Rut Activity?

[reinhard1]

nice buck. cant wait to get out there saturday. good luck.

[harvey lee]

The bucks will be going for quite some time yet.

They are just starting to get going and the does all come into heat at a different time or cycle.

Go get um and good luck on the opener.

[ozzie]

just had a group of 5 does in my parents back yard this morning getting chased by a 2-3 year old buck.......his head was down neck stretched just following the does!!

[so haaad]

This past weekend we started seeing a few more bucks during the daylight in the north metro. Bucks also started following the does around in the last couple of days, too.

[hunter322]

so haaad, where in the north metro? i hunt the east northeast metro.

[Finlander]

Rut activity! There was a buck chasing a doe at the intersection of 35W and hiway 13 in Burnsville! Dang stop and go traffic!

[bigbucks]

I vote prerut/chase phase. Charles Alsheimer by my standards the Whitetail authority, says 11/15 peak rut in the North, latest it can be this year & I believe him.

Scrapes & rubs just starting to show up for the most part around here. There were a few scrapes as far back as 2+ weeks, but most I've seen were in the last few days. Rub I saw yesterday was on about a 2" diameter tree & the shavings were laying fresh right on top of the leaves. Still seeing most of the does with fawns, but not all of them. Have seen a lot of fawns grouped up too, but there was one doe with. I think a Momma got killed. Very few buck sightings as of yet. Usually when it's really going the little bucks are everywhere.

[buckx37x]

I would have thought we should be pretty much in the chase period to. But we had a nice eight behind our house bed down with a doe today, so ya some are in heat and he was the lucky fella that caught her i guess. Still should be good this wknd.

[Lure Lightning]

i would agree i seen a buck chasing a doe this afternoon at about 3:30 and have seen several bucks hit on the road.... I personally have a vendetta to knock down a deer this year as I have had about $4000 in vehicle damage from hitting one. good luck and be safe this year

[matchset]

wham bam thank you ma'm! i personally saw three bruisers this weekend....on the meat pole! 135, 140, and 154! can't beat the pre rut/seeking phase!

guys you better believe it! i saw so many bucks in the last four days! nothing i wanted to shoot but boy oh boy were the bucks looking for action!

IMO...Get into the tree!

[mrklean]

on the way home from the bow range last night saw lots of deer and one small buck and doe combo right off the road feeding

[brassman]

Saw 6-7 deer up the street and one was a 2.5 year old buck that had no interest in the 4 does 20 yards away. But this dude was locked up with a doe, and paid no attention to my running truck 20ft away.

[Dave S]

I think the rut is on here . After watching a doe with her twins walk through the yard tonight, she did an about face and bolted out of the yard. In the far reaches of the yard light, I could see a deer in the back yard working a scrape and working and the edge of the tree line. Too bad I'm not hunting here this weekend.

[Bear55]

Remember everyone the true rut is 3+ months long, does have already been bread all across the state, its the same every year. Many go early through the end of Oct, and early Nov. Also many does go later in Nov and into Dec. Its just the peak of the rut in mid November when most of the does come into heat that many refer to as the rut. All three phases of the rut can and do overlap, if you see a buck chasing a doe in Oct she is probably in heat, that does not mean the rut is on state wide.

Alsheimer is a smart guy and I respect him but I have to go by my own journal and data from others I have collected over the years. I just don't buy the moon trigging the rut stuff, especially the prediction this year of peak rut around the 23rd of Nov. Everything points to photoperiod and that remains the same from year to year and my peak rut data reflects that. Good luck to all.

[JIvers]

The timing of the rut is due to decreasing amounts of daylight; weather and moon cycles have nothing to do with when it happens, which will be the same time every year in a given area. In a long north-to-south state like Minnesota, it is important to remember that the peak of the rut comes a little later the farther north you go.

What the weather and moon cycle does affect is the amount of daylight activity you see during the rut. Clear nights with a full moon make it easier for deer to move about after sunset, so you see less activity during the day. Likewise, warmer than normal nights during the rut allow deer to move around more at all hours, while colder weather makes them bed down in the dark to save energy.

The peak of the rut down south in Zone 3A begins right about the time of our opener. This happens every year. Last year, on top of the massive amount of corn still left in the fields during first season, we had to contend with both warm nights and a full moon with clear skies on opening weekend. Not surprisingly, I saw very little rutting activity during the season, and had to hunt until 4:45 PM on the last day of the season to fill my tags.

This year, things promise to be much better in 3A. The corn is mostly out, there is a new moon, and a modest cold snap coming through. I expect to see many more bucks out chasing does this year than I did last year...but the rut is right on the same schedule.

[Bear55]

Also the peak rut when all the breeding takes place is often the worst hunting because bucks are locked up with does and don't travel as much. Most often the best time to hunt is the peak of the chasing phase which is pretty much now and ramps up towards the peak breeding time (lock down).

I will agree peak rutting activity can vary from area to area but I see the most mature buck activity from Nov 8-12 and hear a lot of the same from people across the state and from hunters in other northern states. The best thing to do is keep track in your own area and figure on the best time to hunt it once you have a lot more info.

[Musky Buck]

My 28 years of chasing them Bear and my notes are exact as yours. That's why I always said November 1-6 about is my prime time when bucks aren't locked up with a bedded does necessarily, some are but yet they are often revisiting scrapes and that's when I connect. We only differ slightly on timing in our own hunting areas and likely the kind of cover etc we hunt. I'm a scrape hunter so if he's got a doe I'm SOL, I need him to come back and check that scrape. Saw a large 10pter by Little falls last night pursuing a doe and a 3 pointer doing the same, wouldn't doubt by nights end or at some point today those does will be bred and it's sniffin for the next receptive one for those bucks.

[james_walleye]

I have a couple coworkers who have shot many many P&Y bucks each and they both told me that year in and year out here in SE MN you want to be in a stand as much as you can from October 28th to about November 3 or 4. Beyond that you are getting alot of the bucks locked up with does. I can't argue. I wish i could post all the pics of the big bucks i've seen shot this year around here during this time frame. Its insane. They were right on. The bucks are cruising to beat the bandit looking for those first couple does to come in.

[bottom-bouncer]

The timing of the rut is due to decreasing amounts of daylight; weather and moon cycles have nothing to do with when it happens, which will be the same time every year in a given area. In a long north-to-south state like Minnesota, it is important to remember that the peak of the rut comes a little later the farther north you go.

What the weather and moon cycle does affect is the amount of daylight activity you see during the rut. Clear nights with a full moon make it easier for deer to move about after sunset, so you see less activity during the day. Likewise, warmer than normal nights during the rut allow deer to move around more at all hours, while colder weather makes them bed down in the dark to save energy.

The peak of the rut down south in Zone 3A begins right about the time of our opener. This happens every year. Last year, on top of the massive amount of corn still left in the fields during first season, we had to contend with both warm nights and a full moon with clear skies on opening weekend. Not surprisingly, I saw very little rutting activity during the season, and had to hunt until 4:45 PM on the last day of the season to fill my tags.

This year, things promise to be much better in 3A. The corn is mostly out, there is a new moon, and a modest cold snap coming through. I expect to see many more bucks out chasing does this year than I did last year...but the rut is right on the same schedule.

The further north you go the earlier the rut takes place this why the rut peaks in january in texas. not the opposite as you stated.

[JIvers]

"The further north you go the earlier the rut takes place this why the rut peaks in january in texas. not the opposite as you stated."

Nope. The main rut is already finished in south Texas, as this link makes clear when you look back at previous weeks: http://www.versus.com/blogs/rut-map Their main rut happened several weeks ago, and they are now reving up for the secondary rut, while we in Minnesota are just seeing the first wave of the rut.

If the main rut in south Texas happened in January, most of their deer would be born in July, and would miss out on half the growing season. The first rut begins in mid-October in parts of the deep south, as fawns there can handle being born in mid-March. That strategy would not work so well in Minnesota, much less in Canada.

[Bear55]

I have a couple coworkers who have shot many many P&Y bucks each and they both told me that year in and year out here in SE MN you want to be in a stand as much as you can from October 28th to about November 3 or 4. Beyond that you are getting alot of the bucks locked up with does. I can't argue. I wish i could post all the pics of the big bucks i've seen shot this year around here during this time frame. Its insane. They were right on. The bucks are cruising to beat the bandit looking for those first couple does to come in.

All good stuff guys. I kind of wonder if those early dates have more to do with rifle season kicking in and pressure on the deer. Bowhunters might be seeing that early rut action and it could be the best time to be in the woods. down there. I think high pressure can shut down a lot of the daytime rut activitiy we might otherwise see.

Up in the public bigwoods its alwasy a busy opener but then things calm down mid week and the deer have plenty of land to roam so we might actually see a more natural rut up there. We have far fewer deer and mature bucks but things alwasy get hot in the middle of the week on those prime dates. Or as hot as they can be with low deer number and plenty of wolves.

[Steve Foss]

Eyehunter, thanks for that info and link. Being primarily a meat hunter, I rarely pay much attention to rut levels because does are generally where the food is, and a doe is always just fine with me. But this year we're lottery up here, and I didn't get a doe permit (only 100 were given out in this monster unit 118). It looks like this weekend could show a lot of buck movement.

Also thanks you other guys for the perspective on buck movement during late pre-rut and rut. Great stuff! I just got a little bit smarter.

Also I'm happy about the new moon and cold snap. Got down in the teens last night, with a low of 23 tonight.

Good luck everyone!

[peterson99]

It's on now! Check the link below!

Buck Battle in St. Paul

[Musky Buck]

Since October 15th to present according to my trail cam, not necessarily rutting for a doe but that's when the groundscrapes really came alive in my area. I was sure wondering what was on that camera as I put it where a few trails from years gone by come together, when I picked it up there was a good 4 footer(scrape)10 ft in front of the camera and a definite shootable buck working it. What surprises me some is how many other bucks come and check it also, 2 years ago 1 scrape and 11 different bucks came to investigate it of all sizes, this year 4 different bucks checked it out.

[Steve Foss]

Found a spot earlier this afternoon where four trails intersect, and there is a fresh scrape so big it looked like someone lobbed a grenade in there. Rubs all over the place, one on a 5-inch-diameter black ash.

Think I'll be starting there tomorrow.