By Eric Bruce

Overall Activity Status: Movement is very good in most of the South. The weather has remained cool with some frosty mornings and only occasional warm afternoons. The rut in Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, and some of Louisiana is raging right now, so deer are deer up and moving.
 
Fighting: In states where the rut is on, some fighting will occur between bucks that are after the same estrous doe. In the pre-rut states, they will bang heads over territory. In both cases, some rattling is likely to lure in a buck.
 
Rub making: Rub making is increasing in the pre-rut states of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. With the rut in the near future, bucks are actively rubbing and preparing for action. In Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, there is less rubbing because bucks are doing more seeking, chasing, and breeding. Most rubs I have seen have been old. I did see one rub that appeared fresh at Cedar Creek Wildlife Management Area in central Georgia, but the majority look weeks or months old. [ Read Full Post ]

By Brandon Ray

The best way to describe what friends and I are seeing in north Texas right now is “cruising.” A few bucks are chasing, but most of our sightings are of bucks cruising the countryside, searching for females. Neck half-cocked, sniffing like a bird dog, they are obviously on a mission. If they spy a doe, they usually investigate her or follow her, but don‘t necessarily “chase“ her.

For most of us, that has translated into few if any buck sightings at feeders, but the bucks are certainly on the move. If you have a feeder pounded by lots of does, that’s probably where you could see a good buck now. Otherwise, set yourself on a good vantage point where you can glass prime travel corridors, like creek bottoms, to spot these cruising bucks.
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By Jeff Holmes

Many western whitetail hunters only take to the field during the season, sometimes just on weekends, sometimes just on opening day. Even for those of us who make it our business to observe of whitetail behavior, it’s tough to be as in-touch with current deer patterns as are two of the biggest western whitetail outfitters.

Both Montana Whitetails’ Keith Miller and Wyoming’s Wind River Whitetails’ Mike Rinehart are able to monitor large deer herds daily, while also receiving first-hand reports from their hunters and staff. Their reports this fall have often foreshadowed what hunters on the ground have seen.

According to both Rinehart and Miller, the rut has started, but somebody forgot to tell the does. [ Read Full Post ]

By Mike Bleech

Things are changing quickly in the deer woods now. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission research I have referred to from time to time, the peak rut should be today, Wednesday, November 14, in Pennsylvania anyway. But I still would not say we are at a rut peak.

The responses we have been getting on this site have been great. I hope everyone is learning as much as I am. This is the reward for hunters who share information. We all win.

Last Sunday, November 11, I found a new, large scrape in one of the areas where I’ve been using trail cams since early September. Very large tracks were visible plainly in the soft, bare earth.
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By David Draper

Overall activity status: From what hunters across the Great Plains are reporting, we’re in transition from the seeking to the chasing phase of the rut, where bucks are continually checking and chasing does. Every day, more and more does are coming into estrus, and that’s keeping big bucks busy as they lock on to a hot doe until she’s ready to breed. As Denton Rich of Mule Creek Outfitters in southern Kansas so accurately described one such encounter with an estrous doe late last week: “A dandy buck was working her like a cutting horse.”

These days, just before peak breeding or lockdown are when bucks are the most vulnerable, and consequently offer the best chance for hunters to tag the buck of a lifetime. Cliff Grindstaff of Old Fort, North Carolina, found that out when he intercepted this Kansas giant hunting with Twin Chimney Outfitters. As TCO guide Brenden Mick put it, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Time to stick it out in the stand.”
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By Mike Bleech

Tyler Wagner, whose trophy buck was reported in the previous posting, is now hunting in Ohio’s Fairfield and Hocking counties. The rut situation there has been much different from what he had been seeing before leaving northwest Pennsylvania. He and the group he is hunting with have seen numerous does that are in heat, and are being followed by bucks, some of which are exceptional.

“The woods just smell like a deer farm, “ Wagner said.

Friend and deer scouting partner Mike Stimmell used rut tactics to take this nice Allegheny National Forest big-woods buck on November 10.

“In the morning I set up with a clear-cut on one side and big timber on the other, a transition zone,” Stimmell said.

Just a couple days earlier while scouting we had discussed the habit of rutting bucks following edges where they are available. Edges generally provide much better cover than the timber or the clear-cut alone.
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