in S. La.

I hunt middle Georgia for deer (Ocmulgee WMA area) and the deer have historically been late rutters compared to the rest of the state. That is holding pretty true this year. I have heard of some big deer that got shot this weekend, but my hunting partners and I did not see any signs of rut. Lots of does with no tending or chasing bucks in sight.

The rut is different here depending which part of the state you are in. In the crop lands of the Delta we don't really get any action until Xmas and New years but, in the piney hills we see em' rut around Thanksgiving. They should kick off in the hills in a couple of weeks. I just started finding scrapes but haven't seen any chasing yet. Getting closer and I can't harldy wait. It's my favorite time of the year.

Talked with my hunting buddies in Eastern Nebraska, the rut is starting out there. Rifle season starts at 30 minutes to sun up Saturday, and I will be in the stand will before then!

Funny story. One friend finaly listened to me and bought some doe esterus. Hung up the lures, walked back to his ground blind, and just about got ran over by two very excited bucks. Didn't have time to get his bow up, but was laughing the rest of the day.