Rut Activity?

[BryanL]

Sat on the edge of a cornfield in a ground blind I carved into some evergreens. Laid down some scent lines down a few trails and put out my doe decoy. Decoy may have been my downfall. Had a spindly but wide 8 point follow my scent line up from a finger of woods into the cornfield. Watched him come to 20 yards and stop right before the opening in the corn I needed him to get to. Stared right at the decoy for quite awhile. Eventually calmly walked away without giving me a shot. Grunted him back and did the same thing. Just would not come the final few yards. Eventually just casually walked away.

[Lunker]

Watched a small 6 or 8 point chasing a doe pretty hard yesterday evening. Grunting the whole way

[1eyeReD]

Haven't been out in two weeks. All these reports.... Killing me..... I can barely hold on until this Friday.

[PropsterII]

"Killing me..... I can barely hold on until this Friday."

And you'll still be early, or at least way on the front side.

[benbosh]

Heard something walking by this morning but couldn't see through the trees so I grunted a few time and pretty soon a decent 8 comes by at 30 yards with his nose to the ground walking at a fairly slow pace. Once he started getting into some brush I bleated with the can. First one he didn't hear, second one his head shot up, third bleat he started running literally straight to my tree. Got to 5 yards and he came to a dead stop and must have seen me up in the tree then slowly backed off and wandered back into the brush.. After seeing that I knew he only had one thing on his mind. This was in SC MN

[musky hunter]

The northern Wisconsin rut is beginning to heat up. Today I hunted near three large scrapes, presumably made by the same animal. And as it was, near dusk one mature buck passed near my natural ground blind. White tiped antlers, big well proportioned body. I had it at 40 yards for the longest time. It knew something was up. I held and held and held as it moved thru looking at me, giving me only the 90% confident shot. I never released on the animal. But I take this as proof positive the bucks are starting to move.

[Archerysniper]

I rattled in a spiker tonight right away,lots of scrapes are starting

[eyedr]

Glad to hear this. I'll be in the cable area on my wife's grandmas land on saturday and sunday. she has 50 acres that no one hunts. Never hunted it but thought I would give it a try. How far north are you?

[NELS-BELLS]

On my drive in to work this morning, a St. Cloud DJ said that someone had called in warning people to; "be careful if your driving on HWY 10 this morning, there are deer all over the place".

I wish I was in the stand this morning. ....but I will be tomorrow morning.

Nels

[1eyeReD]

"Killing me..... I can barely hold on until this Friday."

And you'll still be early, or at least way on the front side.

Got Mon - Weds off too. You think we'll be peakin by those dates?

[LABS4ME]

nope... it's just ramping up. But there should be increased activity each day over the next 10 days...

Good Luck!

Ken

[PropsterII]

What he said. Nowdays it seems you can almost throw generalities out the window with the fluctuations we've seen in weather and temps and the timing of the rut the last several years. But generally speaking, it's been my belief that the rut peaks somewhere in that Nov 8-12 period, and by that I mean the heightened activity and movement of bucks, especially mature bucks, prior to the time when most does come into heat. So much of this depends on the age structure and buck:doe ratio in your area, and also on pressure. And then gun season kicks in and can throw things for a loop. Still going to happen, just more of it at night, especially with warmer temps. I'm looking forward to this November, as it appears so far we aren't headed for any huge warmups. If I had to pick three days to hunt, it always used to be Nov 6, 7, and 8. If I had to choose now I'd probably choose Nov 9, 10, 11. Global warming probably And after the breeding phase is mostly complete is when I have traditionally seen my biggest bucks, typically Nov 20-25, say around Thanksgiving. Lot less of them running around (literally, and movement-wise) but it's often when I see a true monster or two. Best of luck to all, it's a glorious tme to be in the woods!

[Big Country]

Hey Musky Hunter, you should be commended for not releasing on that buck. That's always a frustrating, tough choice. Especially when a fella puts so much time in to this sport. I got a feeling you will be rewarded for your patience BC

[surewood]

My brother arrowed a nice 10pt this morning. Traveling alone, but they're moving.

[BryanL]

Glad to hear this. I'll be in the cable area on my wife's grandmas land on saturday and sunday. she has 50 acres that no one hunts. Never hunted it but thought I would give it a try. How far north are you?

Are you talking Cable ,WI? I have a small 10 acre plot bordering forest area I hunt up there. Have not been up in almost a month though. Wondering how things are going up there.

[eyedr]

Ya, thats where I will be. I can give you a report on the activity when I get back.

[BryanL]

Ya, thats where I will be. I can give you a report on the activity when I get back.

Greatly appreciated. I'm actually still playing with the idea of going up this weekend. Love hitting up the Ideal Market for some brick oven pizza after a day of hunting.

[walleyeking19]

Okay so I just had a yearling doe walk by my stand. She was in front of me for about 25 minutes and I coulda shot her if I wanted to. But what was weird was that she kept peeing every few feet. I bet she did at least 6 or 7 times. Is it normal for a deer to pee that much? Or is she getting ready to breed? I've never seen it before

[archerystud]

Didn't make it back in time to hunt but I did see 10 deer while driving around and at least 2 were bucks. It's picking up.

[96trigger]

Saw the seek phase tonight. Had at least 4 bucks come by, 2 with mouths open. Passed on a nice 125 inch 8 pointer. Right at dark I heard a grunt and a doe tore out of the alfalfa field right at me, waited for the buck but he was a no show. Bucks are ready, does are not.

[huntnfish]

I had a fawn come by last night all alone and looking lost. I also had a small 6 pointer come by that I played around with. I'd let him leave and grunt him back. After I'd grunt him back he'd come almost to my tree grunting the whole time. There were scrapes all over the place also. I'm planning on hunting again Monday and sitting all day.

[archerystud]

Saw 3 does this morning. Also had something run into the woods prior to shooting light. My guess was a doe but it only sounded like one deer running but it could have been a yote or something. 2 of the does were still feeding as I left the woods. One big cornfield in the area is coming out as well today. Should only get better.

Wind shifted on me at 9:30 making it totally wrong for my stand. Since I have next week off I got out of there to hopefully leave the stand in a good state. Also needed to make sure the slug gun was still on so I got that done.

[Z7EXTERME]

Hunted se mn Thursday and friday sign everywhere seen I nice buck pitting up my stand that's alll the deer during the day. Was really slow seeing a lot after dark walking out to the truck. Came home tonight hunting in the metro on some new property next to some property i can hunt few scrapes and lot of heavy trails I have seen a lot of does on this property and two nice bucks. Hopefully they move before dark

[irishbasketball]

Helped the neighbor track a buck he shot that was chasing a doe. Saw scrapes and rubs everywhere! Heading out tomorrow for sure.

[woodsmaven]

I'm thinking about changing my user name to "Matchmaker" after tonight's hunt. I decided to change it up a bit tonight and sit in my blind. On the way to it I thought I'd set up my trail cam. I made my way to the blind and sat for an hour. Then, I dug my call tube out and gave it some bleats and a snort/wheeze. Two minutes later I heard something, and a big doe is upwind about 10 yards away. I froze. Thought about taking her out, but I changed my mind since the peak of the rut has yet to come. Waited there for 10 minutes as the doe browsed. Then I hear something downwind. I look, and see antlers. It was small eight. He walked behind my blind and disappeared for about 5 minutes until he came back the way he came and locks eyes with the doe. He had that look in his eye. With an arched back and snout to the ground, he went straight towards her tail directly 10 yards in front of my blind. Sniffing her tail all the way, they both disappeared into the woods. So yeah, it's the chasing phase of the rut in central MN. Hope that helps