Had some does come into the yard a little while ago. I watched them a minute then went on with my chores. Suddenly they run by my window and into the woods. Did not pay much attention, then 30 minutes later they run across the yard again with a yearling buck chasing them. He has no antlers, you can see where they are broke off close to his head, not a button buck. I sneak out the basement door to watch and there are 4 does and he is running them all thru the woods grunting. In the last 10 years I have seen bucks chasing does on the first day of archery and the last day of rifle. Last year I saw twin fawns with spots in late December. The rut in our area does not seem to be as intense as it used to be, more sporadic throughout the whole season. Saw 5 different yearling bucks dead on the side of the road over the weekend. What's your thoughts?

Ok, so they all come back in the yard, 6 total now. 1 is a button buck and he keeps walking up to the does and attacking them with his front hooves. It would make since if his mother was doing that to him. One of the does decides she is tired and lays down in the middle of the yard, for about 1 minute the gets up and heads into the woods. The yearling buck starts after her again. Strange times we are living in.

I've seen ground scrapes and lots of rubs already. Saturday evening I had two bucks battling 30 yards behind my stand. The one buck which was a 2 1/2 yr old 6 pt was the aggressor the larger 11 pt which is a stud of a deer wouldn't give me a shot and the night ended without an arrow being released.

Have seen a lot of scrapes and rubs recently and sparring between small and big bucks too . Have also seen some small bucks checking does but none have acted like they were coming into estrus . Had a nice 3 .5 yr old 17-18 " 8 pt come into bean field the other night at 20 yards ..he paid no mind to the does n fawns in field. Decided to pass as his rack was pretty thin and there are several much bigger bucks I'm after.....Moved some cameras to scrapes now and got pics of 9 different bucks in two days hitting one scrape... Getting close!!!!!!!

I hunted yesterday and shot a descent 8 point. It was near dark and I hear a loud buck snort to my right. I look and he was about 30 yards away twisting limbs and scraping hard. He walks in and comes right under my stand. I wait about 3 minutes and he finally moves off to my left and I shoot him at 15 yards. He ends up running about 100 yards before dropping and it was a stand up tracking job. 5 minutes after I shoot this buck two smaller bucks walk into my stand and loiter. I now know why he snorted, he was probably challenging these youngins'.

So up here I would say these guys are running on schedule. This appeared to be pre-rut activity.

Here's a pic. I like his color and symetry.

Vic

Saw a basket rack 6 point on Sat. AM on my way to my MIL's house and he was with a doe, his neck was pretty swole up!

Nice buck Vic.. congrats..

Congrats vic! I too have seen a lot of buck activity, especially young bucks. Chalked it up to full moon, wet weather, and fall shuffle.

Good shot Vic. I bet he did not go far with that. Congrats.

Nice buck, Vic!

Seeing scrapes pop up each time I go out. Not much rubbing activity though I haven't seen much of that on the property I can hunt the past couple of years. Seen several dead bucks on the road sides and hearing plenty of the like from others.

Gettin' me all antsy and excited and such!

Congrats Vic. I saw some good buck activity sat evening. Even had a small buck grunting and chasing a doe by my stand. The cool weather had them excited a little too early

Congrads Vic on a nice buck!

Doug

Vic that is a very nice deer by any standard. Congrats

Monday after that little cold spell seen my first scrape seeing alot of doe activity little on the buck movement tho.. Caught a glimpse of what looked like a decent 8 or 10 point.