Truly hard to say. My opinion only, but where I hunt (Brown County, IL), I was just there from Nov 9th through the 13th and saw some good bucks during shooting light. My buddy missed a pig. Some seemed to be with does, but hard to say. I saw at least one make a scrape and two others posture at each other for 30 minutes. These signs make me think/hope the full rut is not on yet where I am at. A few small bucks pushed some does around. The big bucks would come in and check a few and move on. Good luck and have fun.
Tons of action...saw five bucks this weekend, wait...six...four were trophies and all on the run or working does...seems very near the Rut...if not in the heat of it now? Sangamon County, Central IL
I hunt in McLean County (central Illinois). I was out Sunday and did not see a darn thing, but I blame that on the heat and the 35 mph winds, as this was the only time I have been out this year and not seen anything. The moon was so bright that I could read my watch solely by moonlight, before earliest dawn. By this weekend it is supposed to be 15-20 degrees cooler, and the moon should be a sliver. May also have good cloud cover and a chance of rain. I think this weekend should be good hunting.
I hunted in Franklin County for the week of the 5-12 Nov. I saw some small bucks chasing does, but no big boys. I think the does were just starting to come in, so this weekend should be pretty good. I did see a few big ones, but they were all by themselves, just cruising around.
It doesn't look like the weather will be all that great.....20-30 mph winds Friday and Saturday. Yuk.
Tagged out w/in 40 min of legal shooting light on Friday. Shot a doe about 15 min before sunrise. Then while waiting to see if a coyote I saw before legal shooting light would come close, I shot a small buck about 20 min later. Nothing like a 2 hour hunt (from the time I got in the stand) for 5 hours of work over the rest of the weekend breaking them down, trimming and packaging. The backstrap steaks that I put in the smoker on Sunday, with a turkey breast, were pretty tasty, though .
