Rutting Progress Journal 2011

[willypete]

Forgot to mention there was little 8 pointer with a whole side of his racked snapped off...close to the base. So definatly some big fights going on. So rattling may start to work better.

[bouhntr]

well thursday the 3rd. I got done with work at .330. got to my stand by 4 , had a perfect wind. got settled in and sat for a while , then made a few grunts and can calls with no avale. there was a lot of activity though with the squerlls. birds , ducks, sandhill cranes. and just a great afternoon to hunt. just before dark a small deer came in and walked behind my stand over to a scrape and then just walked. all in all no arrows flew buy it was a great time to be in the wooods. goood luck and be safe.

[windsor]

Finally got the chance to go up north in hopes of seeing some better action, got completely skunked. Sat all day and didnt see a thing. My only action was at 0630 when I bumped a deer getting into my stand, other than that, dead. I did see a fresh rub and numerous scrapes on my way out using a different route. I doctored the bigger scrapes with some urine and dragged a line on the way out, hopefully the next few days will be better. I'm up a little north of antigo right now.

[Nwest]

Saw a deer from the road this morning walking along the edge of a chisel plowed corn field and a grassy area. Thinking it might be a buck with a doe bedded down I tried to get a look with the binoculars. By the time I got to a spot that gave me a good view they were up and moving. Saw a doe running away with a buck right on her tail and another buck sitting back and watching the whole thing play out. It wasn't long before I couldn't see them anymore, but the two bucks were definitely interested in her this morning.

[pgchambers]

Shot my buck this past weekend(posted a pic in the WI journal thread), and Saturday was one of those rut days we all wait for each year. I watched my buck chase off a smaller buck from a doe, and when he was headed back to her, I hit him with the grunt tube. He couldn't cover the distance to me fast enough. I would say the rut in Buffalo/Trempeleau county is in full swing.

[umpiremark]

I gave up hunting this past weekend (4, 5, 6th) to attend my niece's wedding; I truly hope I didn't miss some hot action. The full moon is Thursday and I have vacation Thur & Fri to hunt hard on a 4 day weekend. I'm hopeful that bucks are still chasing and seeking hot does and that the action AND SIGHTINGS stay up for daylight hours this coming weekend.

[beaverman05]

Went out Monday morning for one of the best days on stand I've ever had without shooting a deer! I saw 5 bucks from sun up til 10 am 3 where 11/2 year olds and 2 of them where 2 1/2 year olds. All but 2 came into about 20 yards! Didn't spoke a one either! And they where using there nose to. I could hear them sniffing away. One of the 2 1/2 year olds had about a 2 inch drop tine starting but the rest of his tine lengths where short and didn't have much of a spread. I sure hope they all make it to next year and the guns don't get them cause they'll be good lookin next year! I just wished I could've stayed in the stand all day cause I would've after a morning like that! The rain is supposed to let up just in time for the full moon so ill be in stand Thursday

[Huntin Farmland]

Rut is picking up here in Sauk County. Sunday and Monday mornings around 7 I had a buck (nice 3 1/2 year 8-pt) on a hot doe out the back door of the house in the cut corn. Both times the buck was hot on her heels as she ran to the marsh. Went out last night in the snow and saw 25 deer with about 5 of those being bucks. I rattled in a 2 1/2 yr 8-pt to within 5 yards of my ladder stand. He was focused on my decoy and never bolted. I just can't seem to get on any of the 4 shooters we have on the farm. Good luck all!

[umpiremark]

If there is (was) a rut, its not happening in our woods in Necedah. We have hundreds of pictures of does/fawns in our three turnip food plots mostly at night. Pictures stop around midnight, 1:00. Many bucks - some big - started hitting the food plots with scrapes in mid-October until just after Halloween. They too showed up at night. We've seen that activity dwindle in the last two weekends.

My son and I saw a few bucks on their feet in the last several weekends, all walking by - not close to the stands. When we grunted at them, they tucked tail and ran. Not wind, not sight lines, just had no intentions of competing with any other buck (or so we think) for whatever reasons.

160 acres to our east, two bow hunters, never take a doe. 40 across the street north, no one hunts. 120 acres to the NE, a man and his girlfriend, maybe one doe in the 5 years they've owned that section. The 120 to our SE, they just gun hunt and shoot anything that moves. We think we have too many does in the area. Bucks don't chase and seek because free poon-tang is everywhere, for the taking. At least that's my conclusion.

We also think the does and bucks disappear from cameras in the middle of the night and must bed in the swamp/dogwoods to our south (not our property). We've hunted that south property line but bucks can get in/out from anywhere along our 1/4 mile line or the east or even up from the south side of the road. We see rubs, but not a ton and it's hard hunting that section.

We've moved all 4 ladder stands at least 3 times this fall, trying to get into better spots. But bucks on their feet during the day have been rare sightings. This has been a hard year for my son and I; we've hunted extremely hard, but seeing fewer and fewer deer as the daylight kept getting shorter. Definately no seeking and chasing going on inside our 120 acres. I'm stumped.