Any chasing going on yet?

[GoggleEye]

Well, has anyone seen a buck with his nose to the ground yet? I would imagine some of the northern hunters have seen at least a couple youngings chasing already. I haven't seen one yet. Share your stories if you wish, it helps me to get through the times when I can't be in the woods!

[finnbay]

We've just been talking about the lack of scrapes around our area. Usually we see some activity by early October, but so far nothing around the Ely/Babbitt area.

[fishermusk]

I found a couple ground scrapes yesterday in Carlos avery.

Good Luck,

Dave

[Hoyt4]

Nothing up north.The deer in the metro seem to go into the rut and chasing a lot earlier then up north not sure why that is. We have bucks fighting in our area.Tuesday last week had many scrapes all over. One edge of a tree line had only 1 on Tuesday night then Friday morning there where 12 up the edge with them being refreshed that afternoon when I went back to hang a stand only 4 hours between times.

[roosterslayer]

Nothing yet near Motley, I watched several bucks enter a field filled with does, and not one of the bucks even made an attempt to check out a doe. So maybe a couple of weeks and some cooler weather will help.

[harvey lee]

I was in ND last weekend hunting and we were talking about the lack of scrapes and that we saw no bucks chasing does to date. I also remember every year that our slowest hunting is usually the first to mid part of October and then all heck breaks loose.

i dont believe it will be long and the bucks will have their track shoes on.

[bigbucks]

We've started to see a few scrapes in the last week, but we only saw two bucks all weekend with 8 of us doing the early antlerless hunt.

[big drift]

Found a bunch of fresh scrapes over the last 5 days.

Also saw a young forkie sniffing around runnning from one scrape to the next until a nine point drop tine showed up, then he ran to the bushes.

bd

[GoggleEye]

Well, hopefully the cold weather coming and some good fridgid rains will wake them up soon. I can't wait to start bashing some horns and watch the chases and fights again this year. I wait too long for this time of year to come!! Make sure to stop back to this thread and tell of any encounters you see of interesting rutting action. Good luck all!

GoggleEye

[g_anoka]

Was up in the Alexandria, Osakis area this past weekend chasing pheasents and hanging deer stands. Didn't see any deer, but we did see a few scrapes.

[PerchJerker]

I have a couple spots where scrapes show up every year, but there was nothing there yet last weekend. But ...... I left my 3D archery target out and a buck beat the snot out of that - the antlers were out, the head was knocked off, and the body was tipped over and the stakes were popped out of the ground. Need to remember to bring my rattle bag the next time I go out

[Scott K]

I was out checking my hunting land last weekend, not a scrape in the woods . We seen about 30 deer in the woods not a rack on a one of them. We drove around later to check out the local fields, seen lots of deer a few small racks, but no big racks . I hope they were just hiding. There is always big deer in the area, just not this time. I guess the only time it really counts is when I have a gun in my hands, so Im trying not to worry to much! Will have to wait until then.

[PerchJrkr]

I shot a nice 11 pointer last night that came right to the grunt call like he was on a string, came up to about 8-9 yards and started pawing around and making a scrape, didnt get very far on that plan though!!

[GoggleEye]

PerchJrk, Nice job! Post a pic if you can. Would like to see that buck.

GoggleEye

[LABS4ME]

look in the archery forum under the "10 point" post... he has some beautiful pics of it there... also his avatar is the deer.

Great job PJ!

Good Luck!

Ken

[Phunnyfarm]

Quote:

---

I shot a nice 11 pointer last night that came right to the grunt call like he was on a string, came up to about 8-9 yards and started pawing around and making a scrape, didnt get very far on that plan though!!

---

Nice job PJ!

What brand of buck grunt were you using out of curiosity?

[PerchJrkr]

True Talker. did the adult buck? not the super low dominant but the next one up. worked like a charm, he came in and started rippin up the ground, i guess he didnt want any other bucks around his turf

[Wensel]

PJ

TT the best call $ can buy

[vister]

come off stand sunday night and startled a good shooter as i walked in the plowing edge next to a rock pile, where earlier, on the way out i noticed a nice scrape that was fairly recent. hmmm, was he checking it out, or on his way to. he was only 5 or 6 yards from it, and me when he bailed. never saw him till he bailed. other than that, minimal scrapes, lots of very fresh rubs.

[GoggleEye]

Vister, I feel ya on that one. Last year I was heading out to my bowstand the second to last night of the first archery season (Wisconsin)and was taking an old gas pipeline right of way because it is relatively open and easy to walk through to get to my stand, and I just looked to my right and here is a 160 class or so buck bedded down right off the trail not more than 8 yards from me just looking at me. He was bedded down with a doe and I think he was expecting me to walk right past him! Well, when I stopped and tried to fumble an arrow out of my quiver, he bolted and so did the doe. Now I walk with an arrow knocked at all times and ready to draw at any moment. I cried as that buck ran away because I knew he wouldn't be caught dead in that area again. I never saw him since....

GoggleEye