RUT REPORTS

[fire29]

So what's happening around you ??  Hopefully it won't be to much longer.  

 

I mainly hunt chisago county. I've been noticing some smaller scrapes showing up, and not much for rubs.  I try to get as much hunting in now as possible, but take my time off and hit it hard from Halloween till gun opener. 

 

Good luck everyone!! 

[bigbucks]

Scrapes & rubs showing up quite a bit for me in some places.  Saw both at least by October 3rd.  Was in a pasture not far from one of my stands Tuesday night & literally saw somewhere between 30 & 50 rubs in about a 50 yard area of new popples.   I think they're 2nd year growth or maybe 3rd so they're prime for rubbing.  I saw 3 6 ptrs & a forky running together in that area a couple of weeks back, so would guess they're responsible for a lot of that.

[eyedr]

Saw fresh rubs tonight while helping my dad move his stand. 

[rkhinrichs]

Had an 8 come in last night on the range! bigger than a basket but not a pope and young! he got a pass! I normally start grunting and rattling on oct 22 every year! Time to cash in the honey points, I been saving up on!!

[O.T.C.]

As soon as the first scent of a doe hits your local bucks it's game on cruising then, usually roughly Oct. 22-25th in my neck of the woods. See that doe in his scrape and then generally 8-12 bucks after that within a 24 hour window. That's what my tcams have been showing for some years now.

[snapcrackpop]

Any day now

[DonBo]

Saw my first big buck of the season Saturday night. 3 new fresh scrapes in the area Sunday morning.

 

[1eyeReD]

Saw a big shooter Sat night chasing the dump out of two large mature does. I checked my cam on a different side of the property and have a big 10 point show up at 8:ish in the morning a few minutes after a doe on Thurs. He was in a couple night pics at 3 in the morning with a doe as well from last week. Locked already?

[Shu]

Same here Don.  Saw our first big buck in a clover field 1 hour before sunset on Saturday night.  Plus a few other smaller bucks.

[Cheetah]

I was out hunting in western MN near the SD border over the weekend.  Lots of walking for pheasants on numerous public WMA, WIA and WPA areas, and I hunted deer in the morning/evening on a couple spots that looked good for deer.   In all that walking I only found one scrape and no rubs.  Only one fawn came by me while on stand.  We only kicked up one deer (that we saw) while pheasant hunting.    

[fire29]

Friend of mine shot a very nice 8 point this past weekend. 

[nofishfisherman]

A buddy in the metro area had a HUGE 10+ pointer in his backyard Sunday night when he got home from bow hunting down by Winona.  Between that big boy and the 2 smaller bucks he saw from his stand he said it didn't look like they were really into the swing of things yet.

 

 

[ESSGuy]

Saw 2 nice bucks last night on way home from work, first deer ive seen since june. Looks like things are starting up, should start seeing more car kills this week.

[benbosh]

Had a doe and 2 fawns in front of me for a while last night and about 15 minutes later I see a buck heading from bedding making his way to the edge of the woods towards them. He rubbed a maple behind and to the left of me and the doe got nervous and took off with the fawns just standing there. He came out and the fawns made their way towards the doe and the buck was checking the does trail and started heading her way chasing. Nothing overly agressive but its starting! He was a heavy respectable basket racked 8.

[birdguy]

Seeing plenty of scraps and rubs around NW Chisago county. A six pointer running across the road made me hit the brakes at 4:30 this morning on the way to work as three does watched from the ditch. 

[bigbucks]

Scrapes & rubs are everywhere.  More scrapes on the paths in the woods than on field edges right now from what I can see.  I've done a rattling sequence or two each time out since last Wednesday for sure.  Had one forky come in from down wind Saturday night.  Not sure if he came to the horns or not.  He didn't give me a shot, but I wouldn't have shot him anyway.  Woods are going to explode soon, just need to get a few days past tonight's full moon.

[Guppy]

Son was hunting yesterday morning. had a doe come in with a fawn, followed closely by a decent buck. He got a nice 15 yd broadside shot. the buck went about 60yds and tipped over.

[O.T.C.]

The single most eye opening tcam experience was one of the first years I ever put one out on a now I know it as a community scrape spot is if I went off buck sign alone I likely wouldn't have even hunted the spot. There were a handful of tree rubs, 2 ground scrapes was it. Grabbed that tcam and there were 14 bucks that checked that scrape in a 4 day window and none seemed to add to the scrape or very few new rubs showed up and a lot changes in the 5-6 days prior to rifle opener so don't worry much about sign in some of the places we hunt, checked my land after muzzy season and there wasn't much for buck sign in addition to what was there by rifle even though a lot of bucks were cruising it and I saw more bucks that season then I do when my land is really raked over. When this weather breaks/ wind subsides you should be out after them, the big daylight cruisers aren't many days off now.

[MNHunter65]

Was up by tower checking trail cams last weekend. No real buck activity to speak of. Did not see any scrapes in the usual spots and only one rub. Yesterday afternoon I had a huge 12 pointer run across the road in front of me in Coon Rapids. Looked like he was on a mission.

[bottomdweller]

Been seeing lots of scrapes in the last week.  Bucks chasing for almost two weeks, no recieving should only get better

[fr0sty]

 You get some dang nice ones on that scrape!

The single most eye opening tcam experience was one of the first years I ever put one out on a now I know it as a community scrape spot is if I went off buck sign alone I likely wouldn't have even hunted the spot. There were a handful of tree rubs, 2 ground scrapes was it. Grabbed that tcam and there were 14 bucks that checked that scrape in a 4 day window and none seemed to add to the scrape or very few new rubs showed up and a lot changes in the 5-6 days prior to rifle opener so don't worry much about sign in some of the places we hunt, checked my land after muzzy season and there wasn't much for buck sign in addition to what was there by rifle even though a lot of bucks were cruising it and I saw more bucks that season then I do when my land is really raked over. When this weather breaks/ wind subsides you should be out after them, the big daylight cruisers aren't many days off now.

[O.T.C.]

As you do also Frosty !!!! Some year I want to send you all the bucks I get and you can check them off and see how many match up with your cameras. That one with the 15. 5" tines last year was a heart breaker kinda, shot was it nearly 3 miles away ? The issue with the rut is I don't have any bucks showing up from 3 miles away to my stand lol. or do I lol. The rut phase right now should be bucks on a heavy evening sniff at the local food hole, making a near daily trip at some point to their scrape(s) for another sniff, could be 2AM. Another factor is corn harvest can change everything in a hurry for the worse potentially. My buddies 400 acre cornfield recently harvested and chisel plowed is now not a deer magnet at all, many deer have moved off his property really talking does who follows their fawns and who follows that the buck brigade as we call it and they're off your land maybe for good. Where should they be come November 7th is the ? Leaves are off mostly, corn was coming off quickly, etc. These bucks are like my high school buddies at the drive in theatre on a Friday night right now.

[Bear83]

Hunted over the weekend of 10/24-10/25 in the Brainerd Lakes area.  Saw a good amount of activity from what I had been seeing.  Saturday morning had two does and a fork buck working the area.  Buck didn't seem interested in the does, but he did freshen up a scrape.  Saw the same deer Saturday night joined by a 3rd doe.  Sunday morning a doe passed by at 20 yds.  Two minutes later the fork was following her trail, but didn't seem to be chasing too hard.  Plenty of scrapes showing up, but only saw a handful of rubs.  Things are getting interesting fast!

 

P.S.   On a side note, I've been away from the forum for a while.....seems like the posting activity is a lot smaller than it used to be, what gives?

Edited October 29, 2015 by Bear83

[Sturg]

I like to photograph deer in a nearby park.  I hit the jackpot when I saw and was able to photograph this buck Tuesday evening.  He approached some does, stopped about 50-60 yds away then lip curled.  He walked into the area where the does were feeding and suddenly chased one of them for about 20 seconds.  Then he came back along the area where the does had been feeding and worked a scrape.  I was lucky to see him make some scrapes, working a licking stick, flehmen or lip-curling, hooking his rack in the brush, lots of grunting and chasing does.  I saw a different buck do the same last Sunday in the park. 

Licking stick over a scrape: 

  

Lip-curling to scent check the does:

Giving chase:

 

[paceman]

Great pictures Sturg!