This is the same we saw in Illinois also!! Great while it was there but it seemed short and sweet. Walt
The rut in my area was really good in early November. I saw a lot of chasing and cruising and the deer were very responsive to calling. Acitvity actually started picking up the third week of October and was full blown by the 2nd or 3rd of November and stayed good for several days.
I watched a 2.5 yo buck chase a doe past my stand one evening around the 7th of Nov, she actually stopped and squated down...to seemingly 'stand' for the buck...only to have him turn and start searching back up the ridge...he just let her go and gave her up...I couldn't believe it. I saw two 3.5 yo bucks cruising and was able to grunt/rattle in one of them (passed him...about 120"s). I saw one 4.5 yo that I couldn't get a shot on...he would have nothing to to with either a grunt or rattle. Other than that all I saw were 1.5 yo's and only photos of other large bucks. I don't gun hunt, but my cousin did on our place...he reported even worse activity from Nov 13-21. (It was a weak rut) My experience was spot on with your's during the rut this year....they seemed to either be doing it at night because of the warm weather or in the standing corn out of sight. I did hear a severe thrashing going on in the standing corn one evening....I beleive it was a good brawl between a couple of bucks....unfortunately I never could see anything that was going on.
Here in Idaho, daylight movement was way down, warm temps, lots of rain etc. I observed much better action during Oct and late season. In Iowa, the daylight movement in the thick timbered ridges was great, lots of bucks moving till about 11 each morning then it would pick up again about the last 2 hours of daylight.
The rut was just "okay". I saw a lot of activity, but mostly from younger bucks. It was an old year for mature bucks. I saw as many deer as ever, but not the quality.. even though I know they're in there. I think a lot of it had to do with more pressure from surrounding properties. Getting to be more and more bowhunters hunting small spots all around me.
What little cruising/seeking I saw was pretty early. I did see some pretty hard 'rutting' a couple of the days. Three days in particular.. where a dominate buck had a doe but was running back and forth to keep her and running the other bucks off. (six different bucks the one evening.) Then it just fizzed out. I saw young bucks cruising but the big boys all vaporized. The year before was the worst rut I experienced tho'.
i killed a 8 pointer on oct. 17. his neck was swollen and he had been pissing on his glands but i did see any chasing.
We had the warm temps too along with allot of corn still In. I saw lots of chasing from the 10th of November till about the 30th of November and then again from about the 11th of December till the last day of the season here (December 31st). Most of the chasing I saw was 1.5 year olds and one lone 2.5 year old. The big guy I was chasing around did his share of chasing/looking as well.
