Not sure if it's just my imagination but for October 28th things seem a bit slow. I really thought we'd see a flood of "Buck Down" posts from this past weekend but things were surprisingly quiet. So is this the calm before the storm or are we in for a slow rut year?
I agree with you 100% for the area I hunt. I save my "best" places for this time of the year. My father and I hunted twice on Sunday on ground that has not been touched. Combined we saw one small buck. I do not believe it is the location or the time of the year. I just don't believe any part of the rut phase has began. Trail cam pictures are better than average.
Trail cams are showing bucks starting to expand their areas but it's all at night - at least for me. I sat 6 times from Thursday to Saturday in some prime spots. 2 of those sits I didn't see a single deer and the rest were very slow - a few does and fawns and a couple 1 1/2's cruising at last light. For this time of year and the temps we had I was expecting some better action than that.
It better be the calm before the storm. Thinking this weekend is going to light up the board, a few days longer east of IL until the rain moves out.
I don't know, Justin. Things are wierd here, but in the other direction. I've seen more buck activity this year than I ever do at this point. I killed a 136" buck in Kentucky on the 19th with my ML. He was chasing a doe, he stunk of rut and his stomach was empty. I saw six other bucks cruising during daylight during the two sits before that. Then this past weekend I botched my shot at a bruiser on Friday afternoon in Arkansas and then on Saturday a friend in camp killed a stud of an 8 point. I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm not complaining about what I'm seeing down south.
Slow here, too. Then again, our property is always late. I shot my buck last year chasing on December 1st. I, too thought the forums would have more buck down posts. This week will, I bet. All you lucky guys taking weeks of vacation time
Things have been really slow around here. Begining- Mid last week it ramped up some with the colder temps then seemed to die back off for the weekend. Should start to ramp back up later this week with some better rut activity im hoping
I hunted hard this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I saw very few deer for the area I hunt. I had one 1.5 year old 8 pointer come cruising through at 5pm on Saturday and a doe and buck fawn around 5:30pm For this weekend I am blaming the violet wind we had, I'm hoping next weekend is better. I'm with Justin, I thought I would see something with these cooling temperatures
Yep, horrible. The deer are just not moving for us. Usually smaller bucks at least, are cruising. We are seeing nothing.
This has been the worst early season I've ever had. The best buck I've seen on the hoof was a 1 1/2 year old 6 pointer. I hunted some untouched timber this weekend. Had scrapes all over the place, just no daylight activity. I only saw a small forky chasing a doe while on stand for 3 sits. This is the same area where good deer get shot every year during rifle season, so I know they should be there. I pulled my trail cams, and as of Sunday I had some daylight activity in the last week or so, but only by young, immature bucks. I'm getting a decent amount of pictures of mature bucks, but always at night.
The predictions for this years rut are the 3rd week of November. Not sure how accurate this is, but that's what I've been hearing.
Wonder if it has to do with lack of weather systems. It's been cold, but haven't had the normal strong fronts typical in the fall transition. We'll have it this week though. Starting to worry maybe I took my vacation a week early, hope they aren't right about the full moon/late rut.
What's everyone's crop harvests like? They finally got the last of the corn it near the property I hunt, but there's still a lot of beans and corn in in other areas. That's what I was blaming lack of movement on previously. Trail cam seems to show more movement now as well. Just no mature bucks yet, but that's fairly normal where I have my cams
Havent seen a single thing in the past 4 sits! Last year i only went once without seeing at least 1 deer. Everybody I`ve talked to seems to be having the same misfortune. Worst season I`ve had!
