Observations on the rut in PA

[xtreme95cummins]

I have been in woods here in south west pa hunting hard since oct 30th, I have not seen much rut activity except for one scrape, I have hunted 3 spots in the same area and no response to any calling or rattling..

Today is the last day of archery and still no rrsponse, I even came up to conneuat area at my camp to hunt thinking activity would be better, wrong, my guess, rut will start nov 14th and end during rifle, but I don't know

[xtreme95cummins]

Almost dark and still no deer

[roughrider 123]

Poor rut action for me this year. Saw a 3 pt. tonight and 2 does with no interest from the buck. Picked up camera cards tonight and guess who showed up last night.



I was hunting that stand the night before last.

Maybe he makes it to gun season.

roughrider out.

[tex3012]

@roughrider.. that is a crazy picture.. hopefully u get him soon..

[roughrider 123]

Tex, got him again on the 14th at midnight at a new location. Took a walk this morning and I believe I have his core area now. I'm hanging a stand tomorrow before the rains and will not visit until 1st. day of rifle. No more camera there either. I want him to get comfortable again.

Thursday another buck for the club members. A big 6pt. was taken thursday. He weighed 180 dressed and was 3.5 years old.

roughrider out.

[manthemyth]

saturday was very slow in the woods in eastern, pa (bangor)...saw a few doe, nothing following or chasing...saw a bunch of spike and button buck walking around by themselves...
my camera on the border of PA/NJ has doe/fawns at my bait pile, and a bunch of subordinate buck hitting the bait at different times, but nothing mature... have off a bunch of days this week... hopefully it picks up in NJ... 

[dtrain56]

bow came and went saw lots of doe - saturday was the same just no bucks or to many doe - i will go with to many doe. I know thatis a sin to say in Pa but the bucks don't have to come out they have a million doe to hang with.

[doit]

Extremely disappointing season, worst ever. majority of movement was at night the whole season starting after opening week, Only deer i seen was opening day, 6 doe and a spike, should have filled my doe tag then. rest of the season only seen 2 deer, 1 spike and a decent 2.5yr -7 point. im only talking about deer within 20 yds of my stand, but these were really the only deer i seen.
the rutting activity I observed on my cameras was between Holloween thru the second week of nov, with majority on Nov 2 and 3rd. other areas not far from me were crazy rut activity with day time activity all season long. go figure. maybe the gun guys will finally get good action.

[roughrider 123]

One of if not the worst bow seasons for me in a long time. Hunted all 6 weeks on private land with 15 guys. We took 5 bucks but my sits were right stand wrong day all season long. Based on 5 camera sets at 5 stands I use, buck movement reached a peak october 12-15th with multiple scrapes opened and buck pictures taken. It then went to october lull quickly and turned around october 24th. and peaked 10/28 thru 11/3 with 28 buck pictures that week out of 56 for the season. If you check the weather for that week, it was in the 70's and bucks still moved during daylight and mid-day. I got 2 large 3.5yr old bucks on camera during these warm days. 2 years stright now I have seen bucks cruising late october in the daylight. As November came in, pictures of bucks became much more random. I saw 9 bucks on stand and all were 1.5 yr. olds. Rutting action for me was non-existent as I saw only one small buck chasing all season. I did see bucks trailing does during the dark hours on camera. I am anticipating a stronger rut starting next week, bucks right now are grouped again with some tending a doe at night.

Conclusion, I will no longer let air temps dictate when I will hunt during late season pre-rut and I will vacation last week of october next year.

Stay tuned for rifle season activity and then winter bow season reports.

roughrider out.

[jstriner]

I've seen very little and the little was at night. Good luck!