After spending the weekend in the stand I’m scratching my head 
. I hunt about 40 miles south of the twin cities and I haven’t seen any signs of rut activity. I haven’t even seen a buck check a doe yet. Things seems to be well behind schedule from the previous years.
What is everyone else experiencing around the cities?
same here. have saw 2 bucks used the can call on them and never turned around.
I was a couple miles east of Mille Lacs…. the rut has shutdown. I do believe with the 60′ temps we had yesterday, they slowed down. Today started off a little cooler, which was promising… then the rain came… 
In 19 hours on stand, I didn’t see 1 deer ??? Hopefully next weekend is better 
it can’t get worse can it ???
You know the saying about bad luck- I have five sits in over the last 10 days and a near goose egg. I have heard some morning chaseing in the dark but otherwise zippo. I think the Wisconsin DNR took care of the doe population here east of Eau Claire 
because over the last month I have plenty of 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks and a pair of 3.5 year olds but only 2 doe on trail cams. I figure in that time it goes about 6 or 7 to 1, buck:doe. I wanted a beter ratio a few years back but that’s ridiculous. Now that the ruts in gear I’m convinced all those bucks have hightailed it out to find doe. Not sure what to do? Guess I need to find some new or additional hunting grounds. 
I use to support the Wisconsin DNR strongly but lately am beginning to feel a little different 
19 hours in stand and not one deer. That Sucks. Hopefully you get rewarded for your time. Maybe it’s time for some 
Good luck
We saw one buck chasing a doe Saturday morning just NE of the twin cities. One scrape in the area that looks a little aged. Plenty of turkeys.
With the number of bucks I saw opener morning and the 3to1 being killed over the does I would think that the seeking phase is moving to chasing but has been hampered by the warmer weather. We are seeing a few bucks with does but also seeing alot of smaller bucks moving fast and working scrapes.
Does Temp Really have anything to do with it?? We have plenty of scrapes in our area (central MN) and my bro saw a two different bucks chasing does.. I didn’t see much else and I know our buck to do ratio is pretty good.. Young bucks but still.
Im hunting in East Bethel and last week had a real nice shooter hasseling some does. And yesterday afternoon, i had two seperate bucks with noses to the ground. Just too bad i chose wrong stand location. I hope things are just heating up. no pun intended. I sure dont like hunting in this heat.
The deer are in sleeping stage! It was one mighty warm weekend, and coupled with lots of standing corn just about everywhere….these deer don’t need to move.
I saw does and fawns primarily. One spiker who wandered at noon and returned in the evening to chase the fawns around.
Not much for rutting activity. Only a couple scrapes and rubs.
I have yet to see an alive or dead deer on a roadway in the hundreds of miles I drive weekly across rural W.C. MN. Usually I see tons of deer in the dark while driving around….nothing.
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Does Temp Really have anything to do with it??
I think so, and I believe thats the general concensus…
Sort of akin to putting on 2 layers of long underwear, two sweatshirts, your winter coat, bibs, boots, gloves, and hat and then trying to run a marathon in 70 degree weather. It would certainly be enough motivation for me to slow down and relax a little bit vs chasing tail around the woods… 
The reason why I ask about temps is that the past 8-9 years have been pretty darn mild during rut,, Hardly anyone sees rut activity yet there are still plenty of new baby deer every spring 
. Maybe we’re missing something here and it doesn’t slow it down,, but PROLONGS the rut. Instead of packed into 7-10 days, maybe it takes 15-20????????? EH EH??? Whatdoyathing??
When its hot like this, they do most of their breeding and chasing at night. When people say there is not much of a rut, its because most of it is done during this time AND they know that gun hunters are around so they are less likely to move and bed in their usual spots or go to the corn
just checked cameras all movement at night with all scrapes opened up and getting hammered 
needs to cool off to see more daytime movement
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When its hot like this, they do most of their breeding and chasing at night.
Bingo. Less daytime movement, harder for hunters to get shots/see deer with reduced movement.
Back to that winter gear marathon, I’d rather run in in the dark at 30 degrees than during the day at 65 degrees, especially if I could see as well as a whitetail at night…
big bucks are moving during daylight, just have to be in the right area, forget your traditional FALL hunting locations, and think summer patterns. transisition areas are key. does are in estrous NOW. rut is in full swing, scrapes being just torn up, new rubs every day. uncle carl missed a 150″ @ 0830 that was nose to butt on a doe. 0900 today BIG buck chasing a doe in the clover. you know it’s on when the 150 class is chasing mid day, in an open field. move them stands boys, it’s on.
No chasing or nothing here in So. MN.
I like to call this the lockdown stage. IMPO what I am seeing is bucks are locked down to the estrous does. Not sure why people don’t think we are in the rut in SE MN? This is one of the earliest ruts I can remember here in MN. chasing is over until the hot doe is prego, than the bucks move on. doesn’t seem like very much hunting pressure down here this year, which i believe is the reason for less daytime movement, as well as bucks that have their doe and just bed down all day with that doe.
anyway good luck
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