Deer in the Rut

Look at the neck on that thing, wowzer!

basseyes wrote:

Look at the neck on that thing, wowzer!

Yeah, my productivity is shot for the day! lol

I just got a couple quick looks of a nice 10 pushing a doe. Not far behind was a very respectable 8. They pushed her through the valley and across the road. They went by at about 80 yards. The woods are tore up around here! Should be a heck of a gun season!

I am not sure what the deal was this weekend, but up around Walker we saw no signs of the Rut

Same here, does with fawns and small bucks without swollen necks.North of Mora.

I sat for 9 days in the tree in the Fergus falls area and I can tell you 100% there is zero rut activity going on up there. Some 1.5 year old bucks keeping little scrapes open, but almost no chasing. The young ones would come up to does and fawns and bump them, then bed down when they walked away. Wednesday’s cold front might kick something off, but they aren’t even chasing yet.

My best tell tale sign of rut activity is driving 94 from the cities to the farm and seeing multiple deer hit by cars. I saw 3 on the way home yesterday. That number is well into double digits when the chase begins.

We hunt in the Randall area and the rut is in full swing there. Just walking to my stand and picking up a couple deer around our property I estimate we saw close to 50 scrapes. If we weren’t still hunting it would be fun to walk our property and see how tore up it is.

Also there were deer all over the roads on my hour drive back to Alexandria. I did some major damage to my wife’s pick up. Had one hit the left side and another hit the right side all the way down the side of the truck. Then I drove her truck this morning and almost hit another one. I also passed an SUV on the side of the road that was completely totaled by deer minutes earlier. When the switch is flipped it gets flipped big time.

Walleye Hungry wrote:

I am not sure what the deal was this weekend, but up around Walker we saw no signs of the Rut

We hunt by Nevis and it was pretty slow there too. However, my Dad saw quite a few bucks chasing earlier in the week, so not sure if they already had the first wave of the rut and were recovering this weekend or something else threw it off. Hoping for better activity this weekend in SE MN!

Lots of what looked like early rut activity on the NE corner of Mille Lacs Saturday then pretty much dead yesterday and this morning. I was thinking the switch was going to flip on before the rain but it appears it flipped off instead. Hopefully the cool weather coming mid week will stir things up a bit.

I thought the same thing. No uptic of activity before the rain. The rut was dead where we hunt. Isanti and Kanabec county line. I hunt a major funnel that crosses a crop field. Not a single crossing deer all weekend. Fawns still with Does.

Sorry to hear the “no rut activity” posts. I have to ask though, why would it be so different here in Central MN and you guys are all around me (N,E,S,W) with no activity? We have deer running all over here. Not to mention the scrapes everywhere. I’ve never seen so many in fact. One thing I did find odd was the lack off rubs, very few. I hope it picks up for you all.

Joe Scegura wrote:

I have to ask though, why would it be so different here in Central MN and you guys are all around me (N,E,S,W) with no activity?

I’m sure someone who is more knowledgeable than me will chip in, but my understanding is that many people have different definitions of the “rut” (with different interpretations of the meaning of scrapes, rubs, types of fighting, chasing does etc etc.), so we are applying our different definitions to our own unique evidence for or against it. Also that the “rut” ebbs and flows based off more factors than any of us really realize. I think most people who live on or near where they hunt saw activity that we would typically associate with the “rut” leading up to the opener, and many of these same people saw little to none of it over opener weekend. If anyone can tell me definitely why, I’d also like the next powerball #’s! Good news is I still have my tags for this weekend in big buck country of SE MN!

Nothing chasing in the Emily area. Saw one scrape. No rubs. I covered a lot of area too.

The first hot doe in an area will get 1000 acres of bucks fired up and on their feet chasing every doe they lay eyes on. If no does have come into or close to coming into estrus your bucks will sit idle with just the young ones constantly on the prowl. This is what makes one area seem to be on fire while 5 miles away it seems dead.

200 miles on hwy 94 on Sunday and only seeing 3 deer hit by a car gives me a pretty good indication that any rut activity right now is spotty at best.

BigWerm wrote:

my understanding is that many people have different definitions of the “rut” (with different interpretations of the meaning of scrapes, rubs, types of fighting,

I would think peoples definitions would be very similar??

Definitions
Fresh Scrapes– 2′-4′ diameter spots where the leaves are scraped away. Usually licking branches above the scraped area. Crisp tine marks and hoof prints with no leaves mean the sign is very recent. There were 10 scrapes with in sight of my stand Saturday eve. Sunday morning there 3 more fresh ones and others revisited.

Rubs– trees or fence posts rubbed or scratched significantly on one side about knee to waist high. I saw very few of these.

Chasing– We saw a number of 6-8pt bucks chasing does but only one shooter so far. A large surge in car/deer hits. Seeing deer out mid day frequently.

sticker wrote:

200 miles on hwy 94 on Sunday and only seeing 3 deer hit by a car gives me a pretty good indication that any rut activity right now is spotty at best.

I would agree that is a very solid indication of low rut activity. Where as I saw 12 dead deer in a 40 mile stretch. That is what I’d call average if not a touch above average for my area. Not including the one I hit that is now hanging in my garage… the Sheriff that wrote out my roadkill permit said the deer have really been moving.

I would think this forecasted cold weather will get things moving for you guys? Good luck!

I’ve got rubs and fresh scrapes all over my property now, but outside of young bucks that seemed to be searching for a particular doe that might have been coming in to heat, it was dead both days east of Hinckley.

The fields and plots at my place had does in them all the time, but we didn’t see any bucks, not even young ones chasing does. Last week we had a little activity, so I’m thinking we may have had one doe in the area getting hot and once she got taken care of, the bucks simmered down again.

As Sticker said, I think the cold snap coming may get things moving with the does and then it’ll be game on.

Grouse

Joe Scegura wrote:

I would think peoples definitions would be very similar??

Maybe I’m nit picking based off of what I hear. To me the whole process is the “rut”. But to others scrapes/rubs are pre-rut as bucks become more territorial, young bucks running does also falls into the pre-rut category for some, and the only “true” rut is when the big boys are on hot does and fighting anything that tries to interfere. And post rut is the lull after most but not all, breeding has been completed. I could be way off since I’m just winging it off the top of my head, but that is some common difference of definitions I often hear.

I live in Hudson at the edge of the city limits and there is a patch of woods adjacent and between my road and some RR tracks. There have been about 10 does and fawns hanging around there this fall. Sunday morning while walking my dog I saw a real nice 6-point buck with his nose right down on the ground following one of the does wherever she went. He didn’t even notice we were only about 80′ away and couldn’t care less. There was a 3rd deer, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Pretty cool to see.

I hunt in the Randall area and I saw a fair amount of scapee and rubs. I did not see any chasing but the fawns were on there own. A spike on the property was shot over a dripper. I believe the younger bucks may be ahead of the bigger ones. I had a button buck in front of my stand opening morning that wouldnt leave me a lone. Driving back to Sauk Rapids in the evening I would not see much for any deer movement. Another thing to keep in mind, this opener was a little earlier then normal. I think it will get better with the temps dropping. Also, the full moon is later in the month this year.

While driving home from work in Green Bay today I saw 3 bucks out cruising. All of them were seen after 10 this morning. There were also a handful of bucks dead in the ditch which looked fresh. They were all young bucks but I assume the one with it’s head cut off was a nicer one! I’d like to think that means things are starting to heat up.