State of the Rut, Oct. 25-31
Contributors to this thread:Wisconsin
From: Naz MacBook
26-Oct-14
Was not able to hunt this weekend but did hear from some others who had success on sightings of both bucks and does, along with more fresh scrapes. Should be a good week with the colder air coming! This guy was acting pretty strange tonight, bedded very close to the road, but we did not see any does nearby. Was with a friend who put the high beams on him from a farmer's driveway so I could get a photo before he took off.
From: 10orbetter
27-Oct-14
Go back and see if he has been wounded. I had one do the exact same this a few years ago and there he layed the next morning.
From: Naz MacBook
27-Oct-14
That was my thought, too, but we watched him run off and he looked ok. Fuzzy photo, no headlights, just a little flash as he jogged through the pasture.
From: Gravedigger
27-Oct-14
I hunt Juneau county. I sat morning and evenings over the weekend. I saw a handful of does with no pressure on them from bucks. Each of the does grazed but were never followed up by bucks. I'm not sure if the warm weather had anything to do with it, but I'm hoping it picks up by 11/1 with the colder weather being predicted. I tried grunting and rattling with no success either.
On a side note, I have been picking up some bigger bucks on camera right at sunset and sunrise. Smaller bucks are showing up during the day, but the big guys are still nocturnal.
From: 10orbetter
27-Oct-14
On stand. Wind out of the s, se. No action. Sitting a cut bean field pinch point. Feels like 40 to 45 degrees. Ozaukee county. Farmer cut the beans yesterday.
From: Dogg3250
27-Oct-14
It was a good sat morning in my neck of the woods. 2 bucks seen one took a ride home with me.
Nice 8 came by checking a scrape lines and a 6 was pushing does on the ridge up from my stand. Seen 6 deer in total by 830 am.
From: jtek
27-Oct-14
Very quiet weekend for me. Had a 2 year old open a scrape right by me Saturday night. I saw no deer either morning. Shooters are coming to my big community field edge scrape about an hour after dark and later almost every night. Where are the doe? My son saw a few doe from the stand he was sitting on the property Saturday evening but they moved right at last light.
From: raspy old hen
27-Oct-14
Saturday morning at 8am I had a nice bodied 6 sneak through on my left side. Saturday evening at 6pm I had a tall racked narrow 8 do a rub urination into an area that I had sprayed with doe scent. He was at 18 yards while the 6 had been at 48 yards. One small yearling about 60 yards out sneaking through the tall canary reed grass last night. Little by little things are starting to ramp up. I will be out tonight also.
From: Dampland
27-Oct-14
10orBetter, Nice looking stand area! Hope it produces for you.
From: 10orbetter
27-Oct-14
Thanks Dampland. It is a nice property and I really am blessed. I have 8 different stand locations and try to never sit one twice in a row until the rut.
From: thrasher
27-Oct-14
nodda lotta!
From: rjlasko
27-Oct-14
I have often had good daytime rutting activity (seeking and chasing) when the temps are below 45 degrees during the day. It looks like the temps are going to drop into that 40 degree range for this upcoming weekend but I'm not going to be able to hunt until the evening of Nov 2nd. Then I get to hunt Nov 3rd - 9th.
It looks like the temps may climb back up into the 50's and even low 60's early to mid next week. Overnight temps should drop into the 30's or low 40's.
If the weather fluctuates like that and gets into the mid 50's have any of you found a significant slow down in late morning/early afternoon rutting activity?
Let me know your experiences on that...
From: Zonks32
27-Oct-14
Driving home yesterday from taking the pier and boat lift out at my parent's home in Eagle River.
15 year-old son yells, "Dad pull over."
I turn around and we see these two going after it for at least 5 minutes. Son says he saw a doe too, but she was gone by the time I stopped and turned around.
Cell phone pic....sorry. Deer were about 150 yards east of HWY 45, between Clintonville and New London.
From: thesquid
27-Oct-14
Some following and lots of scraps here.
From: 10orbetter
27-Oct-14
rjlasko, a huge drop the last few days for me. I have yet to see any real chasing during shooting light. Beginning to wonder when the real rut will come. Very slow right now. I would give an almond for snow right now! LOL
From: Bow Crazy
27-Oct-14
Remember, the best hunting is yet to come. Be patient, it will happen, same thing every year. BC
From: martinjame
27-Oct-14
Sat Saturday day and night, and Sunday morning in Crawford County. 3 doe in the field when I left my stand around 10:30 Saturday morning, and then Sunday morning had a down walk by me slowly, grunted at her, and she raised he head and then started walking slowly again. Got down to try a stalk hunt. She walked me right into three more doe, got to about 60 yards, they didn't look pressured or pushed at all. I have gotten more buck pictures.
@rljasko, the best quote I heard in relation to the weather was this, "If a doe is hot, a buck will chase, weather won't stop him. When you were younger did you stop chasing girls because it was cold, windy, hot, rainy, or snowy.....didn't think so, and this is the only time the bucks get to breed."
From: Novemberforever
27-Oct-14
Game on today in Waupaca. Lots of cruising, grunting, chasing. Temps are meaningless, it's all about daylite. The peak rut in So.Cal is 9/20 when it's around 100 degrees by 9am.
From: DOL
27-Oct-14
Pulled my cards yesterday and there is 10 minutes of video featuring this doe and buck. Lucky guy, he is right in the middle of the age structure for bucks in this area. This camera is located 10 yards from a sparring circle where I have captured several bigger and more mature bucks.
Plenty of activity, but all my videos are still at night. No scrapes or rubs yet. Dane County.
From: DOL
27-Oct-14
Very little movement by the doe and she is standing still in most sequences - at least in the vids I captured. Her tail raises and she kicks her legs back a little in one vid.
From: DOL
27-Oct-14
Last shot as they move off.
From: Naz MacBook
28-Oct-14
Naz MacBook's Link
Some nice bucks being taken, including a dandy two days ago from Buffalo County (linked)
From: bfisherman11
28-Oct-14
DOL, I have one of those sparring circles at my food plot. Every year since I planted the plot the bucks like to fight in front of my camera.
Here is a recent fight.
http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v636/bfisherman11/Young%20buck%20taking%20on%209%20point%20at%20condo_zpsk5dhpk2d.mp4
Right now these are all at night. I also have a few rubs and scrapes in this area... Oh, and a treestand about 10 yards away. Ha
Bill
From: Adam C.P.
28-Oct-14
Wow, that sucks Elkaddict! So I'm assuming it must of been hit by a car. Were there any visible wounds?
From: 10orbetter
28-Oct-14
Beauty but a bummer.
From: Novemberforever
28-Oct-14
High sustained west winds quelled the rut today. Spotty rut activity so far as usual. Cold front moves in starting Thursday nite. This weekend should be the start of consistent rut. This guy was out chasin in the wind today. 3.5yo, nice buck.I like the double neck patch. He will be looking better in a week.
From: Naz MacBook
29-Oct-14
Nice buck, help me understand what I'm seeing there, though, as far as background/foreground?
From: Novemberforever
29-Oct-14
1 frame from a Sony video cam, 60 yards, my 16 yo Norway thermal 6 acre plot, rock fence lines from the 1860 homesteaders.The upper right corner is the reflection from the back patio of the huntin shack while grabbing a frame off the laptop.
From: Bow Crazy
29-Oct-14
Morning of the 28th, didn't see a deer. Hunting this evening. Looking forward to the cold front coming. This weekend it should start. BC
From: raspy old hen
29-Oct-14
The evening of the 27th around 530pm I had a small buck dogging a yearling all through the canary reed grass. The morning of the 28th I did not see a deer. I plan on being in a treestand this evening.
From: raspy old hen
29-Oct-14
This evening I had a doe and her fawn bedded down in some thick brush. They got up at 530pm and began to feed on the vegetation. As they fed a basket rack and a high racked 8 pointer came charging in from the northeast and the chase was on. All of them left the area around 6pm without giving me a shot.
From: Smokescreen Johnny
29-Oct-14
Headed up Friday hoping to see some bigger bucks such as this one. All small bucks last week but they were chasing all day long. Weather was warm as well which never helps. Hopefully I will see this one that has been seen in the area the last 4 weeks by my son.
From: JackPine Acres
29-Oct-14
No deer sightings the afternoon sit of the 27th. Put a buck decoy out the morning of the 28th and did some rattling. Spike buck came thru on his own and never looked the direction of the decoy. Afternoon sit of the 28th had 2 spike bucks come thru, stopped and put on a pushing match for me. 30 minutes later a single doe came by and she only made 75 yards after that.
With meat in the freezer, it's time to wait on a 3 1/2yr old buck to walk by my stand. Headed back up next week after I vote for the Governor on Tuesday.
Cameras still showing big buck movement at night. Young bucks are the ones cruising during the day.
From: Dampland
30-Oct-14
Tuesday evening: Polk County, saw a doe and two frisky fawns in a small secluded rye grain plot. However scrapes on property has increase from Sunday by at least 10-15%
Wednesday 2pm, had a 120 inch 8 pointer, bird dog a doe past my stand at 50 yards (no shot). He never was farther than 10 yards behind her, grunting the whole way. 30 minutes later, a spike buck came to me on/near their back track.
5pm, heard a buck grunt and chase a doe around the woods for about 5 minutes, about 100 yards away, but never saw them due to a small hill.
Can't wait for Friday morning, when I head back out.
From: RonS
30-Oct-14
Elkaddict - I saw that same buck laying in the field off hwy 12. I was wondering whether it was a car kill as there was not much woods in that spot. Thanks for posting a pic.
From: Bow Crazy
30-Oct-14
Evening hunt, 10/29. 6 pointer strolling through the woods at 3:30. 5:30 a 2.5 or 3.5 year old just passing through, didn't get a good look. Right before dark, doe and fawn browing on Blackberry leaves (I think, a little far away to be sure). That was it. Best movement I've seen in a couple of weeks. BC
From: raspy old hen
30-Oct-14
This morning the bucks were still chasing does around from last night. I had a doe followed by an 8 less than 10 yards from my stand. Laser I had a lone doe return on that same path. All in all 8 deer were spotted from 7am until 9am when I had to leave for work. I would have done an all day sit just to see the rest of the activity for the daylight hours.
From: Dampland
30-Oct-14
Heading out to hunt tomorrow morning. Should be crisp and clear. Hoepfully the wind isn't too bad.
Hope to see lots of movement!
From: glunker
30-Oct-14
Iowa county rut was active, at least for 2.5 yr olds and younger. Fri weather is not ideal but it bests 3 weeks ago.
From: Naz MacBook
30-Oct-14
Damp, not sure about your neck of the woods but north gales forecast here, 30-40 steady with some gusts to 50 mph over Lake Michigan! Watch out for widowmakers!
From: wibuckwatch
30-Oct-14
Hunted 30th had deer around me all night. Rattled in a spike had several doe near me with nothing following that i could tell. It was a great sit even though was still almost the whole time.
From: 10orbetter
31-Oct-14
Winds are picking up in Ozaukee County.
From: smokey
31-Oct-14
1" of snow on the ground here in Seeley. It should stay a couple of days to make for some good scouting.
From: live2hunt
31-Oct-14
East of Eau Claire public lands to Fairchild. Been off all week hunting mornings and evenings, checking traps in the middle of the day. Ive seen a total of 4 deer, 2 bucks on stand and 2 doe on stand. Ive seen nothing driving night or day. Monday morning I was surprised when it got light to see a corn pile 60 yards from my morning stand. They must have put it out Sunday or Saturday. It wasnt touched all week. The guy was hunting it last night. The scrapes Ive found have been abandoned. I would think if you have deer in your area, they are chasing pretty good now. After this week I'm heading North, I was seeing more deer up their. This is pitiful around here, anybody else hunting public land around here seeing anything (without baiting)? I cant even find fresh sign from feeding. Getting pretty discussted.
From: PSEUSER
31-Oct-14
Anyone on here hunting Manitowoc county at all?? Just wondering what the deer activity is like. I'll be planning an all day sit but hope to be tagged out shortly after daylight :)
I'll be hunting just south west of Manitowoc.
From: Brudno
31-Oct-14
Marquette county there moving had 5 fresh scrapes on the walk in within 25 yards or each other. Passed on a decent 130's 8 that was about 3.5 y/o chasing a doe also had a real nice 150's class 8 come in but down wind and busted out haven't seen anything in an hour honestly figured I wouldn't see anything today with the wind and I'd be in by 9.
From: BOHUNTER
31-Oct-14
Wind was rocking this morning and so were the deer, bucks chasing everywhere.
From: Bloodtrail
31-Oct-14
Sat from just after 2PM till close - all deer activity was between 2:30 and 5PM...after that nothing! Saw 8 deer total and passed on a 3 pt that came to the grunt call....
