Just curious when most of you Wisconsin bow hunters will venture out to get the best rutting action. I hunt in Dane County and with this unseasonably warm weather have reservations about when the rut is going to hit. Any insights?
I've already begun to see some rubs down here in Racine/Kenosha...but then again could be some young ones just playing around...
I heard from a guy at work that the rut will be running late this year however I don't know if that's the case. By me I wanna say the rut is from around November 7th to the 16th or so. That's when I see a lot of rut sign in the scrapes and rubs. Between late October and up to rifle season I will be hunting as much as possible. Unless of course I fill both my tags by then.
The peak rut in Waupaca county the last 37 years has been 4 days either side of 11/7. Temps, moon, milk prices are meaningless. Estrus is triggered by amount of daylight. Most fawns are born near 6/1, do the math.Warm temps squelch the rut? I just bowhunted blacktails in southern California, the peak rut is always 9/20 and temps are 100 degrees.
Thanks for the insight guys, my plan was to do full day sits from October 31st-November 5th and hopefully see some nice action but we'll see. If not my vacation picks were for not.
I hunted private land in the Neillsville area Oct 18-20 and Oct 25-27...Not much rut activity to speak of, although we saw new rubs and scrapes every time we went out..I'm going up again this weekend, hope for better sightings. My hunters that are in the Lacrosse area report about the same, more small buck activity. Waukesha and Walworth county's same thing, with lots of standing corn yet. In the Dodgeville, Mineral Point area, things are a bit better...A lot of smaller bucks chasing does, but nothing major. Will report on this weekend with some details. Good luck Stay safe Aim true
Last weekend I was hunting in Crawford county and saw some Buck movement starting to happen. Smaller bucks are chasing now. Did not see alot of mature Does. I perdict in the next week or two thr rut will be fully on. Threw out some esterus and grunted and had deer coming within 5 yards of my stand.
Hunted my private 80 in Neillsville WI this past weekend...I never saw a deer in my stand all weekend...Friday night, 8 hours on sat and 4 on sun.. My buddy Chris never saw a deer, hunted the same hours...My pal Eric saw a small 6, and two does..He took one doe. Thats all we saw...I'm not sure what happened, we saw plenty in late October. I'm not sure if the the bucks are moving around our stands or are they across the road (its a gravel road) in the neighbors swamp or what...Friday when we arrived, the farmer was plowing the fields..these field have been hay for 10 years, and next spring it will be corn..Did the fact there feeding and some bedding areas got tilled over, cause them to split for now?? I'm kinda at a loss here...My guys in Lacrosse saw sure rutting activity, with a 135" public land buck taken as well. What did everyone else see??
