Just wondering if those who had the curse of the Dud Rutt last year have an alternate plan for this year if it sizzles out again. Im not at all rubbing it in but I actually had a decent Rutt last season. I had many spots that are always good during the Rutt that did not pan out last year though. I did however notice that one spot in paticular was on fire and was where I took my buck. What set it off from the others was a very active circle of scrapes. Im not talkin about just your average several scrapes in a line but rather a spot that had around a dozen heavily hit scrapes in an area about 80 yards circular, some were actually deeply pawed out and the area was just eat up with nasty rubs. It seemed that this area was like a wagon wheel and the scrapes were the hub, and the Deer filtered in on the spokes. About half of the bucks would come in on the the downwind side of the scrapes from a higher vantage point to check the scrapes, some as far as 50 yards from them. Younger bucks for the most would come through them or closer anyway. I was fortunate to find the left over sign from the last season that looked like a hot zone for scrape activity from one of my Shed hunting ventures. I had one more area that had slight Rutt activity but was minus any scrapes at all. It was a natural bottle neck between two high wall stripmine pits between the bedding and the agriculture fields. So what im asking is, if you/we have about the same scene with the rutt again this year, are you going to try anything different than you did last season?? I know some are limited to small tracts of land so finding different areas might not be an option for you. just flapping my gums and curious what you might try if we have a repeat again.
Well, I have a chunk of land that I can hunt but my funnel area is a spot where the deer love to go due to cover. My rut sucked because I can hear them chasing but it was in standing corn that stayed there till the middle of December! I hope that this year is better due to having beans. My knee surgery messed up my season a lot too so I have no other option but to have a better year. I am going to go check my camera tonight so I hope to be posting some good pics!
For the last two seasons I have experienced NO rut. I did not witness one single instance of chasing behavior last year and I hunted A LOT. Not once. But I am ok with that as long as the bucks begin to move in late October, and in fact I would rather see them cruising than chasing anytime...it makes life easier for me as a bowhunter.
From the looks of things right now, most of the corn in my area will be harvested long before archery season opens. Standing corn always has a big factor in how much chasing I witness. No real plans to change my strategy, just be in a tree and hope for the best.
ya mine wasn't that great either, I think it was mainly due to the hundreds of acres of standing corn in the area, so those bucks are going to hang out in that stuff until they get bumped out. I just hope the weather is dryer that time of the year so the farmers can get r done!
My problem would be knowing whether to change setups because when I finally figured out the rut isn't quite up to par, my strategy time would be over. I plan from now on to hunt real hard over acorns when and if there is standing corn in the area in late October. I don't think we will have much of a problem this year with standing corn, however. I saw tons of bucks cruising last year with very minimal chasing. I harvested 4 does and 1 buck last year so I'm not complaining too much.
I hunt two smaller pieces of land and I pretty much have a stand location at all possible places. The key will be to not over hunt the spots and to hunt the right days in the right location. Pretty simple right?
We had some weird weather patterns last season that may have also affected the Rutt. Dont get me wrong, I dont want to rely soley on the Rutt, but man when its not happening its kinda odd!! VS, I agree its sometimes harder to kill them when there chasing as opposed to getting them cruising
The rut was dang tough around here last year. Crazy warm weather had the older bucks completely nocturnal. I wish I had a plan for a repeat performance, but If they wont move during daylight hours, I don't know what to do. I did my best to get in close as I could to their beds but that can be a dangerous game and the risk vs. reward is pretty lopsided. Having a larger area to hunt would open up a lot more options.
For me... I do not get so focused on the rut that I cheat myself out of the rest of the season. The last four years I have killed a mature buck every year. The dates vary from the first week of October to the last day of archery season. The rut last year for me was really great for only two days. A few more were average and that is it. Other years I have seen more consistent activity over a greater number of days. I hope it return to that this year.
Arkansas' rut last year, was one of the best I can remember in awhile. I hope this year is as good as it was last year.
If anyone has has any notes from the year 2002 or rut reports from that year it couldn't hurt to take a look at them. Seasonal cycles will repeat this year and be almost exactly the same this season as 2002(lunar cycles will be within a day or so). Just an fyi.
NEW--2002 was the year I killed my first deer with a bow ( a small 7 point) and from what I can remember, from late October through the first week in November was really hot in terms of rutting behavior. I remember blood trailing my buck around 10am the next morning and having bucks come running by me. I have rarely every witnessed that same type of behavior since. In fact, I rarely ever see any type of chasing behavior at all.
