I started hunting Ohio on November 2nd, then transitioned to Pennsylvania for about a week, now I've been hunting Virginia for a week. I have NOT seen any rutting behavior. I have not seen a single buck dogging a doe, no nose to the ground quick walking, ZIP. I must be hunting the wrong spots and/or in the wrong manner. Oh rut, where art thou?
I have not seen any either, Brett.....but that is typical for NY....not alot ofbig bucks leads to no real rut to speak of ...
had 4 bucks in the field last night, they came out together and left together. I watched a 16" wide 8 push a couple of does the other night, they weren't interested and he just went back to the boys. No rut here.
Bow Hunted whitetails this year in Ohio, NY and CT( about 5 weeks total) I can count the amount of rutting activity I seen on one hand from mature bucks. Seen some "pushing" around late October and early November from immature bucks. No sense on urgency shown by mature bucks during this rut. Sent from The People's Republic of New York.
Thats weird VS. Started to see increase in chasing about Tuesday of last week and picked up until recently. I think the bucks are starting to really hang with the does now, at least the dominate ones. Saw two bigger bucks yesterday staying close to their partner.
I've seen a decent amount of chasing and cruising. I've also seen a buck feeding in a cornfield in broad daylight like it was August. A few of my friends commented on the lack of activity also.
Ive hunted Northeast Ohio hard for 8 years now. The "TV" rut is myth IMO. We have such a good amount of does that the bucks dont have to seek for very long. They find a doe, lock down until they breed, then repeat. We'll have young bucks (1.5 and 2.5's) seeking all day long, every day in November, but the big boys do the majority of there business at night regardless. We do get some day pictures of course and have had some success late October/November. My source: roughly 400 sits and 30,000 trail camera pictures...currently we have 11 cams in the woods.
BTW...NE Ohio deer are seeking right now. I believe the first wave of estrus does have been bred. Were getting loaner bucks on camera again during the day and night:
Those are 3.5+ year old bucks moving in the daylight all week, you must just suck bro (Its okay...i suck too)
Honestly though, i can count on ONE hand how many times ive actually watched bucks, in the daylight, chasing a doe. My best with luck with seeing mature bucks in the woods was during seeking phase, and thats all about putting yourself in a high percentage travel location. But, i admittedly suck.
I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say that from around Oct. 29 through Nov. 16 I hunted quite a bit. I probably saw 20+ does and think I remember only 1 that was being bothered by a buck and he was small. In the last 10 days or so I've had lots of friends texting me pics of some giants they are killing. I feel like I either just missed a big spike in action, was hunting a large group of lesbian does, or just suck.
I was in NE Ohio Wednesday until Thursday afternoon. I saw some deer, but no rutting action really. The closest I saw was a small button buck was feeding right under my stand and a small 8pt ran it off, but no bucks chasing does at all. The does were still in groups of 3-5 deer. Edit: ALL of our trail camera pictures of bucks were at night. None during the day.
[I'm setting on a 10 acre cut cornfield surrounded by pine bedding areas right now and have hunted this farm the last 6 afternoons. Granted its been black powder for 2 weeks but no shots on this 150 acre farm that I know. I had a pig that I shot in bow season eat at 187 yards Monday night for 15 minutes, I had 8 does in front of me and he could cared less.
Had 5 does out yesterday evening... they came and grazed and left... no buck in sight... the only action I've seen was 2 Saturdays ago... I had a doe "Following" a buck... And last Saturday and forkie pushing 2 does.
