Buck sign

[Guppy]

I was doing some scouting yesterday and noticed a large number of rubs and scrapes. I normally don't see this many until toward the middle to end of October. Seems very early for the number I've seen!

[Fish- N- Hunt]

I noticed the same thing, it seems very early. I think they are just starting to claim domanance and territory. I am just confused though too because I see bucks still in there bachelor groups. I was going to post the same thing.

Fish- N- Hunt

[TomBow]

I was in northern WI this weekend (WINDY!) and did some rattling. I had does and fawns come in and 3 bucks (two forks and a spike). The spike came in and was acting suspicious, turned out he was looking at a fork that approached from the other direction. The forkhorn even pawed the ground, bull style looking at the spike for a fight. I moved and spooked the forkhorn and they both ran off together. These were young bucks but gave me an indication that there is some aggressiveness in them right now. Should only increase from now on.

[Jeff S]

I've seen the same thing in our woods. Here is my theory.

We hunt 100 acres near Brainerd. There is not much hunting pressure around us and our woods is kind of isolated due to lakes and development.

For the past 3 years we have been letting the little bucks walk and shoot only trophy bucks or does. We took two real nice nine pointers in the last two years. Last year we took 8 does off of the 100 acres and let all the little bucks walk.

This year with the aid of trail cameras we have seen 3 very nice bucks and many 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds. I would estimate the buck to doe ratio is close to 50/50.

My theory is with many more does being taken that the buck to doe ratio may be a little closer than it has been in the past. More bucks and fewer does may make for more competition among the bucks thus the early arival af scrapes and rubs as the bucks fight for dominance.

Our woods has had scrapes and rubs since the 21st of september which is a month early.

Let those little bucks walk, it's amazing what has happened to our woods.

Jeff S

[TomBow]

That's the issue that I see, the sex-ratio in general is skewed. Everyone wants the bucks and shoot them, leaving tons of does let in the woods. You can bet that if there's 100 does and 5 bucks in the area, most of those does are gonna get bred. Say one buck dies from the "rigors of the rut". Say only 50 does get bred and 25 of those have twins. The 25 does with twins become (25 does + 50 fawns) 75, the 25 other does become 50 (25 does, 25 fawns) so you now have 4 mature bucks and 175 other deer from the original 105 deer. Pretty soon the area is overpopulated, the deer browse themselves out of "house and home" so the overall herd is much less healthy.
The area I hunted in WI is similar to your area, Jeff; due to development there is no gun hunting in the area so the bucks can live for a long time. Maybe that's why the rattling brought in the deer. In a few weeks I'll be in there and I'm hoping that the deer are running around like mad! Best of Luck to all.