Is the rut on yet in your area?

[Keeter]

This may seem like a dumb question to some of you on November 14th....but I seriously do not see the rut in full swing yet in Aitkin County. I still see bachelor groups of bucks, still see does with fawns, and have hunted many days. I see the scrapes and rubs...but have yet to see any chasing or swollen necks. What are you seeing in your area?

[bigdog]

Shot two bucks on the 4th that were chasing a doe. We got one in full, stinky rut this Sunday. Shot a Doe that had been beat up and gored in the rear. They were pretty much going around us.

[Mark Christianson]

I would agree with Keeter. I didnt see any signs of heavy rut opening weekend through this past weekend in the Fergus area.

I talked with 2 neighboring parties and they both agreed the rut was non-existent from what they saw.

Hard to judge based on what we see on our small chunk of heaven. But man, normally we see "hot" deer during rifle season.

[LaVoi]

From what I have read, the peak of the rut usually is within a week of the second full moon after the autumn equinox. We are now on the last quarter of that moon which should put the rut in full swing right around this coming weekend. I think this theory holds water in my area as the first two weekends of rifle season have showed little signs of heavy rutting. Hopefully the final weekend of rifle has the deer on the move and in peak rut.

[harvey lee]

North Dakota last weekend the bucks were running hard and all fawns were off the doe's.Most necks were also swelled.I would guess its going as good as it will.Scrapes all over and fresh and many bucks following doe's and also giving them thier tending grunts.

[Cooter]

I don't know what to make of it...seeing and hearing reports of nice bucks chasin does at the end of Oct and seeing bits and pieces of it yet now - Sat I saw a buck hounding a doe...but I sure didn't see or hear of what I'd call an 'intense' seeking/chasing period yet this year. I think its still happening, but for whatever reason I believe its been and gonna be one of those years where much of the rut activity is spread out over a couple weeks rather than building up and going nuts for a week or so, which seems to happen every couple years for reasons I don't understand. So many variable involved...Later.

[harvey lee]

Cooter,I would agree with you somewhat.I was reading all the rut activity around and was not seeing any in North Dakota.This past weekend I saw it all.

[gorrilla]

I wouldn't put much into the fawns with the does thoeries, guys. You'll see that into mid to late winter often. We always see numerous/majority of the fawns with does in Kittson County(near Canada) in mid December. On the other note I agree it was delayed this year and several of my friends have seen and tagged buck starting last Thursday intensely chasing does. This usually is seen for a week and starts to dwindle, although all that needs to happen is a hot doe and the chase is on. I've seen several doe fawns come in heat in the first two week in December and have several buck follow them like they know its the last tails to chase until next year...

[xedge2002]

I got a buck this weekend that was hot on a doe trail. The doe had ran through about 5 minutes before this guy came in. When I first saw him he looked like a dog chasing a pheasant down. He had his nose to the ground running back and forth over the trail. He got about 40 yards from me and dropped him with a shot through the heart.

[harvey lee]

The reason I mentioned the fawns is because typically the doe's will kick the fawns off before rut.If you see fawns with the doe then she is not ready to breed.

[UdeLakeTom]

We hunt near McGregor in Aitkin Co....on Sunday there were rubs starting to show....no scrapes yet and the bucks did not have swollen necks yet.

[UdeLakeTom]

Found this in the Aitkin-McGregor FM

Lots more activity this weekend north of McGregor. We never saw a scrape or rub on opener but this Sunday afternoon we found quite a lot of new activity.

[Outdoors_Junkie]

We hunt near URL and the rut was not in full swing yet. We had Does and fawns, we had buck traveling seperately. No swollen necks.

[Fish&Fowl]

They say up at our latitude the rut usually occurs around the 12th. We have seen a little doe chasing- lots of rubs but not much for scrapes. It's getting down to crunch time here real quick, and hopefully it will really start heating up and make those big boys do stupid things.

[McGurk]

SE Ottertail County last weekend had lone does, does w/ fawns, and the only buck we saw (large dominant 10, shot Sun Morn) was very full in the neck and STINKY, nose to the ground, fresh rubs and scrapes EVERYWHERE, so I'd think they were in rut then. This weekend should promise to be the same for the area, I'd guess.

[Black_Bay]

The rut was going pretty good for us just south of I-Falls opening weekend. The buck I shot on the 6th was with a doe and, well let's just say he just had a little loving before I shot him. I needed to clean him up before I field dressed him. We also had rubs and scrapes all over. Each area is a little different and we had been seeing a lot of bucks this season. I think the competition for does was higher in our area than in the past so the bucks were rubbing and scraping more this year.

[Gordie]

GrandRapids area saw a lot of rubs and scrapes in the area that we hunt on opening weekend but most of the fawns were with the does didnt see many bucks. second weekend not much change noticed then going home this past sunday around 1:45pm,about a mile from the cabin had a doe cross the road with a huge buck right on her tail they ran into a field 80-100 yards off the road and the doe zig zagged all over and the buck was right on her tail then they stopped doe seen us parked along the road and then she ran into the woods with the buck following closely behind her. It was really cool to see that not much distracted those two deer. Tried to get the camera out but just wasnt fast enough. I wanted to get back into the woods but had to get home

[ChuckN]

I hunt an area NW of Aitken, and there are no scrapes, no rubs and no deer activity during the day, except opening morning I saw a doe and fawn. Worst season I have ever seen.

[c&amagn]

We hunted just north of Brainerd, for a full two weeks before opener, we had 8-different bucks visiting one single scrape via our trail camera, we didn't see one single buck between both w-ends in zone-2. We only saw a few does with fawns with them on openin w-end, then a few faws on the 2nd w-end, our lake nearby froze over two days before openeer thus I their water supply got moved to a different place for the deer, it was way too dry of a summer in that area, one of the worst years I've seen for deer up in that area we've hunted for 15-some years now. I think the guys who saw deer were close to water and food for the deer.

[HunterLee]

Around the fertile area the bucks are going to some degree. My cousin saw two tongiht out in the middle of fields chasing. During the second weekend we saw lot more deer. Going to try to bowhunt friday and the rest of the weekend. They are still searching and nows a good time to bag one.

[slopmaster]

this saturday was the first time this year i had seen a buck chasing a doe. I watched him chase her thought 2 open fields and then disapear into some other guys land. Then also on tuesday i was driving to my stand and right across from were i hunt in a bean field there was another buck chasing a doe. Up to this past week i had not seen any rutting activity

[Mark Christianson]

The neighbor had an 8 pt buck chasing a doe in his yard 2 nights ago.

Interesting to hear what everyone else has experienced. I thought it was just me that was the unlucky one that was not witnessing any rut activity.

[jltimm]

I hunt my own land Norht of Mora, and it's the worst year I've ever witnessed in my 20 yrs of hunting!I don't know what is going on, but I've seen very few deer and I've been hunting every morning and evening, including some bowhunting also, and still get the same result, worthless!

[Boar]

Reading these post sure is getting me pumped up for muzzle loader season. word around here(red lake county) is about the same. Some activity but not much. Boar

[katiejeanne]

Opening weekend of slug season in Isanti it didn't seem like the rut was in full swing. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that the weather had been so warm in the previous weeks. But now with the cold weather I'm hoping to go home over thanksgiving, do some bowhunting, and find the rut in full swing.

Katie