Rut Reports

[archerystud]

I got to the stand early this morning...too early. I put out my scent wicks and climb into my tree, right as I get my hood on I have deer come in. It's pretty dark yet so I have to wait. Amazingly they start grazing on the hillside to my East, one of them looks huge. Well it finally gets light enough and it's 2 adult does and 2 fawns. As I'm looking at them to the East I hear a grunt behind me. Oh no, I can't pick up my bow because the does are staring right at me. Turns out to be a small 4 pointer.

Two other small bucks show up at 8:30 cruising and I sit until 11:30 without seeing anything else from my stand. I climb down to get my scent wicks and a deer gets up. It was bedded about 80 yards down wind of me, not sure how long it was there but it looked like a doe.

On my drive out I see that the one remaing corn field is about 1/2 picked but the combine is parked. I'll drive out at about 2 to see if he's picking again or not..... If he is picking I know where I'll be going.

[paceman]

Sat today from 7:15 till 12:30 and then back in at 1:30 until dark. 3 does/fawns seen late morning. Nothing else the rest of day. Driving back home all area fields - empty.

[Cheetah]

Tonight's stand was good for me. No new bucks came by, but the bigger 4pt I almost shot last Sunday came by again. I let him pass, I already had a big doe on the ground. The scrapes in that area were still small, doesn't seem like anything big is moving through the area, at least not yet.

In the morning I am going to go to one of my other spots that had some un-used scrapes last weekend. Hoping a bigger buck is cruising that river bottom in the morning.

[CrewJones]

I had a 2 year old 7 pt in when he saw my decor he nearly shat himself. walked around and then moved on. Now i just need to see a big boy, i guess ill have to get it done with the boom stick

[surewood]

Been a tough week for me. Toughest I can remember. Saw one shooter, one deer rump, heard one buck grunting, and got busted by a doe. I'm averaging around 7hrs a day in stand. Back at it tomorrow morning. So not much rut activity for me.

[archerystud]

A lot of action for me. Farmer was picking the corn field so I headed out to the same stand. As I'm climbing in at 3 a 3 pointer comes in from the North.... I'm only half way up the tree. Saw the same 4 does from this morning and they were being pushed by 2 bucks. Finally at about 6:10 a 2.5 year old 8 pointer came by. I saw at least 6 different bucks (might have been 8) and the same group of 4 does twice. Will be in the same stand in the morning now that the corn is out. Wind should also be perfect for that stand tomorrow. I'm kind of pumped!!

[Archerysniper]

I had a 8 come thru tonight that I drew on but decided to let him go. I grabbed my grunt call and rattling bag trying to bring him back for a closer look. As soon as I started rattling a buck came rushing in from the south snort weezed and grunted at the 8 and chased him off,I never got a glimps of him but he had to be fairly nice to chase the 8 away.

[MattL]

Another tough day here. Saw more yotes than deer. A single yote came by early and a mom with 2 pups in the afternoon. Didn't have a shot at any of them. Passed up 2 seven points and an eight point. No rutting activity noticed today.

[96trigger]

Got in the stand about 4:30 tonight. I was being fairly aggressive with calling. Louder and more frequent as Ikept hearing something behind me. About 5:30 I had two does at the top of the bluff, I could make out their silhouettes. They got a little frisky and took off, Ihave no idea if there was a buck up there, I debated sitting in a stand up there as they would have only been 30 yards, but the wind was wrong and strong, so I opted for the valley. I was still hearing walking behind me and finally got a glimpse of the turkeys that were doing their best to impersonate a deer. A little disgusted I hit the grunt tube again and hear a deer sprint towards me from behind. It stops and I am frozen with my release clipped, finally, some activity, after a minute it proceeds to walk in front of my stand, nice little 6 pointer, all riled up and nobody to play with. He checked out my scent wicks, got as close as 5 yards and finally wandered up the bluff where the does were last seen. Exciting to finally get some rut activity, now they just have to grow. My dad called me tonight as he saw a very nice buck across from his house in a freshly picked corn field, he was checking out 5 does and a scrub buck, there was to much human activity for him and he wandered off. This was at 9:00 am, dad said he could have cared less about the combines and trucks. Good sign for the weekend. If I can get everything packed and ready, I might try and hit the stand on top of the bluff tomorrow on my way to my parents, unless its too late, then ill wait until next week. This was the slowest week before firearms Ican ever remember. A little disappointing with the cooler weather and all the crops being out that there was not more activity.

[tracker_02]

I agree 96t I have been out a lot this last week, and can also say the slowest I have seen also. I have watched many does feeding in picked bean fields for more than an hour many times the last week even had a couple small bucks feeding with them showing no interest whatsoever. Really do think it should be any time now.

[dave12341234]

Im heading out right now, nothing on the camera for 3 days, although my spot is off the trail I was expecting atleast a few pics. I have seen more deer moving around in the fields while driving to work. Regardless should be a great weekend!

[tracker x-2]

Hey tracker i like the name... lol

I have been out around mankato this week and have no signs of chasing the several does i seen eating in a field. i think its gunna kick up this weekend

[Bear55]

I agree 96t I have been out a lot this last week, and can also say the slowest I have seen also.

Same here guys, burned up most of my good spots and havn't seen a buck in two weeks. Got one more killer spot to hunt tonight, pressure is on to arrow a buck before the boom sticks come out.

[minnesotahusker]

Is anybody still seeing activity on scrapes or has that boat sailed for this year?

[Summett]

I'm still seeing activity on scrapes. Just freshened up a couple yesterday before my hunt that were just worked the night before. When i got home i had pics emailed to me of a couple bucks "re-freshening" them themselves.

I just haven't seen any during the day do it.

[archerystud]

I haven't seen squat for scrapes. In fact the mock that I made hasn't been touched by anyone other than me. The small buck I saw this morning sniffed it for a little while but that is all.

Also my "hot" spot was cold this morning. One deer snorted at me from the south as I got to my stand. So I climbed in and let out one grunt. About a minute later a 6 pointer comes in from the south and that was it for the morning. So I came out a little early and I'm going to eat and get back into the stand by noon. Hoping for a better afternoon because after this weekend this woods gets VERY tough to hunt.

[tracker_02]

Actually had some activity on a mock scrape we made this year, we have tried them other years with little success.But this year we had two different bucks check them out we had a trail cam set on it. We got pics of one actually peeing in it, so we'll see what happens this wknd. My wife gets that stand maybe a big boy will check it out.

[Musky Buck]

Unclear of the boat sailing for this year, now is when for rifle hunters new fresh scrapes are like gold because they will actually have a doe going through them now who is near ready,it's almost like the early scrapes are a hope and a prayer for a buck because they're ready and the does aren't, every so many years I find fresh scrapes opening day of muzzleloader especially in snow years it's obvious they are fresh then, tomorrow at some point that's what I'm going to do try to sneak around and find a fresh scrape, but the weather may play into it some the way it sounds. Fresh may not look fresh tomorrow morning.

[paceman]

Had good activity for the first 30 minutes this morning. I saw 9 total and they were all around me at the same time. 2 fawns and a basket 10 were 5-10 yards behind me, and 6 does/fawns were about 40-50 yards in front of me milling around. The only problem was that the little 10 did not like my decoy and was milling back and forth stomping his foot. Of course that made the whole group nervous. After about 10 minutes of this I gave a soft grunt and the little buck snorted and ran off, that caused the whole herd to scatter. Quite the racket! Nothing else seen after that.

[nbadger23]

A little relief last night and this morning for the mind numbing slowness that had been the rest of the week. A little 6 point came through last night and I was at full draw on a nice buck this morning but just didn't have a clear lane. I find it a little curious that I've seen a few does with fawns (albeit trailing quite a ways behind) and no pushing or interested bucks later.

I am hunting a new spot this year that is near an area where 3 trails intersect and there were 6 scrapes in the area when I found it last two weeks ago. The nice 10 that I missed on Monday was coming into it but other than that, the other bucks I've seen have been on the periphery and I'm wondering if I set my stand incorrectly. I'm not real familiar with hunting scrapes so I may need a different plan with this spot

[paceman]

There are alot of scrapes in the two woods I have been in this week, but very few are being worked.....

[mainbutter]

I find it a little curious that I've seen a few does with fawns (albeit trailing quite a ways behind) and no pushing or interested bucks later.

Same over here! Last year I saw young bucks follow just about every other group or loner doe, usually a few minutes behind.

So far I'm zero for however many separate occasions I've seen females in the past week.

[FISHINGURU]

The rut has been off the hook for me here in SE MN, I shot a big 10 pointer on Monday at 20 yards he was chasing half dozen does right past my stand. The day before that I seen a monster out in the field at about 200 yards chasing 2 does at 11 am, earlier in the morning I watched a forker and a basket 8 push does right past me.

This morning I seen 3 shooter bucks, while it was still dark I could hear sticks breaking, chasing, and grunting, about 20 minutes into light I heard the buck chasing the does toward me across a dried creek bottom. All the does came across 1 by 1, I counted a dozen of them but the buck I heard didn't follow so I grabbed out The Can and let out some estrous bleats. He finally came across the creek and hung up about 40-50 yards from me through some brush, he was a beast I'd guess around 160-170 class.

An hour and a half later I heard a few sticks break behind me to the left so I hit The Can again and down comes a real nice 10, he got within 30 yards then hit the creek bottom and went the other way. At 10:30 I heard some more movement behind me to the right so I peaked behind me and there about 50 yards on my entry trail is a heavy 8 pointer, I messed around with him for about half an hour bleating and grunting.

You know it all has to go down like that because I already used my buck tag. If I hadn't got a buck yet I probably wouldn't of seen anything today lol.

Where I shot the buck on Monday and seen the other beast the day before is a different spot then I was at today about 10 miles apart.

Only reason I grabbed The Can is because I forgot my Heavy Horns at home, I normally never even grab The Can. Works pretty nice though I'd love to try it with a doe decoy!

[nbadger23]

Good for you Guru, that's the action I've been looking for in SE MN but so far just some spotty chasing last weekend and that's been about it. I'd like to order "3 hot does with a side of testosterone enraged boone and crocket' to my deer stand please!

Honestly, I just enjoy watching the chasing so much. It makes hunting this hard worth it just from the pure enjoyment of seeing that stuff. Many hunters never get to see that as up close as we do as bow hunters.

[MattL]

Started out downwind of a bedding area today and saw a doe with 2 fawns about 10 am. By 11:30 the wind was getting sketchy so I relocated to a funnel between 2 bedding areas, but the wind switched again by 1 so I made another change. I am now set up on an unpicked bean field hoping a big boy will follow the does out to feed this evening. Normally I focus on bedding areas and funnels this time of year but with how slow its been I figured I'd switch it up and hit a food source.