Rutting?

[paceman]

This morning I had a doe and 3 fawns milling around my stand and then a small 6 pointer came trotting in and the doe took off through the brush. after a few minutes the little buck comes back the fawns take off running. The buck just stood looking the way they went for about 5 minutes and then he walks off. Kind of fun to watch...

[DonBo]

Originally Posted By: hunter4life

ok. I dont know much about photoperiodism, I know that alot of people argue the subject of the moon phase though. I just dont think about it much because I have never seen or had an experience suggesting that it ever made a difference.

hunter4, you are correct, moon phase tied into animal activity is a highly debated topic. The moon phase argument is that animals movement and times of movements can be predicted according to phase of moon. Just based off of solunar tables is all. If you've ever heard the moon overhead/underfoot theory, that's what they are referring to. If you want to test it for yourself, they sell those moon phase wheels that will grade the mornings and evenings as far as fair/good/great hunts. Since photoperiodism is basically the amount of light that enters/or doesn't enter the animals eye, you can see how a full moon or new moon at certain times could possibly effect it. Good luck huntin!

I've never thought about it much either, or put much stock in it. I'm just gonna hunt as much, as often, as I can. There are no "charts" in the world that will change that.

Certainly I have seen fewer deer during the full moon. I believe most movement then is during the night time hours, but if you think I'm gonna stay home next week because of it, you're nuts!

[propster]

Wapiti has it right on. I was not suggesting that the moon determined the amount, or the timing, of their movements, though as correctly pointed out there is some empirical and field evidence of correlation, just as there seems to be with muskies. I was only referencing the increased amount of "light" and the effect of photoperiodism on triggering the does coming into estrus. And temperature has almost nothing to do with triggering the rut, it happens during the same general period each year regardless. But it will impact the amount of movement and our visibility of it.

[Kyle]

So there is enough statistical data to create a bell shaped curve on this stuff? I guess yearly data would show the devations of the ruts timeing, and then could be drawn to show correlation. Never really put two and two together. Photoperiodism would explain the reason why whitetails in all different climates are able to go into the rut at roughly the same time every year, with no dependance on temperature. Even still I like the cold temps for deer hunting. Really gets them moving...

[archerystud]

Last night was crazy for me.

I'm getting to my stand at 3:15 and I think I hear a grunt to the East. I look up to see a doe running away. Was it a buck chasing her or did she see me? I quickly set out my scents and start climbing my tree. Half way up I see a small 8 pointer coming towards me. He goes by grunting as I climb into my stand.

Ten minutes later two does bust out of the swamp to the West with the 8 chasing them. Two minutes later a small 5 pointer also comes out the swamp and follows the same trail. An hour later I see 2 does to the NE in the distance running again. Is it the same two?

As the light is starting to fade I see two more does coming from the East directly towards me. As they get near they turn South so I figure there is no shot. To my surprise the apparently make another turn and nearly walk under me and one of the does snorts and takes off. BUSTED!

I figure the night is done I might as well leave. I begin to put away one of my scent wafers when I look out and a very large buck is now moving to where the does had been moving across the field. He gets to their trail and turns East and walks away. I grunt, he stops and looks but continues East.

No shot but I had a lot of action! I like action!

[sticknstring]

It's evenings like those that I think about all year and look forward to. On our property up north I've never witnessed any chasing... big woods with lots of pressure. But on a small woodlot around home, I'll get action like that maybe once or twice a season. Nothing yet though. Grunting and antler tips through the brush can sure get a guy excited!

[sticknstring]

An exciting morning... I canned right at daylight and not 2 minutes later I turned and saw a deer standing at 15 yds. A spike... he was focused on what he just heard. After a few minutes he turned back and walked 10 yds and I hit him with a few grunts. He immediately turned around and took a few steps my way and stared. Soon after I catch him focusing on something crosswind of me. Turns out to be a forkhorn coming in to the calls who hasn't seen the spike yet. The fork gets about 5 yds underneath me and sees the spike and lets out a wheeze! The first one I've heard from stand. He bristled up and bold legged it toward the spike and continues to wheeze every 30 seconds. Must've did it 8-9 times. Meanwhile, the spike is just standing there raking his hooves in the long grass as if he were making a scrape. Finally the fork decided the spike wasn't a threat and worked a scrape for a few minutes and walked off. The spike hopped the creek and followed suit as if they were now buddies. It was fun to see those young fellas duke it out and gauge their reactions. I've seen chasing and bucks work scrapes but never the infamous wheeze and bristling up. I sure love this time of the year!

[96trigger]

Last night and this mornig were pretty insane. I moved a stand yesterday afternoon to try and catch that big ten pointer one last time. Almost worked. Had a very nice 8 come out right away, thought it was the big guy, but after thinkiing about it, new it wasn't, Anyhow, he came on my right side, no shot. A little while later a doe walks right out of the woods on my left, perfect, 20 yard shot, just like I was hoping for. I sit and wait as she is looking back constantly. She works her way up to me and goes right in front, now she is off to my right, and you can guess what happens next. Mr. Big comes out from my right, again, no shot. He chased her up to the corn, I grunted and he turned and started coming my way, he never got past me, still no shot, I grunted but he just walked away, finally caught my scent and was gone. Man, he looked like an angus with horns.

This morning I go down to another property I hunt. Right off the bat, I see a nice large deer coming down the meadow. He makes a couple of grunts, I grunt back, he gets within shooting range, but still not shot. He ends up going full circle after a couple of does show up. I think the neighbor shot him, too bad for me, but great for him. A little while later, a buck surprises the hech out of me, he came from my left, I draw, settle on him, he sees me and turns to walk away, I let her fly and smack him, but I'm not happy with the shot, its high, and the flight was very flat, I don't know if I hit anything vital or not. I'm going out to look for him this afternoon. I found the arrow, very bloody, and broken off. I don't know if the downward angle was enough to get the lungs or not. A couple of inches lower and it wouldn't have went 100 yards, now I'm hoping for a miracle. There won't be any blood trail, but I have a good idea where he was headed. Hope I find him, he wasn't the biggest deer I've shot, but he was big enough.

[fishermn]

Good luck finding him, hopefully the angle of the shot took it thru the top of the lungs or maybe got an artery. Let him lay a good few hours before you go out looking though! Anytime the shot isnt perfect, the longer ya can let em lie the better off you are (except for when it comes time to gut 'em)

[FISHINGURU]

the rut has been going pretty good for me in SE mn...last week i started hardcore rattling and rattled in alot of smaller bucks 4s,6s,basket 8's ect.

1 hunt last week i seen 6 does, 5 bucks, 2 coyotes and about 100 turkeys..1 of the 5 bucks was a very respectable 10 pointer i ended up passing on at 20 yards....3 of the 5 bucks i rattled and snort wheezed in.

yesterday i seen 8 bucks, 2 does, and a coyote....had a buck chase in a doe at first light...they hung around my stand for about 5 minutes then another buck crosses the creek so the 7 pointer chased over there to check him out..the other buck was a forker or maybe a small 6...they chased eachother around and took off and the doe actually chased after them.

looked about 80 yards to my left and could of swore there was a horse loose...one of the biggest bodies i've ever seen...i lost him for awhile and couldn't see him then a doe came from the opposite direction running full bore and jumped into some downed trees about 50-60 yards in front of me..sure enough the big buck ran over and she tried escaping out of the downed trees but he wouldn't let her.

he kept her trapped in there as i watched them for about 5 minutes hoping when she busted loose she'd come my way...but when she finally got away from him she ran away from me and he followed....i grunted a few times and got his attention during the 5 minutes but he wouldn't leave her...would of been an excellent day to have a decoy!! the big buck was either a big typical 10 or 12...wide, high, and thick...his body had to be right around 300lb.

went out this morning and only seen 2 does and didn't hear as much shooting as past seasons...i remember some years it sounded like war.

[jltimm]

I always "roughly" count the shots, and this year was SLOW.Most years on opener I count over 100 shots morning and close to that in the evening.This year i counted 24 this morning and 22 this afternoon. Slow day, or does the wind quiet the shots?

[96trigger]

OK, I'll finish the story, it actually gets better, then worse. I went back this afternoon, and instead of finding the deer, I found the other half of the arrow. It was pretty tallowed and not very bloody, it was what I had thought. The shot was too shallow, it hit the top of the rib cage and instead of punching through, kind of just scraped the top of it. Never hit a vital and the deer should live. He was just a bit more than quartering away, but if I had just been a couple of inches lower to punch the lungs. Oh Well, at least I know, so thats OK, I had my chance.

As I was walking back with my father in law, who has firearm license right now, we were right by my stand when I hiss at him to get down, a nice buck was on his way down the meadow right at us, he had to cross a big ditch and when he popped out, my FIL would have a great shot. Well, I was lying flat on the ground, I could see my FIL with his shotgun shouldered, we waited, waited, and waited, all the sudden I see the buck pop out and its 40 yards away looking right at us as he stops, my father in law fires, and MISSES, he is usually mister dead eye. It was one of the biggest bucks I have seen on the hoof. We were pretty disguested after that, but he has the rest of the week to hunt.

BTW, I don't know who said we shouldn't let anybody including archers hunt during the rut because its not fair, well, I saw 5 shooter bucks in 24 hours, all of them would have been pretty easy shots with the gun, 1 had one good shot with the bow, and even that was a quick draw, aim and release, so much for level playing field. Still, it was an insane day.

[bmc]

My dad and I are seeing lots of scrapes being kept open on our property north of Grand Rapids. We saw a couple does/fawns this morning and nothing this evening....even sat on the edge of the food plot. My 10 year old daughter is hunting and had a doe and fawn in her crosshairs this morning, but didn't want to shoot a doe that had a fawn with it. I told her shoot a deer she wants, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. I wish the wind would lay down, then they'd really be on the move, at least where we're at.

Brian

[DonBo]

Hey Brian, good for you for taking your daughter out! Good luck to both of you.

[HOGEYE]

In the Bemidji area I think we are nearing the peek of the seeking phase. I saw deer all weekend in the bow stand with bucks on the move and chasing. I haven't seen anything real big under the stand yet, but have had 2 small eights, a 7 point, spike and 2 forks within 20 yards over the weekend with several does as well. Still waiting for a bigger one. Midday has been best for me.

[brassman]

Lots of scrapes where I was hunting, neighbors shot at a big buck chasing does onto our property. got hair off the belly.

[bmc]

Thanks Don. We watched that doe and fawn for darn near an hour at about 50-60 yds and Amanda was torn on what to do. No deer seen by us Saturday night and a nice doe come across the powerline Sunday morning, but stopped right behind a bunch of brush. Amanda had the doe in her crosshairs but said there was too much brush. I can called a couple times trying to get it curious to step into the open, but no luck. We'll be back at it next weekend. I think she won't be as picky next weekend, we'll see.

Brian

[brassman]

Well I just went out into the woods next to my house that a rifle cannot be used in so I went out armed with my grunt call and the "Can" and I saw a doe and a fawn 20 yards into the woods and I used my calls to see what they would do but they were not interested. I then walked about 10 yards only to see a tall 8 point, not outside his ears but very tall. Thick neck is an understatement. Would have been an easy easy bow shot but can't do that either.

[96trigger]

The FIL redeemed himself today, he connected with a nice 9 pointer today, it was the one that I saw right away on Saturday morning. Nice buck, not his biggest, or as big as the one he missed on Saturday, but still a very nice buck. Probably 3.5 years old. It was hot on the tail of two does, he said it was going full bore across the meadow when he hit the grunt tube hard and got it to turn. At 25 yards it dropped its head, he aimed for the base of the nect on the spine and dropped him. The old guy got it back. I'll post pics later tonight. I thought for sure the neighbors got that buck on Saturday, it was awesome to see my FIL get him.

[bmc]

My dad and I were out bowhunting the last 2 days from 1130 till about 3pm. He saw a doe fawn the first day and I saw zip. Today he had a doe fawn right under his tree, he said he spit on it's head and it didn't even know it. Then it laid down about 10 yds from his stand and went to sleep. He also saw a buck fawn. Again, I saw the big zip. All the scrapes we've seen in the last 2 days haven't been worked at all. The chase phase must be in full swing. I just can't figure out where all the bucks we saw on our trail cams earlier in the fall went??? I'll be out this weekend with my daughter hoping she can connect on her first deer.

Brian

[buck 037]

bmc kinda in the same boat here. I have been out everyday since opener, many does most of them have been with their fawns yet. Halloween one of my boys took nice 10pt neck somewhat swollen on. Shotgun opener other son got nice 11pt. Since opener we have seen numerous does sun. pm. the four of us that were hunting saw 12 does not a buck in sight. Like i said earlier iv`e does every day,no bucks, take that back tonight seen a six I let walk he was alone and didn`t seem to be lookin for love.

[sticknstring]

Quote:

All the scrapes we've seen in the last 2 days haven't been worked at all. The chase phase must be in full swing. I just can't figure out where all the bucks we saw on our trail cams earlier in the fall went???

It's the time of year where scrapes are abandoned and a good majority of the breeding is taking place. Call it "lock-down". The bucks will get a hot doe is thick cover and not move very far until she's bred. Fawns will be booted. As for the cameras, all patterns are abandoned. The bucks you were seeing earlier are most likely miles away or sadly, in someone's freezer. But don't lose all hope, around Thanksgiving the bucks will remember where the scrapes are and hopefully return to seek out does/fawns that haven't been bred yet. Instead of focusing on the buck sign, hunt where you're seeing the does!

[B. Amish]

yep, yep, and yep. i agree.