Warm stagnant weather pattern. Even if you don’t believe in the October lull this weather pattern isn’t helping for buck movement let alone any pre rut activity.
NC Nebraska movement is picking up with new bucks showing ever card view, have killed several in the last 5 years this next 10 days, should be on track not unseasonably cool but they are gonna be spending more time on their feet and a great time to grunt in a cruising buck…
Yeah Bou, ya don't need hocus pocus or a sooth sayers moon chart here in Ohio, through many years of observations and taking notes, peak rut is the first 2 weeks of November here and can be planned on year after year as kill stats confirm... I personally like the first week of November over the 2nd week as stats confirm it's slightly better... Weather can affect daytime activity, but if it's hot breeding will likely occur at night... It's the does cycle that determines the rut and regardless most does will be bred within a few days of the same date year after year... Deerfarmers also confirm this...
Last year's archery antlered BUCK kill stats confirm October 31 - November 7 are highest, notice the increase... Spring fawn sightings confirm breeding time the same...
Zbone’s dates are spot on. For the past 20 years I have hunted the rut in Nebraska with Kansas and SD sprinkled in and have witnessed exactly what he mentions.
My all time best date is the 7th but 4 days each side of that date has accounted for 90% of my bucks.
We are about to enter scrape week. More scrapes are opened up the last week of October than any other time of the year. Unfortunately I do not like the weather pattern until the last couple of days of October.
"best date is the 7th but 4 days each side of that date"
Yep, I totally agree Michael, those are the best dates... Good luck to ya...
"We are about to enter scrape week. More scrapes are opened up the last week of October than any other time of the year"
Yep, my same observation... I remember reading, (I think it was one of Rothhaar's books) where he knew of an annual great scrape under a certain tree and was set up on it and was there on October 23rd when a big buck came in and opened it for the first time that year in front of him...
Wanted to add, chasing usually begins around October 20th through about Halloween and right on time a Bowsiter posted over on the Ohio state forum he witnessed chasing and grunting Saturday...
Here in northeast OH, we see a real activity spike around Halloween and we've seen the best activity and killed our best bucks from Halloween through November 7. After that it seems to drop off....I assume it's merely lockdown.
Deadest I've ever seen for this time of year in Manitoba. Not sure what the heck is going on. Normally I find scrapes in September have not seen a single one yet.
Yeah, a deerfarmer once told me cold snaps at this time of year fires the bucks up but actual breeding doesn't happen until the doe is ready and willing and she is on a maternal cycle... Think of it this way, female dogs usually come into heat twice a year (usually every 6 to 8 months depending on the dog), so one cycle could begin in say spring or summer and the other around 6 months later say in the fall or winter, but regardless of the weather 100 degrees or zero she is going to cycle on her maternal clock, weather has nothing to do with it.... From my dog's previous history I can time her heat cycle to begin within a couple days... This year I missed calling her spring heat cycle to begin by one day... Deerfarmers can and do pattern their captive does the same and have been told their does usually cycle naturally within a day or two of the same date annually...
Getting back to does, most fawns are dropped around here Memorial Day week... Look at the annual fawn threads here on this site... So Memorial Day this year was May 27th... Go back 200 gestation days period, fawns born on that day likely would have been conceived a couple days either side of November 3rd... It's that way here annually, although it could be different in the south or north, but say within a couple hundred miles latitude of I70 that runs across much of the country the timing is likely the same, I know they were the same dates in Colorado I spent a couple Novembers...
I'm gonna save this thread for next year's annual rut report...8^)
My understanding is that the length of day, amount of sunlight triggers the does to go into heat. The temperature has nothing to do with it, other than when it’s warm or hot, they just are not as active.
I didn't think this thread was about debating the timing of the rut. We all know it's the same time every year it's more of an activity report. Chasing, rubbing, scraping etc. Unless you're in the deep south where the rut never ends lol
Photoperiodism, is the term for the shortening of daylight triggering the rut. Pennsylvania is way behind on any rut activities, still got summer time Batchelor groups on camera.
Lots of activity this evening, watched a basketrack 5-point run a small group of does around and around, he wouldn't let up and none of the does seemed interested...
At 1:30PM today from the road on the way home from an appointment seen a buck and doe up and about in a steady drizzle hooked up in a little isolated pocket of woodlot... Wasn't able to get off the road to watch the activity, but they were moving at midday today...
FWIW, the moon guide predicts a trickling rut. With an onset of breeding the 20th through the 27th or so in October. A brief pause in mating with sporadic chasing until the 12th or so of this month. Breeding to pick back up from roughly the 12th through the 24th. Bucks cruising the last week in November for the last does.
Believe it or not is up to you. But, so far it’s been pin point accurate. Two weekends ago I watched a buck fight so intense one buck got his horn broke and gored. On top of losing his eye. Last weekend I had three bucks bachelor grouped up feeding within 30 yards for an hour. They never raised their heads in anyway except initially acknowledging the three does feeding around them.
I hunt every second I can. But, I don’t for one second think the moon has no effect on deer movement. Just something to consider.
Cool and breezy here in central SD today. Have seen a number of bucks bumping does. Had this little guy come in bumping snd grunting 7 does and fawns. He was intrigued by the decoy but didn’t want nothing to do with it. Had him at 15 yards sitting on the ground next to a lone tree.
My teenage daughter shot a big, mature whitetail here in eastern CO on Nov 1. He was with what we assume was a hot doe and fending off 3 other smaller bucks. We saw him the week before and he had no interest in does. Pretty sure she was one of the first does to go into heat in our area.
Like Cazador said we are getting a foot of snow which is not the norm in eastern CO during archery. Should jump start the rut when this clears on Saturday.
Nov 11 has always been a great day to deer hunt here. An early thanks to our Veterans!
Again, this afternoon coming home from an appointment, this time from the dentist from a different area and out stands this guy isolated and guarding his girlfriend... They stuck out like a sore thumb with the sun shining down in 60 degree weather... When I first looked, I thought no way out in the open fields like that in the crouch of the fork of 2 kinda busy roads at midday 3PM...
Sorry for the poor quality of photo but there was traffic, and I didn't have a chance to put binocs on him either, but there was a lot of mass and a lot of height on that rack looking with naked eyes from about a hundred yards away and he looked GOOD... She looked like she needed a cigarette...8^)
Crazy how big bucks will isolate their girlfriends from others to have their honeymoon...8^) Whether it takes a isolated old farmstead, a small woodlot or in this case big open fields... I've seen them do open fields before...
Not really Nick, I turned 65 the other day and getting medical Medicare stuff taken care of is why I'm on the road... Posted because this is a rut phase/timing thread... Years of notes and observations proves peak is same, same annually as it is again this year... November 7 through 11th is peak here every year regardless of weather or moon phase... These next few days are prime time to see daylight big buck movement...
Theses plains bucks in SD really cover some country. I found a big 10 pointer with a flyer off his G2 the first night here. He was bumping does around in a cut wheat field.
Last night I seen the same buck over a mile and a half away bumping does around in a picked corn field.
Cover does not mean much to them. Lots of deer just bed in the hills in cut wheat fields.
Had this little guy chase a doe this morning for over a mile before I lost site of him and her.
I shot a buck last Friday (Nov 1) I've been hunting 4 times since than...I did two afternoon sits one 4 1/2 hours one 5 hours..,saw one deer....don't know where the deer are hiding.
Sito if you charged rent to the corn piles living rent free in your head you would be a billionaire! What's the difference between that decoy and a pile of corn? Great buck, was waiting for the thwack!
Since I live out west in AZ, I have never hunted eastern whitetail or experienced their rut, but I still enjoy following these annual reports. I love crazy rut action whether it be elk, antelope or whitetails. Good Luck and keep'em coming.
Lots of cruising and a few full blown chases, the past few days, here in central Iowa. Saw one of my target bucks yesterday morning at 50 yards, nosing a couple of does around. Unfortunately, they zigged instead of zagging. Should hopefully get even better this week.
Photo, N.W. Ill, Nov 9th 7am. Last year after season I gave one of my bowhunting crazy (like me) G-sons my rattle horns & showed/explained how & when I do it (he lives in another state). Blind rattle & when seen out of range. I have a "special" way that my brother & I discovered 50+ years ago. Since, we have rattled in every size imaginable blind & out of range Bucks (Does have responded too, many times). Anyway, I get this text this AM & it says, G-Pa, I blind rattled just as you showed me & he came right to me. I watched him drop. It was awesome.. He was/is so pumped that G-Pa isn't all BS on Deer hunting. One more thing passed on.. I'm pretty thrilled too.
Crazy happenings around here... My lady lives over 25 miles away and calls me excitedly just after midnight this early morning to tell me about a huge buck and a doe in her back yard... It's not like she lives at the edge of town, she lives 3 blocks from downtown businesses... Now I think about it a creek runs about 200 yards or so from her through town... What better place to isolate your girlfriend than to take her downtown...8^) My girl has lived there about 20 years and has never seen a deer in her yard before and she said it is the biggest deer she has ever seen... She was excited and said he was huge...
November 8, 2024, from Penn State University study of their radio collared bucks:
https://www.deer.psu.edu/near-peak-performance/
This chart is almost exactly what I've observed and noted over the years... Same, same timing year after year and starts tapering off after about the 13 or 14th...
Yeah Hunts_with_stick, was slow here yesterday too, but boy action picked up today... Watched a 2-year class 4x4 harassing does midday, then evening watched 4 bucks chasing a doe out in corn stubble but too hard to tell how big in low light over a hundred yards away...
Was good yesterday morning the 13th watching 5 bucks (including my target 5x5) chasing around a doe... Later at 12:30 PM seen a basketrack cruising midday, but went back in the evening, nothing...
Nothing this morning or evening, and today being the 14th, I think it's winding down in my area and with our statewide firearm youth season upcoming this weekend and with the firestick pressure will likely put some back in a nocturnal state...
Bucks are still moving good here. Not the crazy covering ground cruising phase. But, as the does groups herd back up, bucks are moving from group to group checking them.
I read that graph a little differently, and it lines up perfect with my observations from both southern Michigan and Nebraska. That tailing off of distance traveled lines up perfectly with does cycling. The rut isn’t winding down, the breeding phase has started, bucks don’t need to travel long distances. Does are popping everywhere within a week. When they are done with one, it doesn’t take long(normally) to find another. And that’s why you see the little spikes after the downward trend, they are searching for another. That’s one of the reasons I don’t set aside my precious vacation time during peak breeding. I like catching the part where the travel distance is going up, that’s when you have those awesome sits when you see 6-8 or more bucks a day.
Zbone, I agree that there are some early as well as late does that cycle. But the vast majority are generally between the 7th ish and 11th of November when they start(much of there range we refer to).
Nobody has mentioned the so-called "2nd Rut" yet...8^)
After all the Ohio gun season pressure of last week, buddy sent me a trail cam photo of a good mature buck working a scrape early this morning just before sunrise... I'm like dang, how one can survive the slaughter and still be healthy enough to still be rutting is amazing... No trail-cam pix last week or my buddy would probably have killed him with a rifle... Would imagine he found a hiding spot somewhere and now 2 days after the firesticks he's coming back out of hiding and likely a late doe or a doe fawn just came into estrus to set him off to scraping again... December 10th, the 2nd Rut...8^)
It ain't over yet... We got a nice little snow here the past 24 hours and was out a little this morning and seen 3 bucks trailing a doe this morning single file about 30 seconds apart, one was a 2-year class, a dink, and a spiker taking up the rear, seems the pecking order had already been established...8^)
