I just thought I'd throw this out here for discussion as there's been some threads talking about the deer population. I've made some observations over the years about how different the rut can be. This year, our rut was pretty strange. I had plenty of buck sightings, with a couple really nice bucks but I didn't seem to experience that typical rut behavior. I hunted several times with a decoy during the dates of 7th through the 15th. This is typically the time when the bucks in this area are really out there seeking and will defend their territory aggressively. I was able to grunt and rattle in bucks on several occasions, but it seems it was more out of curiosity and less about their territory. The bucks that did encounter my decoy were curious, but they never displayed any aggression towards it. There were a few young bucks out bumping does around, but I just didn't see a lot of bucks trailing does. There were no shortage of doe sightings during that time either. The doe were consistently feeding in my standing soybeans every morning and every evening. I saw several bucks cruise through the beans, but just didn't really see them with their heads down following a trail. My only conclusion that I come up with would be that my buck to do ratio is pretty out of whack. Meaning the bucks have more doe than they can breed and they have no need to aggressively fend off their territory. Every other factor seemed to be in place to have one of those tremendous ruts, but it just didn't happen that way for me. Like I said, there were no shortage of sightings, they just weren't acting like I expected. Was your rut what you were expecting, or did they confuse you as much as they did me this year?
Even though I killed a buck chasing a doe this year, I did not see the rutting activity that I have in years past. In fact, it was probably my worst year for deer numbers, but I was blessed on my last all day hunt.
I saw very very minimal rutting activity at all but had one of the best years as far as deer sightings. I think part of the reason was the warmer than normal temperatures which I think makes them do most of the rutting activity during the night. Whats odd to me still is I had a new spot this year where I was seeing groups of does regularly at times and would never see a buck with them during the rut. I kept hunting the stand thinking the bucks gotta show up but they never did. I had times I was seeing 6-10 does a sit.
I didn't hunt the rut too much, more of the pre rut and had one of the best years of my hunting career. I rattled in 7 bucks this year but I never did see any other rut activity.
I had INSANE rut activity this year.... However guys I know and trust just a few miles down the road had the opposite experience. One guy in particular who is retired and hunts everyday said it is the worst he had seen in ten years. I on the other hand had several sits with explosive activity.... I would add I think I have seen more BIG mature bucks killed locally this year than I can ever recall. A few being over 200"
Maybe you can hop a ride with Bling when he heads out. You could Thelma and Luis cross country... lol
I'm thinking the secondary rut has kicked in a bit here. Hunted out of my tower blind yesterday after work. Got to the blind at about 4. Had a buck spot me setting up in the blind as soon as I got in. He was 200 yards away on the neighbors property. How the hell he saw me in the blind is beyond me, but he stared right at me for almost 5 minutes. He was clearly out cruising around. I gave him a few minutes then grunted twice. About 20 minutes later, I noticed a really nice buck heading right towards my blind, but on the neighbors property. He made it to within 45 yards before he lost interest and headed back the way he came. My wife called me this morning, telling me she had just seen the biggest buck she had ever seen on our property just walking across the field behind our house. Texted me again later and said she had seen another decent buck doing the same thing. Hopefully the movement will be this good this weekend.
I saw no rut activity in '13 and very, very little in '14. I didn't see many deer at all though. This year I saw bucks nearly every hunt in November. I don't blind rattle and call much anymore since everyone thinks they are auditioning for a Primos commercial around me, so I can't really comment on how effective it was. Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
It was late when I got in the stand but I still seen a real nice 10 ptr. After hunting I headed up to close the gate. While doing that I noticed 2 deer in the standing beans. On the way back to the house a spike almost ran over me as I was driving back down the drive. Something has triggered more movement.
