Working at the St. Louis Boat an Sport Show last weekend I had the chance to talk hunting with a bunch of area hunters. One common theme among most of the stories is the lack of rut activity seen last season. I know I am the same way. I saw a total of 3 bucks following does the whole season, way down from my sightings the year before. And these bucks weren't really chasing the does, just following them at a distance. I guess it all happened in the standing corn which was everywhere or at night. It did get pretty warm during the peak chasing and breeding period. What was your rut experiances?
There was a smaller window for me than years past. A few days of high activity and then as quickly as it started, it ended.
This year was by far the worst rutting activity I have witnessed in the last 18 years of hunting in Virginia. Heck, during some years while I was in college I only hunted 5 times a year and saw more rutting activity in those 5 hunts than I did all of this year. I did not see one single case of chasing the entire season, and I hunted my rear off. On the flip side, I saw three, 3.5+ year old bucks in three different counties, and got two within range. I will take that every year over a bunch of chasing, although it is a lot of fun to see the woods come alive over a period of a few days.
It depends on what you want to classifly as the rut (activity or hunting during it). As far as actual sightings of bucks chasing does, it was terrible. Probably the worse I have ever seen. It was even hard to find scrapes and rubs at our farm. But for me as a whole, hunting during the rut was great, and without a doubt my best for seeing big bucks.. I went from cussing all the standing corn, to wishing it would never come down. I found that in certain spots along field edges, a funnel is formed and bucks will cruise these during the right wind conditions and scent check the fields. Overall, total deer numbers were down, but mature buck sightings were way up. Also, I rattled in numerous bucks including quite a few shooters this year from the end of October up until the 2nd week of November. Most came out of standing corn fields, including the one I put an arrow through.
The week of the 9th of November was good to me. It was action packed all week. I have not had a week like that since 2006.
Actually I didnt notice much difference in my area other than some of my spots that are usually hot during the rut,,were not. However I hunted some new areas that was booming with rut activity
There was one day during the rut I experienced some pretty good response to a rattling session, but jumped the gun on one I should have held off on... :D
I seen one buck chasing a doe Nov. 18th. Later that evening I shot a different buck that was by himself. I stopped hunting after that to keep the area fresh for my other hunting partners. This was the only rut activity I witnessed.
Ever wonder if the RUT wasn't as hot because we had a LONG winter ahead of us??? I actually saw a less action as well, but it seems the last few years have been a disappointment to me. But I think the harder than average winter, we've had this year may result in fewer dropped fawns come May and June....
What rut? Honestly with all the standing corn still up well into Dec I did not experience anything this past season when it came to the rut. I did see a few scrapes I guess but that was it.
Rut activity was piss poor in my area (5-D) of Pa this past season. I saw a few bucks cruising, but ZERO chasing! None at all. I didn't even hear a buck grunt. It reminded me of last year when the rut seemed to be nonexistant. I did kill a decent 9pt, so I guess I can't complain too much.:D
Less chasing here though I saw some bruisers trailing does, but all in all rutting activity seemed to be down in my area. Funny, but I saw more rubs and scrapes than I have in years.
I'm out as much as many.....more than most. It exceeded my expectations (this year's rut). I got to see all phases, I believe.
When talking about the "rut" I'm guessing we're all talking about the chasing phase. I saw a total of 3 bucks chasing does but I saw a lot of bucks cruising the week of Nov 9th-14th. I witnessed on the 14th a group of doe bed under my stand and seen 3 mature bucks come by without even giving a 2nd look to them. It was truly a weird season this year.
They were Ghosts in the Darkness in my area, I saw one shooter within range and that was les than 10 minutes from last light. I also saw two monsters that were over 150 yards pushing does one morning. This in an area that has seen herd numbers in the fields recently totaling 50 or more in a given night.
Mine was absolutely horrible, because every day that I hunted was well above average for temperatures. It kept deer activity down, and made for poor sighting numbers
Less than normal I would say.... In my area, I would attribute some of that to all the crops still in.... Think a lot of rutting activity took place in the corn - out of sight....
For me, had some of my best buck action and number of bucks sighted this year...a few days in particular the bucks were just moving like crazy. But...I was discussing with buddies throughout that whole period - how everything appeared to be more "cruising" and less "chasing." The few times I saw bucks running does, it ended quickly with the bucks heading elsewhere and the does back to feeding...can't say I ever saw that no doubter HOT doe...which most years I will catch a few of them... Can't complain though - I've had years with less buck movement altogether - this year was above average for buck sightings during that "rut month."
although i was only able to hunt 6 of the 15 days my partner and i each were on big bucks every day. spot n stalk in January for open country mulies. neither one of us connected but it sure was fun tryin to get close to these monsters with all the eyes, ears and noses on us.
