By Will Brantley

Overall Activity Status: I’ve interviewed several hunters who’ve been spending time in the woods this week, hunting Kentucky’s late muzzleloader season. Ben Richardson, a cameraman for Whitetail Properties, says deer movement has been excellent from daylight up until 11, and then picking up again at around 3:45 until dark. They’re hunting in the woods and seeing quite a few bucks, too, although none of them have been pushing does.

Farther west in Kentucky, my pal John Sullivan has been helping guide hunters for Snipe Creek Lodge. He said morning activity has been slow for his hunters, but the evening movement has been outstanding, particularly on winter wheat fields. [ Read Full Post ]

By Eric Bruce

The rut in Mississippi, Alabama, and eastern Louisiana is about to begin. Serious pre-rut activity and some initial chasing by eager bucks have begun. Most of Florida is still a little ways down the calendar.
 
Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and western Louisiana have a more traditional and consistent mid-November rut. The rut is mostly over in these states, although there are still some scattered reports of isolated chasing. That “second rut”is likely caused by yearling does coming into their first estrous cycle, or by does that didn't get bred the first time around. [ Read Full Post ]

By Brandon Ray

You see some odd things in the woods these days thanks to the spying eyes of trail cameras…
 
My friend Shawn Hoover has been using corn piles with a trail camera set over them this year to scout multiple locations in western Oklahoma. Thanks to the images from those setups, he found a couple of dandy bucks. He rifled a big one, too—a 156-inch 10-point. He did not shoot the buck directly over the corn pile, but the bait/camera setup gave him information about where that buck lived. [ Read Full Post ]

By Mike Bleech

Overall Activity Status: Deer activity is slight in most of our Northeast Region, though it may be picking up.
 
Fighting: Surprisingly, bucks had been seen fighting right into late November, but no fights have been reported since.
 
Rub & Scrape Making: There has been an increase in the number of fresh rubs and scrapes seen. In some areas, this is more activity of this kind that at any other time this year. [ Read Full Post ]

By Brandon Ray

Overall activity status: The rut seems to be winding down in the northern half of the region. Ronnie Parsons reports he saw multiple bucks around corn feeders in the Hill Country this weekend. They were still interested in does and posturing to each other, but were not acting as rutty as they had been weeks earlier.
 
Fighting: No reports of fighting.
 
Rub making: I found the rub in the accompanying photo near a windmill. No surprise that given the drought conditions you would find deer sign close to water. [ Read Full Post ]

By Jeff Holmes

The December whitetail hunt in Southeastern Colorado has just drawn to a close in the state’s extreme southeast corner near the Arkansas River. The 12 hunters at Cassidy Outfitters took 12 bucks this year, averaging a gaudy 161 inches. Look for my next post, a comprehensive western update on any areas of existing rut activity, which will feature photos of Colorado whitetails shot so recently they’re still hanging, waiting to be cut. Some of those December bucks out of Jack Cassidy’s operation look worn to the bone from rutting, with lots of broken tines from battling into December for the last few estrous does.

A few weeks ago, I heard a rumor about a potential Washington State record whitetail, a typical-racked buck topping 200 inches. Information on the deer was sparse, and I spent as much time tracking down leads on this buck as I did hunting whitetails this year. Patching together sparse reports became a quest. I figured the buck wouldn’t hit the record, but a deer even approaching 200 inches is something I have never seen in Washington, even in photographs.

[ Read Full Post ]