Ohio 2013 Rut Report.

[bowhunter1023]

I knew that was a good piece of ground! LOL. Glad you are able to hunt there. Sounds like you had a good day in the woods!

 

[WoodCoDep]

I knew that was a good piece of ground! LOL. Glad you are able to hunt there. Sounds like you had a good day in the woods!

Just had a hot doe go thru followed by a 1.5 yr old..as that was happening a heavy horned 8 came in looked like I was gonna get a chance then he cut the does track..bye bye

 

[ifishandhunt]

I was planning on getting out all day today but work changed my plans so I had to postpone my hunt and go to work. I am starting to hear about big bucks moving! Hope I did not miss my chance. I am a volunteer hunter (that cracks me up) for Hamilton County Parks... to help thin the herd. Have not seen one deer yet at the park I am assigned to. Only four deer have been killed there since October 1st. Luckily the private land I hunt offered up a couple does for the freezer. I am now entirely focused on killing a mature buck. The park is starting to see movement in the daylight so I am pumped that I am off from work tomorrow and will be there to see the woods wake up. My brother drives a semi-truck and creamed a 10 pointer today. He said it was totally destroyed... what a waste.

Last night at dinner time my dog was in the window barking. I go to check it out just in case someone is looking into the house and I see a huge buck at the end of the driveway which is about 35 yards from the front door. Probably 200 class! It was painful not to be able to do anything about it. My wife was laughing. That was the biggest deer I have ever seen in person alive. Probably 6 or years old. Obviously not a pressured buck, growing up in the woods around the neighborhood. I wonder if I can hunt in the city limits with a bow?

 

[matthewusmc8791]

Hello all. I've been reading all your info and I had to pull out of my spot for a few days to catch up on a few medical appointments and see my family. I'm planning on heading down to Cambridge area and be in my tree by 11am. Im sorta bummed out that they are calling for warmer weather to start creeping in. URG... I hope that it doesn't....

 

[Jackalope]

Next, smoke is far from full proof. I shower with scent free before each hunt, and I take extra time getting in with minimal clothes to avoid sweating. I'm going to stick with the smoke through this year, but I was definitely busted more this year than other years, and I saw no deer come in from downwind. As sold as I was on the smoke at the beginning, I'm as opposed now. That being said, the research will continue.

Walk me through what you do. You mentioned a scent free shower. But how are you smoking up?

 

["J"]

Walk me through what you do. You mentioned a scent free shower. But how are you smoking up?

Yeah, I'm a little confused as too how you've been busted more since using smoke when the rest of us have been busted less..... Doesn't make sense too me....

I've had deer all around me for the whole time I've used it and have yet too be busted for anything more then me moving and they seeing me before I saw them.....

 

[Bigslam51]

Saw a small buck harassing a small doe in the field across the street at 2am as I was coming home from work.

 

[Bigslam51]

Yeah, I'm a little confused as too how you've been busted more since using smoke when the rest of us have been busted less..... Doesn't make sense too me....

I've had deer all around me for the whole time I've used it and have yet too be busted for anything more then me moving and they seeing me before I saw them.....

I've had so many deer downwind of me this year it's not even funny. I have not been busted once. It's amazing to have this much confidence in my scent control.

 

[finelyshedded]

Drove some serious territory this morning all around my home covering a 20 mile circle and pulled into my drive at 4:20. I usually get home 45 minutes earlier......saw 4 doe standing in front of a subdivision and that was it! Depressing....

 

[CritterGitterToo]

The trickle rut theory seems to be right. My buddy almost killed the piebald we've been after since he was 2.5, he's 5.5 now. Doe brought him right by at 35 yards and he lucked out and trotted through the shooting lane. He was locked onto that doe though.

I came home from there a little earlier than planned. The hotel stay was up and I was seeing nothing to make me spend the money to stay. Saw no deer where I know a monster was hiding so I hit a new spot. I saw deer every sit, but never a doe. Saw two bucks, I think. Either way, they were all yearlings. Could have shot one 6 twice on different days, and the other 5 I saw 5 times total, had him within 10 yards 3 times. He was all over the place, non stop. Stupidly responsive to the grunting and bleating when I saw him. Just messing with him to see what combos would work. I rattled in the small 6 today, at least i believe so since he came in about 5 minutes after my sequence. Saw one 2.5, don't think he'd hit 100 inches, maybe… Wednesday to Wednesday and I saw 5, maybe 6 different bucks while on stand. 2, maybe 3 of them multiple times. The 2.5 I saw on stand, I saw again in a clear cut while scouting. Same deer, over and over. I like to think I know how to hunt, maybe I just don't know how to hunt those hills though. I need someone with experience of SE Ohio to show me how to hunt it, then I could know for sure. Flats, was mainly what I focused on. I'd like to get into the bottoms, but the wind swirls too bad to even attempt it, I learned that years ago. I figured bucks would be cruising the flats and edges, which they did, but all young. Maybe I just didn't luck out this year, maybe the wind swirled when a big one was going to come through, who knows. I learned a few things this year. Just when you think you have an idea, you don't, you need to scout even more and have back up spots to your back up spots, to your back up spots. Next, smoke is far from full proof. I shower with scent free before each hunt, and I take extra time getting in with minimal clothes to avoid sweating. I'm going to stick with the smoke through this year, but I was definitely busted more this year than other years, and I saw no deer come in from downwind. As sold as I was on the smoke at the beginning, I'm as opposed now. That being said, the research will continue. Lastly, I think i really have to committ next year to leaving the horns on the hanger and the tube in the bag, only for emergency situations. I saw zero does from stand and I really wonder if my calling sequences every hour may have had something to do with it. I call quite frequently out there and see minimal does every year. Being I haven't gotten a response from a mature deer in 3 years on lightly hunted public land, I need to lay off it and see for next year.

Finally, this is my conclusion. Does are being bred here and there. I didn't see a single doe at night by herself. Coming home tonight, I saw a doe with her fawn cross the road here in Jersey. I definitely don't think it's popped yet and I think when it does, you'll see an extreme lockdown, zero deer movement for days. And I'm betting you'll see it in 7 days or so. I'm also beginning to believe the rut isn't as wide spread as some predict it to be. We just get it in our heads that it's November, so it has to be starting. I'm really starting to believe the time to be in the woods every year is the 13-22, but every year, I hunt somewhere within the first two weeks of November.

So another year, I must live vicariously through you guys knocking down the big ones. Keep at it boys. I wish I was still in a tree with good activity, but nothing beats home.

With smoke, my experiences were similar to yours. Plus, it always felt like an extra step. If scent away laundry and scent away shower worked for me why take more time to do something else. Then I gotta smell like smoke all day. I might use it if I were away at a camp for a week with no access to a shower. Otherwise it's just an extra step that in my opinion didn't really enhance my hunting experience at all.

 

[epe]

I have had good luck with it in Se Ohio. Dad got his second buck out of a blind location that before was never huntable because of the prevailing wind.

 

[Quantum673]

7:30 this morning on my way TOO work. I saw a heavy eight dogging a mature doe hard. They were in a cut bean field and man was he intent on getting her pinned up. Stopped the car and reached for the phone to snap a pic. They didn't like that and the buck trotted to the tree line. The doe was right behind him following like a lost puppy. Gonna be a good day for everyone in the woods.

 

[WoodCoDep]

My woods are dead today..saw one doe a spike and another non shooter twice..gonna hunt till 1130 and gotta call it quits.

 

[ifishandhunt]

My woods are dead today..saw one doe a spike and another non shooter twice..gonna hunt till 1130 and gotta call it quits.

I saw nothing today except for two turkeys and about 1000 freakin squirrels! Left at 11:30 too, just as the winds started picking up. I had view of a field over my shoulder and the whole woods in front of me. No deer anywhere. Depressing.

 

[ImpalaSSpeed96]

Walk me through what you do. You mentioned a scent free shower. But how are you smoking up?

I'll PM you sometime. Don't want to jack the thread up.

 

[Jackalope]

I'll PM you sometime. Don't want to jack the thread up.

It's ok. This ones about over anyway once the rut finishes.

 

[brock ratcliff]

I have no idea what folks do that makes the SS less effective for them. I have been busted two times in the last 13 years, complete with snorting, stomping, there was NO DOUBT I did not do something right. I'll take 2 times in 13 years! Still, it's such a simple process, I don't know how a person would not follow the directions or do something that would foul it up. I don't even know what I did on those two occasions that got me busted. Usually, there is no reaction, and when there is, it isn't the stomping-snorting-running the heck away kinda thing bowhunters get used to.

 

[Milo]

It's ok. This ones about over anyway once the rut finishes.

Hasn't started here...May have to go till February here

 

[Milo]

I had an episode with some does in which they busted me in the stand moving while smelling the smoke. It's a patterned response now from them now . Completely my fault and would be no different with any other product. I was an idiot and put my deer herd in a stick on a tree right next to me

 

[Gordo]

Thats the one thing I wonder about the smoke. How long until the deer associate that smell with me trying to kill them. Gotta get busted other ways first, but at some point it has to happen.

Still love me the scent smoker