Rut behavior

[james_walleye]

Its hard to say where in the rut we are right now. I saw a monster today with a doe about 1 mile from my house, but there isnt a trace of a buck in the woods behind my house. I think the deer are ruttting pretty hard right now, I just think because of all of the odd weather they might be a little more nocturnal. Plus the corn is still up so they could very possibly just be running around in the corn. Rifle opener will reveal it, with more people on stand to report.

I passed up 5 different bucks at 15-20 yards and saw 4 more at about 75 yards this morning by 9am. All youngins cruising by with their tongues hanging out. Lots of fun, hopefully when im off thursday and friday a big guy will cruise by.

[FISHINGURU]

totally stoked for the AM hunt...gettin everything ready right now...hope the wind stays down...i hate wind the most out of any element lol.

but if your a hardcore bowhunter this is the best week of the year....i'll be in my stand no matter what....i'll be back with some reports on any rut activity...i'm goin with grunts, snort wheeze, growl, rattling...the whole 9 yards...LETS DO IT!!

[96trigger]

JW, were you in my area. Haven't seen much for bucks yet. All does. The big guys gotta be close. No way there should be that many does and no bucks.

[bmc]

My 11 year old daughter and I were out in her blind this evening. We had a big doe at 10-12 yds, but on a side of the blind we werent' expecting to get a shot. There was also another big doe with her and my dad saw a lone big doe and spike that was out cruising. Looks like the does are kicking the fawns away now, at least in our area.

My dad and I are gonna hit it in the A.M. and see if we can't put one, or maybe 2 on the ground.

Brian

[Mclovin]

i was walking out to my stand yesterday at about 1:00 and under neith my stand a very nice 8 pt rubbin on trees makin his mark. i was in aw. so i went back got my bow and went back out there i stalked allthey way to 10 yards away but my aarow hit a tree. what a downer..

not sure what to do.. do you think he'll be back anytime soon maybe with the rut and all or do you think he'll stay away.

[vister]

last night was a perfect night to be out. on the downside, still only managing to rattle in younger bucks. the upside, FINALLY, two does came in without youngins. they had me up the tree until 6:25 last night, out milling around in my food plot. wasn't about to climb down and chase them out of there. was nice, with the bright moon, i could watch them way after sundown with the nockers. funny thing though, they were eating clovers in my plot, while coming out of a cornfield 10 yards away. when they were done, they went back into the corn???

[rbs]

anyone have a suggestion for a good rattle bag that works? I need to get something smaller and compact. The horns that I have I think are just to big.

[vister]

i bought a pack-rack, the new thing for this year. better than a bag imo. sounds great, compact, has brought bucks in so far too, just not Mr. Right, yet. but his days are numbered!

[JustLOVEit]

Yesterday i got a 5-point buck to come in by bleating it was close to noon. They later around 2pm 2 does walk in behind me. They looked to be matured does so this is good signs for the opener.

Still waiting for a big boy to tag my bow license.

[FISHINGURU]

on my way to my hunting land i seen a nice big buck out in the plowed bean field along the road right before i pull into the driveway...about 80 yards away was either a smaller buck or a doe but i could see the big bucks rack in the moonlight he was about 40 yards from the road.

action started fast for me this morning...got in my stand about 30-40 minutes before light and i could hear sticks breaking and leaves getting thrown around...when it got shooting light i had 3 does and a buck about 50 yards in front of me...they slowly milled around making their way toward me.

in the meantime about 75 yards to the right of me i hear a grunt and look over and its a buck chasing a doe with his nose straight to the ground...they made there way over to the other buck and does that were making their way to me....then about 75 yards to the left of me two does come runnin down the ravine getting bumped up by another buck that was following them.

they all played around my stand within 20-40 yards for about half an hour...the biggest buck was the one with his nose to the ground but he wasn't a "shooter", he was a decent basket 8 though...the others were sixes and forkers...one was walking with a limp he must of got shot last year in the leg it looked like.

none of the bucks were aggressive towards each other and they really didn't chase the does hard...they were just kinda bumping them along...i ended up watching all these deer for about 2 hours before they were out of sight.

tried about 4-5 rattling sequences and only got a doe to respond lol

seen 2 real big bodied deer following each other at about 11 am right when i was gettin ready to leave my stand...couldn't get a good look they were about 150 yards away and they were movin along pretty good.

all in all i figured i seen about 4-5 bucks and about 7-8 does.

another cool thing was a big flock of turkeys came down the valley when them deer were in front of me and the does were fighting and playing with the turkeys...they were chasing each other and one of the does kept standing up on her back paws then charging the flock lol.

this week should rule

[DonBo]

On my way to stand this morning, 5:30, saw a big 10 point walking down the sidewalk right near the Oakdale Nature Center. He was not concerned by my stopping to gawk at all. Gotta love the stupid metro deer...hope he don't get hit by a car.

[fishermatt]

I had a medium 8 pointer grunting at some fawns that were feeding in front of me at about 25 yards last night. He was sniffing around but they wanted nothing to do with him. He had been in a big alfalfa field about 300 yards away, and when the fawns came out he came trotting right over with his nose to the ground and grunting.

[BRB]

The rut is def. on saw 5 different bucks chasing around a hot doe for the whole morning finally took a nice sized 8 pointer chasing her. But this is where it gets interesting after i hammerd the nice sized 8 I was giving him a little time. Mr big walked out 10 min after i shot that one. He was walking circles around me at 15 yards broadside and all i could do it watch. SUCKS but oh well

[sticknstring]

I hate when that happens!

[Archerysniper]

Yeah that really sucks,congrats on the one you got though kinda bittersweet isn't it

[mozy]

Reminds me of a Realtree video with Michael Waddell. He shot a nice 135ish 8 pt. and a couple minutes later he had a 150 class 10 walk right to the base of his tree.

[Kyle]

they are rutting pretty hard where I am. I saw a monster last night right by my house at 9:30pm on my way into town. Crossed teh road right in front of me. Probably the biggest deer I've ever seen. This is a day after I took pics of a 150-160 class deer at 1pm while driving. I posted those pics in the deer bear moose section under "you should see this".

[sparkyaber]

Take this with a grain of salt, since I am so new to the deer hunting thing, but where I hunt (about an hour south of Duluth) all but one of the does that we saw this weekend had the young ones in tow. Also, only a few scrapes, and only few rubs.

Either the bucks are somewhere else, or they are not into the full swing yet? I figured we would see at least a one or two bucks chasing the does around, but saw none. We saw a total of 12 deer, all does and yearlings.

Any ideas?

[Kyle]

Deer dont all hit rut at the same time in every part of the state. It can vary by weeks in my experience.

[Archerysniper]

Had a 6 chase a doe right under the stand a monster that moved to fast and too thick for a shot chased a doe and two yearlings through at 20 yards a 130" at 50 yards just feeding and walking behind a doe and a really wide and tall buck right at dark just feeding on swamp grass by himself the 2 big ones are well over the 160" mark this all was tonight in the stacy area.

[rcook72]

3 bucks hit on HWY 10 between Hanson and Round lake blvd in the last 36 hrs that I have seen. They are moving in Coon Rapids.

[totally_addicted]

I covered a huge piece of state land today by Detroit Lakes looking for rut activity and didn't find one single rub or scrape. I did see a doe with her fawn but that was it.

[walleyehunter80]

the deer are rutting big time in the sothern part of state, im out each night and always see them on their feet with their nose up the does you know what, necks are as big as their going to get!

[CANOPY SAM]

If you ask my wife, she'd tell you the rut lasts throughout the entire year!

I'm chompin' at the bit for Saturday morning. I'm really hoping to watch my eldest boy take his first buck.

[paceman]

I don't believe they are rutting too hard around D.L. yet. marginal scraping and the bucks I have seen aren't swelling yet...