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Rut FYI

Jackalope

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Just a heads up. In Vinton county this weekend I saw 2 different bucks harassing does. And one buck was on a dead trot through the woods nose to the ground like a bloodhound. A buddy in camp saw a buck dogging does two mornings in a row.

Matter of fact every buck we saw this weekend from the stand was either dogging does or moving through the woods with a purpose.

I doubt any of those does we even close to being hot. Call it what you will. but they were out and about running does.

I thought about yelling at one.. "Hey, don't you know it's to early for that crap! Knock it off and go back to just walking around"

Sheesh.. Bucks. Can't tell em anything.


The one was about a 110-120 class 8 that was on a dead trot comming trough the woods and was heading right for my tree. I got ready and he trotted right up to the base of my tree and looked like he hit a brick wall. I mean his head stopped and his ass kept moving forward for a good foot. It looked like he was about to do a handstand he stopped so fast... This dude was literally a foot away from my climbing sticks.. He stuck his head out and sniffed at my sticks.. Sniffed the ground at the base of the tree.. Then stuck his head straight out and was looking through the woods left and right around the tree for about 3 minutes.. Then he just kept looking through the woods and SNAP! He looked straight up at me. I'm talking straight up 20 feet. He backed up about 5 feet all the while looking up. He turned broadside and gave me a few fake outs.. "I'm not looking, I'm not looking, I"M LOOKING... He want on back down the trail he came from for about 80 yards then hooked a right into the pines. And I could hear him in there running does around. He never spooked. Moral of the story. Don't forget to smoke your gear. and your boots... Where he was standing was where i laid my stand down to undo my sticks, tie my rope to my stand. and tie another rope to my pack and bow. If he would have smelled me he would have flipped inside out. However all he smelled was that smoke. I could have shot that dude 20 times while he was standing there.


Then i had another hoss of a swayback doe come in dead down wind. I'm talking 20 yards. She got out of the pines and hit that smoke smell. She stopped and stuck her head straight out. She was sniffing so hard that in the cold morning i could see her breath shoot out both nostrils for like 3 feet.. She looked like a mad bull does in the cartoons when smoke shoots out their nose.. She gave about 5-6 deep sniffs like that then put her head back up and kept walking forward... I just smiled thinking.. Another Smoke Tricked deer... She went behind a tree and i drew. But when i did the stand made a creak in the cold and POOF she was gone.

All in all it was a great weekend in the deer woods.. Get after them boys. They're moving like crazy.
 

RedCloud

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Good stuff Joe. I know what you mean about the bucks pushing the does around. I caught the small basket rack 8pt. chasing the ladies late last week. Just today I went out to change batteries and hung my other cam above a big scrape. They just seem to have scrapes on this field edge every 50 yards lol. I counted 11 of them in the short walk around.
 

jagermeister

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Thanks for the report, Joe. A buddy of mine said he had seen a couple young bucks chasing does two weeks ago. Someone needs to tell these deer that Alsheimer said they can't rut just yet LOL. I was thinking about taking this weekend off from bowhunting, but now after reading this I'm having second thoughts.
 

Jackalope

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Thanks for the report, Joe. A buddy of mine said he had seen a couple young bucks chasing does two weeks ago. Someone needs to tell these deer that Alsheimer said they can't rut just yet LOL. I was thinking about taking this weekend off from bowhunting, but now after reading this I'm having second thoughts.

It needs to be cold. Saturday morning everyone in camp was covered up in deer. Saturday evening we only saw a couple. I think almost everyone got skunked Sunday. If it's cold I'll be heading back down.
 

RedCloud

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I figure if the temps hold out for here this Saturday we should see some running around. Friday night lows of mid 30's with a daytime temp Saturday of mid 50's :D.
 

CJD3

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Ya know... I was wondering. The deer have really changed movement patterns. The last two days have sucked. Then today I found a scrape that was made last night...
 

Jackalope

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Right now the young bucks are like teenagers with raging hormones, right before the prom.:smiley_breakdance:

Yep. They are harassing does left and right down there. That 8pt i saw was out jogging nose to the ground at 10:30.