By Scott Bestul

Overall activity status: With the rut in full swing across the upper Midwest, hunters are reporting a mixed bag of activity. I hunted Wisconsin last Wednesday and saw three bucks; all were chasing or scent-trailing does. I saw four other does, which were all feeding. In other reports, some hunters were frustrated by the lack of movement, which they attribute to peak-breeding lockdown.

Fighting: I’ve received no reports of observed fighting, but a contact in southern Michigan emailed to say he’d seen two different bucks with broken tines. Whether these bucks broke their antlers by aggressively rubbing trees or by fighting can’t be determined, but I’m betting on the latter.
[ Read Full Post ]

By Eric Bruce

Overall activity status: The rut is here and activity is peaking in Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Georgia. Pulling into my Georgia driveway Thursday afternoon, I watched a six-pointer chase a doe across my yard. On the way to our hunting property, we spotted several deer out feeding in fields and along the road. Even in states not yet in pre-rut, the lower temperatures have deer more active.

Fighting: Fletcher Culpepper’s brother heard two bucks fighting on their Worth Co., Georgia property. The next day Fletcher hunted in the same area and shot a monster buck (photo above, details below). With the rut gearing up, bucks will be fighting for the chance to breed the does in estrus.
[ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

It’s happening. Right now. If they don’t have does pinned down somewhere, bucks are on their feet; searching the edges of bedding areas, cruising past food sources, working scrapes, hashing up rubs. In the upper Midwest, if you’re not in the woods this week, you’re missing the Big Show.
 
My father shot the buck pictured above a few days back, and his hunt was a classic rut scenario. Dad was in a stand by a secluded food source (a mini food plot we scratched into a log landing) when a trio of does fed past his stand. One of the does had apparently filled her belly and decided to wander off down a logging road. Dad watched the doe start to drift off, then noticed that she’d slammed to a stop and was gazing toward some thick cover nearby. Suddenly the doe whirled around and trotted back toward the stand. When dad heard a low grunt, he grabbed the bow and clipped the release on the string. [ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

Overall Activity Status: The very presence of this blog (and the entire Field & Stream Rut Reporter site) is proof positive that one of the most powerful tools for predicting the rut is social media. Earlier this week, my inboxes blew up with excited reports and probing questions from hunters who so far this season have been quiet. Now that we’re on the verge of things breaking wide open, it seems like every hunter I know is either in the woods or itching to find out what day they should call in sick. My suggestion: right now!
 
Why? From the Dakotas to Kansas, my contacts are checking in with reports of major deer activity, which is heartening since many of these same contacts were lamenting the lack of deer spotted even just a week or so ago. While EHD obviously took a pretty good hit from localized deer populations (Nebraska hunter Kurt Kaiser estimates he’s lost 40-60 percent of the deer in his area), bucks are showing up on camera and in person. It’s the peak of the pre-rut, and with a cold front coming on this weekend, I say we should all go hunting today. [ Read Full Post ]

By Mike Bleech

It takes a whole lot of good luck for all the variables in a deer hunt to fall into place and result in a perfect story with a perfect climax. Such a string of good luck came to Zach Lyons, a 12-year-old bowhunter, and Tom Young, his grandfather, both from Franklin, Pennsylvania.

It also tells us something about the state of the rut that deer are in right now in that region.

Lyons and his grandfather were bowhunting on the edge of State Game Lands No. 39, in Venango County, on November 2. Lyons was in a ground blind. Young was in a tree stand about 30 yards away. They were treating it as a rut situation, correctly so, it turned out. Grandpa was rattling, while grandson used a grunt call.
[ Read Full Post ]

By Eric Bruce

One of the most exciting aspects of hunting the whitetail rut is that bucks can be moving at all hours. Mature bucks that wouldn’t step outside of their sanctuary thicket before dark are out and about, seeking and chasing does.

But even though bucks are active and looking for does, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to see one. That’s when calling comes in.

Last week in central Georgia a hunter was sitting along a logging road when he heard, in his words, a sound like a cow bellowing, but not quite as deep. It was very loud and repetitive, with a mourning, almost desperate noise.
[ Read Full Post ]