By David Draper

Overall Activity Status: With temperatures finally starting to dip late this week, deer activity should increase. Prior to that, warmer weather had daytime activity at a minimum, though a few hunters still witnessed some rut-related behavior. Neil Davies of Hornady traveled back to South Dakota for another reservation hunt, where he reported bucks were checking does, even if they weren’t too excited about it.

“Bucks were still sniffing and running does, but it was rather passive,” said Davies. “Young ones were still at it though. Did not see any breeding or fighting.”

Fighting: Davies experience mimics that of most other hunters I talked to, none of which noted any instances of bucks sparring.

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By Scott Bestul

Illinois bowhunter Marc Anthony isn’t afraid to think outside the box. For starters, Anthony—whom I’ve written about several times in the last few years—doesn’t hunt from a tree stand. He’s a ground-pounder who uses a gillie suit as camouflage, then slips close to some really big deer and shoots them with a bow. In short, he’s not your typical Midwestern bowhunter. [ Read Full Post ]

By Eric Bruce

Three elements that go a long way toward helping you put a tag on a buck are rut sign, a pinch point, and lightly hunted land. Dakota Owens and his father, Chris, found and utilized all three and did indeed fill a tag—with the tremendous Georgia ten-pointer shown here.

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By Brandon Ray

Overall activity status: Hot weather still hangs over the region. High temperatures in the 70s and 80s have been common. Some locations are tying or breaking all-time record highs. In the afternoons, the short 30-minute window from sunset to dark provides the best odds for seeing an old buck. Cool mornings provide a good chance for seeing a buck on the move, before the day heats up.

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By Brandon Ray

These reports focus on the whitetail rut, but there are mule deer as well as whitetails in my part of Texas. Year-round observations of muleys on our ranch in the Panhandle indicate that their rut starts later than whitetails. Typically, the muley bucks start acting interested in girls about Thanksgiving. But not until December 1 or later do they really start chasing and acting goofy. While November is the month to hunt rutting whitetails in the central and northern half of Texas, December is the month to see mule deer in the rut. [ Read Full Post ]

By Mike Bleech

Rutting behavior has been unusual this year, and more evidence of that comes from David Hartman, president of the New York State Whitetail Management Coalition. There are many scrapes and rubs in his southern Catskill region, but this year there is a new twist to it: Deer have been using pine and hemlock as licking limbs over scrapes.
 
“I’ve never seen them do that before,” Hartman said.
 
Bucks were chasing does during the first week of rifle season, which started November 17 in his area. But that has ceased. He attributes it to the normal behavior of deer being mostly nocturnal once firearms season opens. [ Read Full Post ]