I had to drive into work at 2 am this morning. Saw 7 deer on the move before the storm rolled through. One looked to be a pretty decent 2.5 year old.
Rut
Anyone seeing signs of rut. Scrapes just starting to show up at my place . I am seeing bucks during daylight. Just saw a nice 8 cross road around 11:00 today. I live very close to Truman State Park I call it my whitetail laboratory. I drive through park late evenings this time of year to get a handle on when the bucks get active. Wife and I saw couple nice bucks yesterday around 6:30 . One was near some does once does moved he put his nose down and started to follow them. I would guess will start to see some action maybe late this week or early next. Son saw a really nice buck Sat evening around 6:30 In one of our foodplots. Passed on 45 yrd shot. Appears from
his camera on his phone to be around a 160
his camera on his phone to be around a 160
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Didn't see much rut activity, or much activity at all this weekend.
I haven't seen any first hand, but am quite certain it is happening now on some level and with some mature deer. every year some come in early, Pinwheel shared a hunt his buddy had on his place and that sounds like rut activity.
Good luck!
Good luck!
The 2.5 yr old I posted about earlier with with a doe. They crossed the road in front me.
Typically when I start seeing bucks in daylight in State Park rut isn't far behind. Have lived here going on 7 years and has held true for those seven years.
With the buck my son saw Sat evening and the bucks I had on cam in same foodplot Thurs-Fri-Sat would guess we are getting close. Plan on starting my morning hunts late this week.
Have a camera on a pretty good size scrape in the woods, had a doe pee in it on the 20th and about a hour later my #1 buck chased a doe by the camera at 8:35 am. but I also have been seeing bucks still bunched up.
Yep I saw 3 decent 8s together Sat morning
I saw what I believe was a 2 year old chasing a doe Saturday evening. Also had two fights on trail camera last week. A friend saw and heard chasing Saturday morning but never got a good luck at the buck. Walking in Saturday evening I smelled the strong odor of a tarsal gland in one particular spot. Never experienced that before.
Had 2 nice 3 year olds in front of me last night with a field full of does. They barely even looked in the does direction. They came in separate and at last light they moved closer and I thought they were gonna scrap. They just stood there feeding together almost oblivious to the does further out in the field. I'm not seeing any rut activity yet but we cant be far off.
Just heard from a buddy of mine that his dad watched a nice big 8 follow a doe onto his property and bed down in a little draw. Couple hours later she got up to feed and he followed her. Half hour later they went back into that little draw and as of an hour ago was still there bedded down. Watched them coming at 130 this afternoon and been watching them ever since
Last Friday I saw a big mature 8 tending a doe along the side of the road at 5:30am while driving to my hunting spot. At first I thought it was odd seeing a doe standing in a culvert with nothing but open pasture on either side of the road and a deer would never end up there to cross the road. Then I got closer and saw a big mature buck standing a few yards behind her. And then it made sense, he must've chased her from a long ways off to get to that spot away from all other deer. The closest woods or any cover was nearly half a mile away. As I drove closer, the doe took off across the road and the buck was right behind her. Doesn't mean the rut has started or anything, just means I saw one doe being courted by one buck. In many places the younger bucks haven't even cared to sniff a doe yet.
Woke up early and looked out my window and see this young buck chasing does around in my driveway Lol. I live in town. :clap:
I had a couple trail cam picks with a 2 year old pushing does around the latter part of last week.
4 year olds are on their feet a little bit sooner then they have been in previous weeks. Little bucks are already hounding does as per usual this time of year.
I've heard a lot of grunting, and I've seen a lot of bucks harassing does. Not really chasing but harassing. Most of the bucks I've seen are 3.5 year old's and below. The big boys are still hanging back and waiting for the right time. The majority of my mature deer pictures are still at night. I've seen very few weaned fawns wandering around. I'm sure there are some does coming in heat right now but the majority of the fun is yet to come.
Didnt hunt but was at my property today several new scrapes showing up
Kind of amazes me that this topic comes up every year. It’s been pretty well established that the rut peaks around Nov 15 in Mo and almost everywhere else except the Deep South, regardless of weather, moon phase, etc. the pre rut begins a few weeks before, and the secondary rut is 28 days later around Dec 13. Most serious hunters consider Halloween the time when things really start to heat up, with the first week of Nov seeing the bucks all fired up and ready and the does still fending them off. This isn’t something that ever varies more than a cpl days. It’s sorta like deer hunting 101.
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