Grrr, Anyone else have this luck

So since Nov 1 I have only seen what I’m pretty sure was 2 different deer, a small 4 point buck and a lone doe fawn (the fawn several times in different stand locations). Got trail cam pics of both the 2 big boys I’ve been looking for during the week, I suspect that fawns mother was with (a) buck somewhere other than near our property. This morning I get a text message from my mom – ‘guess what I’m watching right now’. As my luck would have it the ‘tall’ 8 that is one of the two big boys is out frolicking in the apple orchard behind the house and then trotted off, nose to the ground. Soo, assuming he just left one doe he now has 48 hours to tie up another one so that he can disappear for the entire weekend when I’m able to be there. Seems to go like this every year, during the week when I have to be working I get all kinds of pictures and reports of activity, come the weekend in November they are nowhere to be found. Anyone else have this kind of luck??

I really need to get over there this late winter and get some wood ‘thinning’ done like dad and I have discussed. I’m thinking some prime doe bedding areas in a year or two will help keep these guys and gals around.

Text exchange with my bro this morning…

“Watched D&DH this am. Chuck [Alsheimer] again confirmed late peek rut. Said Nov 13-25 is the peak. He said starting in late Oct until Nov 13, 10-15% of does should go into estrus but majority will hit around Nov 17.

Leading up to Nov 17th there is a “trickle rut” in affect-so you might see some days in early Nov with lots of activity then some dead days mixed in.

But….Nov 13-25 should be lots of activity in the woods.”

I’ve hunted Nov 1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12, and have observed very limited rutting activity. No significant chasing. Couple of brief bumps here and there.

IMO, the bulk of the does are not hot yet. The next week to 10 days should be awesome!

Will be in the tree tomorrow through Monday.

Good luck.

I certainly hope you are correct for both of us.

This has been an ongoing thing on our place though, usually get descent action in the late Oct. build up, but then when its go time and others are seeing, our place becomes the dead sea. I think a major part of it is that our woods needs to get ‘trimmed’ in areas to create (or re-create really) the bedding areas that were when I first started hunting and are now ‘maturing’ and the ground cover is reduced. The plan is to take the first steps towards on the tail end of winter this coming season.

But it never seems to fail that the one you want will be flaunting itself in front of the camera (or my parents eyes in this case since they live on the property) when you can’t be there. I’m not exaggerating that from where she said this guy was this morning is 60-75 yards from the front door of the house at max.

But, that’s what keeps me spending endless hours perched like a squirrel in a tree so its not all bad.

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Grr, Anyone else have this luck

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Oh yeah, I have some very similar experiences.

2011: I sat a stand in the evening, the next morning I hunted a different stand almost 1/2 mile away. The adjacent land owner watched the buck I was chasing walk under the stand I sat the previous evening

2012: Had a split G2 11 as my #2 buck, got a picture from the same land owner in the middle of the afternoon of him eating grass in their front yard. Sat a nearby stand that same morning and never saw a buck.

2013: Was fortunate enough to fill my bow tag early this year. Crossing my fingers my brother could get on a nice buck we had passed in years prior and that I had seen already in daylight (high hopes!). Wednesday night while my brother was in the stand, two guys show up and hang stands on the adjacent land in which the owner has not let any one hunt in 3 years. Saturday they show up and shoot our best up and coming buck ~40 yards off our fence line and food plot, Sunday morning they show up and shoot the buck I hoped my brother would get on ~50 yards from our other food plot. Mean while we were home with family as my father recently passed away unexpectedly….

So sorry to hear about your father. You’ll be in my thoughts.

Poomunk-
I am seeing the exact opposite. Since Nov. 1 I have hunted on 6 different pcs of property in 2 states (WI & MN)and have seen chasing and tending on 5 out of the 6. Also, the group of guys that I hunt with have been watching deer breed under their stands. I would try and find the heaviest and nastiest cover you can find and set up. All the action seems to be tucked into thickets and not out in the open.

Good Luck! I hope the deer start to cooperate for you

I like to get right on the edge of some of the thickest nastiest cover and sure enough, almost every evening and morning of the rut there is a buck coming and going…I cut a food plot right on the edge of the thick cover and they love it, it made a spot which was traditionally really hard to hunt much more manageable. Another plus is I don’t actually have to go into the bedding area.

The does frequent the small plot like clock work, as there isn’t a ton of ag in my immediate area and in the rut where there are does….there are bucks!

As of yesterday I would say in the South metro I am seeing more signs of the rut kicking in. Yesterday, I saw a spike with his nose to the ground and a good buck that managed to stay right around a thicket of brush from me till I exited my stand Tonight plenty of action, did not see any of the bucks but they were around. I seen a spiker aimlessly wandering across an open field next to a pole shed, nose to the ground. Im guessing as said before, the 13th and on is going to be good

We have been having a lot of conversations about this years rut in camp. My experiences have been very similar, a random chase here and there but very minimal. A few other observations I have no answers for is that we had multiple scrapes show up before September this year, a quick couple towards the end of Oct and now most have not been freshened in over 2 weeks? I have barely found any rubs? We had opportunities at velvet bucks in MN and WI? Just a few pieces of info to make the puzzle more complicated I hope d & dh was right because I am here and ready!

I’m setting up in some of the thickest areas we have on the property. This is a yearly thing for the last 7-10 years, every year it goes to crap on our place in November except for 1 or 2 days according to my cameras, always days I am at work of course, it was Monday this year 3 different shooters on camera in broad daylight.

Come late November as the rut winds down we start seeing the feeding patterns again.

Other than crappy luck I think the larger problem is that our woods are ‘maturing’ out for the most part and there are adjoining properties logged within the last decade that the does prefer. Early fall is when I see most of my bigger bucks because our place is the ’causeway’ to several food sources (corn, alfalfa (ag fields) and some wild apple patches), but when its go time and buck get the does corralled up in their bedding areas, poof – gone. Makes November very frustrating. We planed to go in and trim out 5-10 acres this past spring but the arrival of my son combined with the way winter dragged out that didn’t happen. I think once we get a couple areas (we will log ourselves so it will be just small areas spaced out each or every other (or some pattern) year) cut and they get a year or two to thicken back up with new young growth I think I will start to see a return of the Novembers I remember as a kid just starting out hunting 17 years ago.

Why didn’t we start the process sooner, never connected the dots till last year.